What's In a Name: La Petite Coco (Ire)

Coco has many different meanings in French and it is maybe futile to try to divine which one caught the fancy of the breeder and first owner of brave 3-year-old filly La Petite Coco (Ire) (Ruler of the World {Ire}–La Petite Virginia {Ger}, by Konigstiger {Ger})–a brilliant winner of the G3 Irish Stallion Farms EBF Give Thanks S. at Cork on Saturday. But one of those many meanings is a terme affectueux, a very popular term of endearment, equivalent to 'dear', 'darling', or 'sweetie'.

Famously, “Mais non, mon coco,” is what Jean Seberg tells Jean-Paul Belmondo in the 1960 masterpiece film “A Bout du Souffle/Breathless”, in reply to the question “Is he one of the guys who slept with you?”–the whole thing being a maltendu about Nobel Prize winner William Faulkner and one of his books.

Still, affection is stronger than any little misunderstanding, and La Petite Coco is getting plenty of it, because “she has not put a foot wrong,” as her trainer Paddy Twomey said.