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| |  Thursday, 6 June, 2002, 12:57 GMT 13:57 UK House-husbands' choice Kourna and Kourni - a fine looking pair
She wasn't the favourite, but Kournakova attracted a lot of support at the Oaks. Like her tennis-playing namesake (give or take an 'a'), this filly has still never enjoyed a major win, but always manages to look the part. If the horse had pulled off a shock in Friday's big race at Epsom, Anna would have to take a back seat for once. As it turns out, her crown is safe, with Kournakova appearing to go backwards from the start. Richard Henry, of the Coolmore Stud where Kournakova is based, insisted they had not made a grammatical error in choosing the name. He told BBC Sport Online: "Kournakova is named after the tennis player, but in the Russian alphabet, you can spell it with an 'a' or an 'i'." "It's not that unusual to call a horse after a sports star - we've had Johan Cruyff and van Nistelrooy, but neither of those were quite so good looking!
"That's why we picked the name in the first place, because she's a beautiful looking filly and very well bred!" Still, as Anna knows only too well, looks aren't everything and Kournakova had her work cut out from the start to try and claim a famous victory. Still, this bay three-year-old, who has won one of her five outings so far, still had a better chance than the human version has of winning Wimbledon. If you wanted a cast-iron bet, though, you should have forgotten about the race itself and stuck your money on Kournakova to be the best turned out horse in the paddock. A dead-cert if ever you saw one. | |
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