Lovin’ Deqoque and Get On Deqoque aren’t sexually explicit horse names and are just being mispronounced, Racing Australia says

Two horses with very interesting names popped up during races at Deagon racecourse on Tuesday in Queensland, Australia. Twitter user @StevoRidge1 tweeted a screenshot of horses named Lovin’ Deqoque and Get On Deqoque appearing in separate races.

Interesting how the #1 in Trial 8 and #5 in Trial 9 got through the system when named @Punters pic.twitter.com/uFcZROH0Gp

— Steve (@StevoRidge1) December 29, 2020

Lovin’ Deqoque and Get On Deqoque are both trained by Darryl Ward and ridden by jockey Bobby El-Issa.

While these both (clearly) appear to be sexually explicit names, Racing Australia insists that’s not true, and claims the names are pronounced “De-quo.”

Here’s more, via Australia’s 7NEWS:

Myles Forman, the CEO of Racing Australia, dismissed the ‘sexually explicit’ reading of the horse names, insisting the names were in fact pronounced ‘Lovin’ De-quo’ and ‘Get On De-quo’.

“We contact the owners when they lodge the names to make sure we know how the horse names are pronounced and what the meaning of the name is,” Forman told 7NEWS.com.au.

“And in this case it’s De-quo.”

“Look, a combination of letters and words can mean different things to different people.

“In this case we were confident it should be pronounced De-quo.

“Therefore there’s nothing here that prompts concern for Racing Australia.”

Uh huh, sure.

As for the races, Lovin’ Deqoque finished fourth, while Get On Deqoque finished second. Perhaps next time they’ll rise to the occasion.