'Wrong': Aussies botching Cup favourite's name

With the 2023 Melbourne Cup upon us, there's one thing that you can absolutely bet the house on.

This year's Cup favourite is the Irish-trained horse "Vauban", and while the five-year-old chestnut gelding looks incredibly hard to beat, that's for the racing gods to decide.

What's absolutely certain is that everyone will pronounce Vauban's name wrong.

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Since arriving in the country, everyone has been saying the "Vau" like the first half of NRL legend Paul Vautin's name, and the "ban" like the simple English word ban.

Wrong and wrong.

Not quite as wrong as pronouncing the "t" in croissant, but still pretty bad.

https://twitter.com/SkyRacingAU/status/1719942409961058572?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The clue to the correct pronunciation is that the horse was bred in France, foaled (born) in France, and began its racing career in France before transferring to the stable of master Irish trainer Willie Mullins.

So Vauban really should be pronounced as the French intended, and fortunately, there are two quintessentially Australian words that can point our tongues in the right direction.

In French, you would pronounce the "Vau" like the "Vo" in Iced VoVo biscuits, while the "ban" would be more like the first name of the late, great original AC/DC frontman Bon Scott.

If you really want to get precise, you'd probably drop the "n" of "bon" in that very nasal French way, but saying "Vobon" would get you close to the proper pronunciation.

For the record, the horse is almost certainly named after Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, a very famous French military engineer who lived from 1633-1707 and built many famous huge stone forts across France, as well as beautiful bridges like the Pont D'asfeld.

It remains to be seen whether the horse Vauban can repel the attacks of the local horses and other overseas challengers on Tuesday.

And for those who are interested in the horse's chances in the Melbourne Cup, Vauban is lightly raced and has won seven of its 14 starts with an additional four placings.

Vauban's trainer Willie Mullins has come close to Melbourne Cup glory before, finishing second with Max Dynamite behind Michelle Payne's Prince of Penzance in 2015, while Vauban's English jockey Ryan Moore won the nation-stopper in 2014 aboard German horse Protectionist.