The name Ladas, derived from that of Alexander the Great's messenger, had previously been used by Lord Rosebery's father for a horse who ran unplaced in the 1869 Derby. Rosebery, then an under-graduate at Oxford University, had tipped the horse to his friends as a likely winner and was reportedly mortified by the result. By way of an apology, Rosebery told his friends that if he ever had a horse with a "prime chance" of winning the Derby, he would name him "Ladas" so that they could all "take the tip and back him." It was the memory of this incident which reportedly persuaded Rosebery to abandon his original plan to name the colt "Hampton Wick".
