What Does Belmont Winner Creator's Name Mean?

On a dramatic Saturday afternoon, with the whole racing world watching, it was Creator who won the day. A three-year-old colt with a striking gray coat and late-race comeback potential, Creator pulled off an upset victory at the Belmont Stakes in New York, despite entering the day down in the odds. And considering his name wasn't Exaggerator or Nyquist, (the latter horse was pulled from the Belmont due to an illness) it's possible you haven't heard of this three-year-old colt before. So, what does Creator's name mean?

If you follow horse racing regularly, or even if you only watch the big, marquee events, or even if you only occasionally hear about race horse names now and then, you're probably well aware that some of them can sound pretty silly. There have been a fair share of jokey, bizarre, and trifling names in the recent history of the sport ― names like I'll Have Another, Animal Kingdom, Big Brown, Mine That Bird, Funny Cide, and in this year's Belmont Stakes, one seemingly perfectly chosen to troll news outlets, Suddenbreakingnews.

In Creator's case, however, his owner has been very up-front about the meaning of its name. In May, WinStar Farm owner Elliott Walden told Louisville, Kentucky NBC affiliate WAVE 3 News that the horse's name references his own Christian faith.

Here's what Walden told WAVE 3 about the Belmont-winning horse, back when they interviewed him in advance of the Kentucky Derby last month.

All we’re trying to do is bring glory to Him. So that doesn’t mean he’s going to have any special luck on Saturday. He might finish last. All we’re trying to do is express our faith in such a way that people might give it a second thought.

So, there you have it: the horse is named Creator for, well, you get the idea! Setting religion aside, though, Walden's faith in his horse clearly paid off ― he finished the race with a time of 2:28.51, and the moment of victory was about as dramatic as it gets, as he crossed the finish line by literally inches, craning his nose out over the line to defeat Destin. Even though it wasn't a Triple Crown victory like last year's Belmont Stakes, when American Pharoah broke a 38-year drought, it was still a dramatic and thrilling end to the high-stakes trio of races this year.