Why can't I rename a symbolic link?

If I create a symbolic link to a folder I can double click on the link and it opens the relevant folder. If I then rename the symbolic link, it carries on working. The same seems to be true if I link to a Linux executable. If I then create a symbolic link to a Windows executable (let's say ABC.exe) I can also launch the Windows app (via Wine) if I double click on the link. But if I rename the link to be just "ABC" it stops working!! If I rename it to "XYZ.exe" it starts working again. But it will only work if the name of the symbolic link ends in ".exe". Does this make sense to anyone??