Ken Weingartner

Hightstown, NJ — After watching the way 2-year-old trotter Kilmister came out ready to rock in his first four races, it appears owner Anders Ström played the right card when renaming the colt.

Ström purchased Kilmister under the name Capitolo Finale for $170,000 at last fall’s Lexington Selected Yearling Sale. He renamed the horse after Ian Fraser Kilmister, better known as Lemmy, the legendary singer and bassist for the band Motörhead. The group blended rock, punk, and metal into an influential sound that resulted in songs such as the gambling-fueled fan favorite “Ace of Spades,” released in 1980.

“I like heavy metal and hard rock music,” Ström said. “Motörhead was one of my favorite bands when I was a kid. Of course, I like gambling, and one of the best songs they had was ‘Ace of Spades,’ so this was a good name for a horse for me.”

Kilmister struck the front in mid-stretch, carrying the red and yellow Courant Inc. colors to victory in the Peter Haughton Memorial. Lisa photo.

Kilmister, a son of Chapter Seven-Treviso, is 4-for-4 this year. In his most recent start, earlier this month on Hambletonian Day, the Marcus Melander-trained colt won the Peter Haughton Memorial for 2-year-old male trotters by four lengths in 1:53.3.

“It’s a great win,” said Ström, who also won the 2014 Peter Haughton as co-owner of Centurion ATM. “This is just great. (Kilmister) won so easily. I think that’s the best part of it. He’s a great horse.”

With his Haughton victory, Kilmister earned “Win and You’re In” status to advance directly to the $600,000 Breeders Crown final for 2-year-old male trotters in October at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

“It’s a good target for him now,” Ström said. “We’ll be looking forward to that.”

This was not the first time Ström turned to his music catalog when naming a horse. Several years ago, he changed the name of Swedish-bred trotter Nagamori Hill to Green Manalishi in tribute to the Peter Green-penned Fleetwood Mac song “The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown),” which was released in 1970.

Green Manalishi, the horse, went on to win 10 times on the Grand Circuit, including the 2019 Canadian Trotting Classic, and earned more than $1 million lifetime.

Anders Ström, here with his Yonkers Trot champion filly Joviality S, often turns to his music catalog when naming a horse. USTA/Mark Hall photo.

“I’m a big fan of the Peter Green/Fleetwood Mac tune as well as the cover that my favorite band Judas Priest made,” Ström said in a 2018 interview. “I had the name on my list for a long time once the right horse would show up.”

Following Kilmister’s recent Haughton triumph, Ström noted with a smile, “The name always gets better when you have success on the track.”

Ström usually listens to music while traveling, and although influenced by favorite bands including Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, and Iron Maiden, is not limited to the metal genre.

“Those bands were the ones, you know when you’re a teenager and you go to your first concert, it’s a special memory,” Ström said. “But I’m a little bit of everything when it comes to music.

“The last concert I went to was the Rolling Stones, actually. I need to pick a name from those songs as well, I think.”

Ström has also turned to pursuits other than music when naming horses. For example, Fourth Dimension, a Dan Patch Award-winning trotter at age 2 in 2017, got his moniker from Ström’s interest in astronomy and astrophysics.

What might be next?

“Now, I have become so interested in baseball,” Ström said. “Maybe you will see some names from that in the future.”