A horse lover who has entered TELUS Name the Foal every year for the past three decades says she is “beside herself with joy” after becoming one of this year’s winners at Spruce Meadows.
Lisa White, a legal receptionist from Lethbridge, verged on tears upon learning she had won the popular competition, which received 50,000 submissions from across Canada offering up their best name ideas for a trio of spring foals.
White’s submission, Uptown Girl, made her one of three 2024 victors. She is joined by Isabelle Hébert, from Edmunston, N.B., and Charmaine Steeves, of Havelock, N.B., for their marvellous monikers, Million Dollar Bet and Grand Slam.
The winners and their guests are being treated to a dream VIP weekend at the Spruce Meadows ‘Masters’ tournament, which runs from Sept. 4 to 8, courtesy of TELUS.
"I'm so excited. I've entered Name the Foal for so many years now that I couldn't believe I had won,” said White. “I tried before with names like Gladiator, Magic Man, Merlin… it’s so much fun.
“I had a good feeling about Uptown Girl. I’m looking forward to following her as she grows up.”
The contest originated at Spruce Meadows in the 1980s, with guests dropping name suggestions into a ballot box. It was opened up to the entire country in the early 1990s, and has garnered millions of entries since, with winning names selected by a committee of Spruce Meadows judges.
The only rule is that entrants must follow traditional naming conventions of the Hanoverian breed, meaning foals’ names must begin with the same first letter of their sire’s, or father’s, name.