Horse

1773 - 1800

Pot-8-0s or variations of Potoooooooo (1773 – November 1800) was an 18th-century thoroughbred racehorse who won over 30 races and defeated some of the greatest racehorses of the time. He went on to be a sire. He is best known for the unusual spelling of his name, pronounced 'Potatoes'. Pot-8-0s was a chestnut colt bred by Willoughby Bertie, 4th Earl of Abingdon, in 1773. He was sired by the undefeated Eclipse and his dam was Sportsmistress. The origin of his name has several different versions. According to the most common, Bertie intended to call the young colt "Potato" and instructed the stable boy to write the name on a feed bin. The stable boy spelled the name as "Potoooooooo" (Pot followed by 8 "o"s; that is, a failed attempt at spelling phonetically), which so amused Bertie that he adopted the spelling. Pot-8-0s raced from 1776 to 1783, accumulating from 28 to 34 wins from an estimated 40 starts, mostly in 4 mile races on Newmarket's Beacon course. In 1778 at age five, Pot-8-0s was entered in the 1200 Guineas Stakes at Newmarket's first spring meeting. During the race, Bertie sold the horse to Richard Grosvenor, 1st Earl Grosvenor, Pot-8-0s won the race and subsequently raced under Grosvenor's yellow and black silks In 1784, Pot-8-0s was retired to stud at Oxcroft Farm near Balsham, Cambridgeshire, where he mostly covered mares owned by Grosvenor. In 1796, he was relocated to Upper Hare Park near Newmarket. Pot-8-0s died in November 1800 at the age of 27 and was buried at Hare Park. In 1990 a cedar tree at Hare Park Stud was blown down in a great storm, exposing the skeleton of a horse tangled in the roots. The skeleton was excavated in 2010 and samples were taken for scientific analysis to establish its identity.