It's not very hard to figure out Thoroughbred owner Al Gold's all-time favorite television shows. Even his most beloved baseball team.
There's the "Man From U.N.C.L.E.," "The Big Bang Theory," "Frasier," "Gilligan's Island," "Bonanza," and Bowery Boys movies, to name a few.
And he's a die-hard New York Mets fans.
How can you tell?
You can merely turn to Gold's horses named Napoleon Solo, Howard Wolowitz, Daphne Moon, Wendell Fong, MaryanorGinger, Hop Sing, Slip Mahoney, and Cleon Jones.
"I like having some fun naming horses," said Gold, who races as Gold Square. "Sometimes there's a good reason for it and sometimes it's just silly."
There's certainly nothing silly about Oct. 4 for Gold as two of his television-themed horses, named for characters in shows about 40 years apart, will each race in a grade 1, Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Win and You're In stakes.
In New York, it will be Napoleon Solo, named for the legendary U.N.C.L.E. secret agent, running in the $400,000 Champagne Stakes (G1) at Aqueduct Racetrack. Meanwhile, in Kentucky Howard Wolowitz of "The Big Bang Theory" fame, is entered in the Turf Mile Stakes (G1T) at Keeneland.
At the moment, Gold said he is leaning toward joining some friends at Keeneland. Which means he'll be watching the Champagne on television, which is rather fitting considering the 2-year-old is named after someone from 1960s television folklore.
"It should be an interesting weekend," Gold said. "I'm looking forward to it."
Napoleon Solo is coming off an Aug. 8 debut win for Gold and trainer Chad Summers in which he scored by 5 1/4 lengths in a 6-furlong sprint.
In the mile Champagne, he will try to thwart the heavily favored It's Our Time, who won his debut by nearly 18 lengths.
"He'll be facing good competition but it's only the second race of his career, so we can't get too excited one way or the other," Gold said. "Chad Summers has done a great job with him and had him ready for an impressive debut. He's a very underrated trainer."
Though the son of Liam's Map is stretching out an additional quarter of a mile, Gold believes Napoleon Solo has the kind of Dosage Index that bodes well for his ability to handle the extra distance.
"It seems like every Liam's Map colt has a high Dosage Index," Gold said. "So, from that standpoint we're OK."
The 4-year-old Howard Wolowitz became a grade 1 winner last year, winning the Franklin-Simpson Stakes (G1T). A $1.7 million earner, he had a rough trip as the 6-5 favorite last time out when he was second in the Kentucky Turf Sprint Stakes (G2T) at Kentucky Downs.
How those two fare will determine whether Gold has as much fun at the races this weekend as he does naming his horses.
To fill in some of the gaps from the aforementioned horses and characters, Daphne Moon and Wendell Fong are from "Frasier," Maryanorginger from "Gilligan's Island," Hop Sing from "Bonanza," Slip Mahoney from The Bowery Boys movies, and Cleon Jones was a star on the 1969 Amazin' World Series champion Mets.
And there are a few more, such as Alice Kramden from "The Honeymooners," and Sue Ellen Mishkin from "Seinfeld."
The fun-loving Gold admits some names are just goofy.
"Something will come into my head and I'll use it," the New Jersey native said.
He plans to name a horse No Rain No Flowers after he saw that tattooed on a woman at Gulfstream Park.
But there are stories or inside jokes attached to a lot of them.
How did Lunchwithgodzilla get her name? Well, Gold's wife has a friend who Gold says talks rather loud. So he refers to her as "Godzilla." One day his wife announced she was meeting her friend for lunch, so ...
He has a longtime Italian friend who often offers him advice. That led to My Italian Rabbi.
One day at Siro's in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., he ordered 19 oysters. Not a dozen. Nineteen. A dinner companion suggested Gold should name a horse Nineteen Oysters. He did.
He plans to name a yearling Moxie Vance. Why? His aunt and uncle, the Vances, had a cat named Moxie. One Labor Day, Gold decided to donate $25 to the Jerry Lewis Telethon. Only he made the donation using the name Moxie Vance and gave them his relatives' address.
"For about 20 years they got letters for Moxie asking for another donation," Gold said.
Sometimes rather than fictional characters, he names horses after his friends or people he knows.
Gold, a Mets fan who has named horses Geaux Mets and Let's Go Mets, made a $250 donation to Cleon Jones' favorite charity to get approval for applying the Mets star's name to a horse.
Spanky Fischbein? Gold had two good friends years ago when he went to the races at Monmouth Park. One had a first name of Spanky and the other's last name was Fischbein.
For one of his trainers, Jose D'Angelo, he crafted the name It's Goodtobe Jose.
During his younger days at Monmouth, Gold became fast friends with New Jersey sports and turf writers Bill Handleman and Tom Luicci.
He named a horse Handleman, in honor of his friend who passed away in 2010 and has an annual media award named in his honor at Monmouth. Gold also named a filly Handlewoman after Handleman's wife.
Luicci, now the media director at Monmouth Park, had three horses named in his honor: Luicci, Shooter Luicci (named after his dog), and Jillian Luicci (named after his daughter, but never raced though she has a son in an upcoming sale).
"That didn't work out too well. I don't know if the three horses ever passed another horse," Gold said.
Luicci can recall spending many fun-filled days at the racetrack with Gold that were filled with far more laughs than races.
"He gets a lot of fun out of naming the horses. I used to help him with it, but Al is so good at it," said the real-life Tom Luicci, who notes that Gold will have a ton of fun naming his 13 yearlings bought at recent sales. "He knows what he likes, and I don't know if there's another owner spending millions of dollars in the game who has as much fun in it as Al."
For the more than two decades that Gold has been involved in ownership and concocted names for other people, his best horse carried a name associated with a medical procedure that saved his life.
A survivor of prostate cancer, Gold gave a son of Gun Runner the name Cyberknife . The chestnut colt won the 2022 Arkansas Derby (G1) and Haskell Stakes (G1) while earning $2.1 million.
He is now a stallion at Spendthrift Farm and before long Gold will be affixing names to his progeny.
Who knows? Perhaps in honor of his doctor, Gold may give Napoleon Solo and Howard Wolowitz a stablemate named Ben Casey.
