President Trump is now fake news according to the National Horseracing Authority.

Three days after The Racegoer page broke the story that the equine President Trump had been gelded ( http://www.goldcircle.co.za/trump-speechless-gelding/ ) South African racing’s ruling body decided it should act and demand the name be changed –by which time the news, together with Justin Snaith’s “vocal, unruly, unmanageable, a nightmare to work with” comments, had gone viral on social media and been taken up by newspapers all over the world.

The NHA’s foal registration expert Samantha Dames emailed Snaith Racing to say: “Unfortunately, with Donald Trump being President, the opinion of the NHA is that the name has now become problematic.”

Seemingly there had been no such concerns when the NHA originally registered the name and nor when the passport was issued. “Maybe they had a complaint from the White House,” observed Jonathan Snaith drily before requesting that the name be changed to Potus.

By this time, though, Ms Dames’ mind was tuned into the Snaith wavelength and she quickly spotted what they were up to. “We unfortunately cannot allow Potus as management feels that name is too controversial,” she emailed. As she pointed out, it is an acronym for President of the United States!

Snaith then applied for the name Fake News for the horse who has had more publicity than any other who has yet to see a racecourse – and apparently this name is going to be approved.

By Michael Clower