Eight Oasis Tracks That Have Named Horses on the Track
Oasis’s frontmen are no longer looking back in anger. As a result of costly divorces or otherwise, brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher are reforming to play a string of huge shows across the UK and Ireland during the summer of 2025. The reunion looked impossible after a bitter split in 2009, 18 years after the band had formed in Manchester.
Liam Gallagher and his brother Noel Gallagher pictured in 1995 – it was a big year for Oasis. ©Getty
The news has been met with euphoria. The media are in a frenzy, tickets are rarer than gold dust (and more expensive), and hotel booking sites have gone into meltdown. With 75 million record sales, Oasis is among the most successful acts in the history of the UK charts and boasts eight UK number-one singles and eight UK number-one albums.
Oasis’s debut album, Definitely Maybe, was released on August 29th, 1994. It entered the UK’s albums chart at number-one. Within a week of going on sale it became the UK’s fastest-selling debut album. It went on to be certified platinum eight times over for sales of over 2.4 million units. Oasis remains massive in the British Isles and beyond.
The group has garnered an enormous fanbase, many of whom appear to have become racehorse owners. To prove that point, Best Betting Sites has trawled through the formbooks to identify horses named after some of the best Oasis songs and measure their success, or lack of it, on the racecourse.
Don’t Look Back in Anger (1996)
Although ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ is not Oasis’s best-selling single, it is a good starting point for our list. The song fits with the Gallagher brothers smoothing over a 15-year rift, and a horse of a similar name raced just three days before the reunion tour was announced.
The equine Don’t Look Back, born in 2015, has limited ability. The gelding has won just once in 34 career starts. The grey, a son of the massively talented sprinter Oasis Dream, has a career-best finish of third from 15 starts over hurdles. However, he is tough and hardy, underlined by 11 outings in seven months during 2024.
Wonderwall (1995)
Oasis’s most-streamed track – with 397 million UK streams and counting – is Wonderwall. It is the best-selling song to never reach number-one in the UK (4.2 million sales) and is the team song of Major League Soccer side Minnesota United FC – played and sung after every home victory! On a serious note, this anthemic single is the first song most people will think of when hearing the name ‘Oasis’.
🎶 Wonderwall gets his head in front at @DoncasterRaces!
Richard Spencer’s exciting novice sees off the late threat of City Chief, with @james_bowen_ doing the steeringpic.twitter.com/IP6MSItODG
— Sky Sports Racing (@SkySportsRacing) January 11, 2022
Unsurprisingly, the name Wonderwall has been very popular with racehorse owners. During the 2010’s five horses were given the name. The quintet were born in Ireland, the USA, Japan, Australia and South Africa. The most recent to race was the Irish-bred eight-year-old version. He was beaten into second on July 20th when seeking his third career victory from 22-lifetime starts.
Roll With It (1995)
Also last seen in action on July 20th was Roll With It. Formerly owned by Rebel Racing – which regularly names its horses after famous songs – this eight-year-old won a chase at Cartmel in June and has been placed in six of his 13-lifetime starts. A French-bred and based three-year-old ‘Roll With It’ is yet to be placed in three starts this summer.
As for ‘Roll With It’, the song finished second in a highly publicised August 1995 chart battle with Blur’s single ‘Country House’. Dubbed ‘The Battle of Britpop’, ‘Roll With It’ reached number-two on the UK singles chart, so it lost the race despite 216,000 sales in a week. It has since surpassed 600,000 certified sales and reached ‘platinum’ status.
She’s Electric (1995)
Five horses have been named She’s Electric. The first was born in February 1994, 20 months before Oasis’ (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? album was released. The record featured ‘She’s Electric’ whch was certified Platinum in the UK despite being a non-single. Following version one, four other She’s Electric horses were born in Australia, the USA, Great Britain and Ireland.
The Australian She’s Electric, born in October 1995 on the day after (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? release – but named/registered in 1996 – has been the most successful performer on the racecourse. The five-time winner was placed an additional 11 times during a 39-race career that spanned three seasons.
Cigarettes & Alcohol (1994)
The fourth and final single from Oasis’ 1994 debut album, Definitely Maybe, Cigarettes & Alcohol, was certified Platinum (indicating 600,000 sales) in March 2020. It was a slow burner! The same could be said of its equine namesake, Cigarettesnalcohol. At huge odds, this individual finished ahead of just four rivals in a seven-race jumps career during the 2021/22 British jumps season.
Acquiesce (1995)
A verb meaning to accept something reluctantly but without protest, Acquiesce was a B-side track that became a fan favourite. The same could not be said of the New Zealand racehorse of the same name that never won a race in ten attempts. The British version – a mare born in 1995 (but probably named in 1996) never made the racecourse. However, in the breeding paddocks, she produced three individual winners.
Supersonic (1994)
Another Oasis-named horse to exceed as a broodmare was the February 1996 foaled Supersonic. Sharing her name with the first single from ‘Definitely Maybe’, which got the band’s ball rolling in April of 1994, on the racecourse Supersonic raced 19 times without visiting the winner’s enclosure. However, her offspring included Whirling and Rigid – horses that won on the flat and over jumps.
Champagne Supernova (1995)
Only released as a single in Australia and New Zealand, Champagne Supernova is certified double-platinum in the UK (1.2 million sales/streams) and gold in the US (500,000 units). Last seen in action in December 2023, the racehorse that goes by the same name is a sprinting all-weather stalwart with three wins and eight other placings on the surface.
Despite reaching the frame in 12 of his 36 race starts, the seven-year-old Champagne Supernova has won less than £20,000 in his five-year racing career. In comparison, later this month, Sotheby’s will auction three guitars used by Noel Gallagher on stage and in the recording of Definitely Maybe. The cheapest is predicted to surpass that figure and has a starting bid of £18,000!
