Welcome to our eighth annual racing-related quiz of the year, which will start shortly. All 50 questions will appear on this page, sharp at 12pm. The old system of releasing them in batches seemed to favour only those with a zippy internet connection.
If you think you know the answer to a question, post your answer as a comment below, clearly stating the number of the question you’re answering and doing your best to spell the answer correctly (I may allow some latitude).
So, for example, if the first question was “Which regulatory body has had enormous fun answering questions about its integrity processes and procedures?” the answer would be:
“1) The British Horseracing Authority”
... which will be the last mention such matters receive on this page.
The first person to correctly post the answer to a question gets a point. At the end of the quiz, whoever has most points will win:
a £50 bet from 32Red, new sponsors of the King George VI Chase!
and I will email that person today to sort out their prize.
The quiz will end when all of the questions have been answered correctly, or at 2pm, whichever comes first. If there’s a tie for first place, I’ll post a tie-breaking question at 3pm and the first person, from among those that have tied for first place, to post the correct answer will be the winner. If no one has posted the correct answer by 4pm, the prize will go to whichever of those in contention was first to post any correct answer on this page today.
If any one person posts multiple answers to the same question, I will only accept their first answer. All questions relate to events in 2016 unless otherwise stated.
You may submit as many answers as you want in one posting, so long as it’s clear which questions are being answered. But speed is going to be important, as each answer will only earn you a point if no one else has given it already, so you’ll probably be better off posting one answer at a time.
In the event of any dispute, my decision is final on everything, so don’t be starting any aggro. Otherwise, usual Guardian competition rules apply. I hope you enjoy this wee test of your racing knowledge.
All questions will appear here at 12pm. Good luck!
Questions
Horses
1) Which horse was “disputing lead and travelling well when fell 3 out” in the Cheltenham Gold Cup?
2) How many times has Found been second in a Group 1 or Grade 1 race?
3) If Presenting Streak is a son of Presenting and Dubawi Light is a son of Dubawi, which stallion is father to Galileo Gold?
4) Which French-based 10-year-old was retired in March after winning more than £6m in his career, having beaten Treve but been bested by Frankel?
5) Who was the last horse to beat Sprinter Sacre?
6) In which year did My Tent Or Yours achieve his most recent victory over hurdles?
7) Which horse, for whom a belated chasing debut was expected, managed to delay that possibility by winning Cheltenham’s International Hurdle?
8) Which horse won a Grade One by 41 lengths?
9) Which filly amassed more than £1.5m in prize money in Britain and Ireland?
10) Which horse started favourite for the Derby?
The new Frankels
11) Which colt gave Frankel a first winner from his first runner as a stallion, despite shocking pre-race behaviour?
12) Which daughter of Frankel won the Lowther?
13) And which won the Princess Margaret?
14) In which country did Frankel achieve his first Group or Grade One success as a stallion?
15) Atty Persse will carry whose colours next year, having been sold after winning a Sandown maiden in September?
Grand National
16) Which Grand National runner was sold at auction two days before the big race at Aintree?
17) Which jockey was booked to ride O’Faolains Boy in the Grand National, then got moved onto The Romford Pele when that one became a non-runner, then missed out on the race altogether because of an injury sustained at the first flight of the first race that day?
18) Which two jockeys took part in the Grand National, despite having been told by the British Horseracing Authority that they would both be banned from riding that day? (one point to the first person to give both names correctly in a single posting)
19) Rule The World won the Grand National as a novice chaser. Name the most recent novice chaser before him to win the race.
20) Vics Canvas, a 13-year-old, shared the lead over the final fence in the National. Who was the last 13-year-old to win the race?
The year in Aidan
21) In which British Classic did Aidan O’Brien train the first three home?
22) Of which horse did O’Brien say: “On his last piece of work, he did a top speed of 45mph. Since I’ve been at Ballydoyle, we’ve never had a horse to hit that speed. I think the previous best was around 42.”
23) And which horse was he talking about in 2010 when saying: “He worked coming here and did the second-last furlong in just over 9.5 seconds. We have never had that before and I have never seen a horse do less than 10 seconds. He is one of those very unusual beasts. He’s the fastest we’ve had, no doubt.”
24) Name the first horse home in the Arc trained by someone other than Aidan O’Brien.
25) Which O’Brien-trained star was hurried into retirement by a displaced colon?
Trainers
26) Which rookie trainer started the year with a bang, landing the delayed Welsh National, Warwick’s Classic Chase and Haydock’s Grand National Trial?
27) The BHA apologised to which two trainers in March after its integrity review?
28) Which Newmarket trainer, averaging 70 runners in August for the past four years, had three runners in August this year?
29) Who became the first woman to train a St Leger winner?
30) ‘Another blow for Mullins’ said the Racing Post headline in February after the Irish trainer lost two Champion Hurdle contenders to injury inside a week. Name them. (First person to name both in a single posting gets the point)
Jockeys
31) Which jockey was unseated in the St Leger?
32) Which 44-year-old jockey broke a collar bone in October and returned to action later that month?
33) Which jockey won the Racing Post Trophy for the fourth year in a row?
34) Tom Queally enjoyed his first Group One success since the retirement of Frankel, aboard which horse?
35) Who rode the winner of the Kerry National and then worked as a bid-spotter at a yearling auction the next week?
Those we lost
36) Which jockey, who died this year, rode his 1,000th winner in Britain in 1989 aboard a son of the filly who had been his first winner in 1968
37) On which horse did Walter Swinburn win the last of his three Derbys?
38) Which owner, whose red and white colours were carried by Viking Flagship and Prideaux Boy among many others, often gave his horses names with a Cornish flavour?
39) Which horse, who died in November, had won at the last three Cheltenham Festivals?
40) Which Grand National winner, who died this year, warmed up for his big day at Aintree by falling at the first when favourite at Haydock?
Ragbag
41) Of the 28 races at the Cheltenham Festival, which race generated the fifth-most betting turnover (with Coral), beaten only by the Gold Cup, Champion Chase, World Hurdle and Champion Hurdle, and perhaps benefiting from a one-off sprinkling of stardust?
42) The Leger was won by a horse trained in Epsom. In which year was a British Classic last won by an Epsom-based horse?
43) At which course was a jockey unseated in a five-furlong race in September when his mount was alarmed by a golf ball kicked up off the turf by one of the leaders?
44) Which 5lb claimer won a Grade One and Europe’s richest handicap hurdle last season but has had just three winners so far this term?
45) The stewards at which course took offence at the attitude of one of Godolphin’s retained jockeys in June, banning him for a month?
Who said it?
46) “I had four trainers trying to get a win. I have given them strict instructions: Either you get me a win at Royal Ascot, or you can find your happiness someplace else. I don’t put up with people who don’t do what I want done and argue with me all the time and make excuses. I am not one to make excuses.”
47) “My boots barely fitted me, I needed a larger pair of breeches and I also had to let out my back protector by a couple of inches. It sounds a stupid thing to say but I felt practically obese. What that underlined to me was how little fat I had been carrying in the old days.”
48) “We’d have sat second or third like the others, with hindsight, but we’d talked it all through and we were both very keen Paddy kicked on, so we must take the blame. We both felt strongly it was the right thing to do and now we wish we hadn’t.”
49) “I’m not willing to try to maintain the standards I have without putting the fees up. We’ve evolved our methods of training, which obviously costs a lot, over the years and we’re not prepared to sacrifice that.”
50) “I am military. If I give someone an order, he has to take my order. We do it like this. I’m not going to listen to a trainer giving me an order. If I tell you that you have to run in this race, you have to run. I won’t take excuses.”
Final scores
Harrytheactor 12
fatdeano 10
DrKelso 10
Chris Neale 9
Cairo 4
Sam Riehn 2
Will Aitkenhead 1
Both fatdeano and DrKelso gave correct answers to Q2 before Harry, but they had already given incorrect answers and we have a rule that only a person’s first answer can be accepted. Harry got the point for an eventual correct answer because he hadn’t attempted the question earlier.
Qs 6 and 47 went unanswered, which explains why these scores only add up to 48.
Thanks for playing everyone! Have a happy Christmas and do join us on Talking Horses on Boxing Day for some tips and a discussion of the King George. Harry, I’ll be in touch by email
Answers
1 Cue Card
2 Six times in 2016, 10 times in her career. (Apologies for not specifying. Either answer was acceptable)
3 Paco Boy
4 Cirrus Des Aigles
5 Special Tiara
6 2013
7 The New One
8 Apple’s Jade
9 Minding
10 US Army Ranger
11 Cunco
12 Queen Kindly
13 Fair Eva
14 Japan
15 Godolphin
16 Black Thunder
17 Brian Hughes
18 Nina Carberry + Sam Waley-Cohen
19 Mr What (1958)
20 Sergeant Murphy (1923)
21 The 1,000 Guineas
22 Caravaggio
23 Starspangledbanner
24 Siljan’s Saga
25 The Gurkha
26 Kerry Lee
27 Jim Boyle and Kate Walton
28 Saeed bin Suroor
29 Laura Mongan
30 Faugheen and Arctic Fire
31 Seamie Heffernan
32 Andrew Thornton
33 Andrea Atzeni
34 The Tin Man
35 Lisa O’Neill
36 Mark Birch
37 Lammtarra
38 Graham Roach
39 Vautour
40 Red Marauder
41 The Foxhunter Chase
42 1969
43 Sandown
44 Lizzie Kelly
45 Chantilly
46 Ken Ramsey
47 Richard Hughes
48 Colin Tizzard
49 Willie Mullins
50 Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum
