Social media erupted in horse emojis on Saturday as soon as American Pharoah crossed the finish line at the Belmont Stakes to become the first Triple Crown winner since 1978.
But it didn’t take long for wisecracks and confusion over the infamous misspelling of his name to pop up amid the horse puns and exclamation points.
Without naming names, let’s just say at least one major news source got it “wrong” (and by wrong, we mean right), spelling his name “pharaoh” in a tweet, prompting rebukes from social media users.
We’ve been through this before but let’s do it again: The bad spelling came from a mistake in the horse’s registration paperwork.
The Courier-Journal of Louisville reported that a fan submitted the name of the horse during an online contest, and spelled “pharaoh” wrong. The woman later told media outlets she checked the spelling before she submitted the name.
Regardless, the misspelling was put on the electronic form to the site where owners register their horses. Now the name is trademarked, the Louisville paper reported.
That hasn’t stopped the name from trending in the past with the wrong spelling, though that did not seem to be the case Saturday night.
But as long as American Pharoah’s owner, Ahmed Zayat, sticks with it, it seems the rest of the world with have to follow suit.
Besides, horses can’t spell.