IT’S not everyone who would think of naming a horse Romeo is Bleeding so when the runner with this name won the opening handicap chase at Pitchcroft last week I decided to find out a bit more about him.

The 11-year-old first ran at Worcester in May last year when trained by David Rees.

He went on to win a point-to-point in March this year for trainer Carl Price and is now trained in Chepstow by Ron Harris, a predominantly flat trainer.

He has had four runs since June for Harris and all have been at Worcester.

The form of his previous three runs was 22P so the victory last week was his first win under Rules.

The gelding is by Carroll House out of an Irish mare Ean Eile so there is no clue to the source of his unusual name there.

On further research I discovered the name actually comes from a song written in 1978 by the American singer/song-writer Tom Waits.

Often racehorses will have a stable name used by those who own and look after them on a daily basis and a more formal racing name which has to be approved by and registered with Weatherbys in Northampton before the horse can race.

The formal names are often derived from those of the horse’s sire and/or dam.

The local success story of last week’s meeting was the victory of one of Claines trainer Dr Richard Newland’s new recruits McGroarty.

The horse has been with Newland for just over a month during which he has posted a second and a win at Market Rasen.

The six-year-old ex-pointer won a bumper for former trainer David Kiely in Ireland in June.

Carrying top weight the Brian Boru gelding was sent off at 2-1 for the two-mile novice hurdle and won comfortably under Sam Twiston-Davies by five lengths.

There is obviously more to come and as the race was a qualifier for the 7bets4free.com £25,000 final at Worcester on October 25 he must be considered as a possible contender for this race.

I always find it interesting to follow the fortunes of horses who have run at Worcester and one such runner caught my eye in the week.

Casino Markets, trained by Emma Lavelle, won two handicap chases at Worcester in July last year, including the Pershore Plum Festival Land O’Plums chase, ridden by Aiden Coleman and Daryl Jacob respectively.

But it was Leighton Aspell in the saddle when Lavelle sent the horse to Saratoga in the USA last week as her first runner in America.

The race was the Grade 1 New York Turf Writers Cup handicap hurdle and the prize fund was $150,000.

The American-owned horse ran well and the report of the race reads that from midfield he made a brief effort approaching the last but weakened on the flat into eighth place.

Time will tell whether he will further his American racing career.

The first race at Worcester is due off tomorrow at 4.35pm for our final evening meeting of the season.