Who was the horse named after?

[Pedro Saavedra]

On searching the death notices in the Washington Post I came across a familiar name, though not a familiar person. One of the deceased was named Flora Temple.

I know the opening was named after a horse that was famous around 1850. Was the horse named after somebody? Was there a person named Flora Temple we can trace the name of the opening to?

My wife comes from a family of thoroughbred breeders, and her great-grandfather, a Confederate Captain, actually named one of his horses after a lady who helped him escape from a Union hospital prison in Winchester. That story makes me always wonder about horses with names that could have been named after people.

Incidentally, several famous chess players have had race horses named after them. Have there been race horses named after checker players?

Pedro

[Ingo_Zachos]

I came across this:

http://localhistory.morrisville.edu/flora/

So she was actually named Madame Temple and later renamed.
I wonder if the related Agnes Grey ( also a name of a famous novel) and Lucy Long ( name of a popular song around 1850-1900) were also named after horses or new creations that should sound as being of the same family.
In Italian Checkers btw. the whole Single Corner opening is named "Giardino de Flora". ("Giocare A Dama" by Lucio Panella, p.85)
They creatively mistook the name with a plant it seems.

But I am not sure if the name is not actually an invention by Drummond and only sounds similar to the trodder.
Some secondary sources (like Panella) say that Flora Temple was the name of a Scottish woman that Drummond wanted to flatter.
But in the 1st and 2nd edition of the SDP (I quickly checked this) Drummond only uses the name "exchange game" for the Simple Corner.

So the story about the Scottish Lady seems like a busted myth.
Which source did you have Pedro about the naming of this line after the famous trodder?

Fascinating piece of checker history.

Greetinx from frozen Dortmund, Germany,

Ingo the snow shoveller

("Life is like the Snow. You can't hold it for long" , written on the gravestone of my aunt Edith that died aged 4 month in the cold war winter of 1945)

[liam stephens]

Flora Temple was a horse so famous that a number of pictorial flasks were created in her honor. Not only that, there were songs written about her (the famous "bob-tailed nag" from the song "The Camptown Races", by Stephen Foster), events scheduled in her honor (in Morrisville, New York, they still hold an event called "Flora Temple Day"), and even children named after this great horse (yes, there were many baby girls named Flora, and even some Flora Temple, during the height of this horse's fame).

The Horse (of course)

So what made Flora Temple so great? In a time before baseball, football, and most other organized sports, Flora Temple became a superstar. She didn't have any endorsements with sneaker companies. There weren't action figures made in her likeness. And there weren't even trading cards produced that contained her picture and biography. But she was indeed one famous horse!

What made her famous? Over her nine-year career, she won 92 races and placed second 14 times. In addition, she equaled or lowered the world record for the mile trot 6 different times, and she was the first horse to break the 2:20 mile record. That was quite an accomplishment for a "bob-tailed nag" from a small town in Oneida County, New York.

see: http://www.glswrk-auction.com/039.htm

[Bernard Coll]

Nice one Liam. I have a gut feeling that Drummond's horse that Ingo refers to was HERSLF. "FLORA Mac DONALD"

[Pedro Saavedra]

Which source did you have Pedro about the naming of this line after the famous trodder?

Checker Maven. Although it does not say so outright. It says who Flora Temple was after describing the opening. The actual statement that it was named after the horse is not made.

[albert tucker]

Reminds me when STANLEY BLOCK was having breafast with me and the waitress over heard him ask me what I thought of the 18-14 bust on FLORA TEMPLE ,the waitress turned and walked away embarrassed. true story.

[Jay H]

Reminds me when STANLEY BLOCK was having breafast with me and the waitress over heard him ask me what I thought of the 18-14 bust on FLORA TEMPLE ,the waitress turned and walked away embarrassed. true story.

Jay H