Eben Etzebeth, who famously gained the nickname “Elizabedi” during the Rugby World Cup thanks to an enthusiastic young fan, has a thoroughbred named after him and a very well bred one too.
Susan Rowett of Varsfontein always delivers imaginative names and one of the Varsfontein Stud colts on offer at the BSA National Yearling Sale is named “Etzebeth.”
The colt is grey and is by Erik The Red out of the top class three-time Gr 1 winner Bela-Bela.
That makes him a half-brother to the Gr 2 Western Cape Fillies Championship winner Ciao Bella.
The name he was given might have more than one angle to it and that would be the typical approach of Susan Rowett, who comes up with some gems.
Erik The Red in history was a gigantic viking and one of history’s most infamous enforcers.
Eben Etzebeth is gigantic and is the most famous enforcer in world rugby.
Bela-Bela is a town in the Limpopo Province, formerly known as Warmbaths.
The words bela-bela literally mean “boiling boiling” in the Northern-Sotho language.
That is where the yearling colt’s name could be doubly clever.
Erik The Red had a ferocious, rageful temper, and it boiled over on a number of occasions. He was banished from two different Viking countries for his homicidal behavior.
Eben is nothing of the sort and has shown himself to be a gentle giant … when he is off the pitch.
However, it is a different story on the field and his temper has boiled over on occasion in the heat of forward battle, although not as much these days as it used to.
So the boiling hot temperamants of the two gigantic men might relate to the translated meaning of “bela-bela”.
The grey colt looks to be big and that might have been another prompt for the name.
The well-named colt is lot 56 and is sure to draw attention as this is the family of the great champion matriarch Mystic Spring.
