Shortly after John Hancock crossed the finish line first in the $200,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes Feb. 8 at Tampa Bay Downs, a light-hearted warning arrived via an internal company message reminding the team that John Hancock had signed the Declaration of Independence not the Constitution.

The Declaration of Independence (WikiMedia Commons/Public Domain)

The lightly raced and talented colt was sired by 2014 Florida Derby winner Constitution and the clever, although factually incorrect, naming stemmed from a combination of his sire’s name and that of his dam (mother), Scribbling Sarah, by Freud. You know what? I don’t care, I love the name anyway, whether John Hancock affixed his elegant and stylish signature to the document that the racehorse Constitution was named after or not.

It also got me thinking, there have been some really creative names for racehorses sired by Constitution, a stallion by leading sire Tapit who has eight crops and 1,151 foals according to Equineline statistics and stands at WinStar Farm.

I didn’t have the time to scan through 1,150-plus names of horses, more than a quarter of which have not raced, but I did do some digging with the resources at my disposal and came up with four more of my favorite names from among Constitution’s progeny.

Miranda Rights

Constitution — In Jail, by Into Mischief

You have the right to remain silent! What a great name for a racehorse by Constitution out of a mare named In Jail. This gelding, born in 2020, was also a nice racehorse with $253,115 in earnings and a third-place finish in a stakes race during three seasons on the racetrack.

Patriot Spirit

Constitution — Mistical Plan, by Game Plan

You take a little spirit from the dam (mother) Mistical Plan, sprinkle in a little patriotism  from Constitution, and voila! This one was straightforward and simple to understand. You’ll thank me later because I’m going to make you do some research on the next one. Patriot Spirit, a bay colt born in 2021, won the Inaugural Stakes in 2023 at Tampa Bay Downs and the 2024 Illinois Derby. He started his 2025 season off with a runner-up finish in the Fifth Season Stakes at Oaklawn Park.

Mr Jefferson

Constitution — Clockstrucktwelve, by Malibu Moon

Mr Jefferson, the racehorse, winning at Colonial Downs. (Coady Media)

Holy cow, I wound up plummeting down a rabbit hole on this one reading about the Midnight Appointments, the election of 1800, and the contentious passing of the Presidency from John Adams to Thomas Jefferson. All from a Google search of the keywords Thomas Jefferson, midnight, and Constitution.

Click the links above to read much more, but the Cliffs Notes version is that Adams filled a slew of judicial appointments in the last three weeks of his term, added more than 40 justices of the peace, and reduced the size of the Supreme Court from six justices to five to deny Jefferson the opportunity to appoint a new Supreme Court justice until there were two vacancies. Jefferson viewed the “appointments to office as personally unkind. They were from among my most ardent political enemies, from whom no faithful cooperation could ever be expected, and laid me under the embarrassment of acting thro’ men whose views were to defeat mine.”

Mr Jefferson, the racehorse, placed in a pair of stakes on the Maryland circuit in 2022. The gelding tried his luck over jumps but returned to flat racing in 2024 and is still racing in 2025.

Tiz the Law

Constitution — Tizfiz, by Tiznow

Tiz the Law wins the 2020 Belmont. (Eclipse Sportswire)

Tiz the Law won the Champagne Stakes in his second start and it was when looking over those past performances that I realized I just loved the name. Simple but creative and a racehorse you could root for. It didn’t hurt that it was Funny Cide’s connections — owner Sackatoga Stable and trainer Barclay Tagg — and during a pandemic, so I needed a lift. I jumped aboard the bandwagon and enjoyed Tiz the Law’s Grade 1 wins in 2020 in the Florida Derby, Belmont Stakes, and Travers Stakes.