While we’re all sitting around stuffing our faces with the last of the leftover turkey, popping Quality Street like they’re going out of fashion, and whinceing as we listen to Dick Van Dyke trying to sing in a cockney accent in Mary Poppins, I thought you might appreciate a little light relief, and the chance to show off your knowledge of horse racing.
I’ve put together a racing-related quiz of the year, and all questions relate to events in 2009 unless otherwise stated. It’s the first time I’ve ever done something like this, so who knows what the response will be? If you want to take part, send me an email to paul at skybluekangaroo dot com with as many answers as you can manage.
I will post the answers next week, and announce the inaugural winner (that’s assuming anyone enters, or indeed gets any questions right!)
The Cheltenham Festival
1 Tony McCoy produced one of the great rides to drive Wichita Lineman to victory in the William Hill Trophy. Name the runner-up who was caught in the final strides.
2 Which jockey won both the Champion Hurdle and the Arkle on day one?
3 Which 10-year-old chased home Master Minded in the Champion Chase?
4 Which trainer enjoyed a 1-2 in the Festival Plate with Something Wells and Ping Pong Sivola?
5 Paul Nicholls trained four of the first five home in the Gold Cup. Name the only one of the five that he didn’t train.
Royal Ascot
6 Which jockey rode a treble on the opening day, including victory in the opening Queen Anne Stakes?
7 Name the American trainer who flew over with a handful of two-year-olds on a speculative visit and won two races at Royal Ascot.
8 How many times has Yeats won the Gold Cup?
9 Which filly broke the course record in the Coronation Stakes?
10 Which 12-year-old won the final race at Royal Ascot?
Which horse started favourite for this year’s . . .
11 Champion Hurdle?
12 Grand National?
13 2,000 Guineas?
14 Derby?
15 St Leger?
Jockeys
16 Ryan Moore was champion Flat jockey this year and Richard Hughes was second. Who was third in the jockeys’ championship table? (based on winners betweeen 28 March and 7 November)
17 Which female jockey finished highest in the Flat jockey’s championship table?
18 Tony McCoy leads the jump jockeys’ table and Richard Johnson is second. Who is currently third?
19 Which jump jockey was third in the championship table at the end of last season?
20 Which jockey rode most winners on the Flat in Ireland this year?
Trainers
21 Which top-ten jumps trainer has been sending out winners at a strike-rate of 35% since the end of a three-month ban?
22 Which jumps trainer has broken into the top ten this season, having decided as recently as last year to devote his attention to training full-time?
23 Which trainer, trundling along on an unusually low strike-rate this jumps season, recently said that blood tests of his horses showed raised levels of a muscle enzyme likely to cause fatigue?
24 Which trainer had the ante-post favourites for both the Derby and the 2,000 Guineas in his yard in April but was unable to get a win out of either horse from May onwards?
25 Marcus Tregoning had one in his kitchen in March, while Richard Hannon had one in his bedroom in June. What?
Owners
26 Accepting an award in May, which jumps owner said: “I think we’re the Manchester United compared to the relegated Southampton of Flat racing”?
27 Which owner sent his filly, a seven-length winner of the Nell Gwyn, to contest the French Guineas rather than the one in Newmarket, for which he already had the favourite?
28 The ownership syndicate ‘Men In Our Position’ are in the top 15 in the owners’ table this jumps season, thanks to which horse?
29 Which owner fainted as his horse won a Group One in July?
30 Jesse James, Prizefighting, Militarist and Green Beret all went into battle carrying the colours of which owner?
Horses
31 Which horse remains a general 10-1 shot for next year’s 2,000 Guineas, despite having been third at 4-9 on his only outing in the past five months?
32 Which horse gave Irish trainer Dessie Hughes a second consecutive victory in the Becher Chase?
33 The fifth horse home in the Grand National was a 100-1 shot who finished the race with a fractured skull. Name him.
34 Fans of Sea The Stars say he has nothing left to prove. How many races did he run in 2009?
35 Which horse won the Stewards’ Cup after finishing last in the Wokingham?
Who said it?
36 “You can’t buy the talent I’ve got. There are probably other jockeys with better brains, but I have a talent to get horses to do things that they don’t want to do.”
37 “I know now that I have to be stronger if I am to get away from the circle of people that bring you down, and move on. I don’t know how many years I have left but I’ll be working hard to do things right.”
38 “Newmarket can make or break a jockey. I thought long and hard about moving there, but the simple reason I didn’t is I didn’t want to end up down the road drinking in pubs.”
39 ”In the next 100 years, no-one will ever own this many horses and have as little money as I do. No-one else will be brave enough to do it.”
40 ”Hopefully, Sir Alex Ferguson can set me up with one of his nice players after that!”
Who am I?
41 A 25-year-old jump jockey with multiple Grade One wins to my name, I signed up to be first jockey to a Gloucestershire stable in the spring. I hoped it would be a step forward but my strike-rate so far this season has been half of what it was for the previous three seasons. I’ve had just two winners from 27 rides this month and I’m outside the top 25 in the jockeys’ table, having made the top 10 for the past three seasons.
42 A trainer who has won at the Cheltenham Festival, I was fined £9,500 in January by the British Horseracing Authority for conduct they branded “despicable” after they ruled that one of my horses was a non-trier. I responded by accusing the disciplinary panel of “getting personal” and of having “another agenda”.
43 A seven-year-old gelding, I was stuffed when sent off favourite at the Cheltenham Festival but had a better second-half to the year when switched to the Flat. I’ve been beaten less than a length in Group Ones on my last two starts, picking up £180,000 in prize money.
44 I thought I was going to ride my first Group One winner at Epsom in June, only to be narrowly beaten after suffering interference from the winner. But the winning jockey was suspended, allowing me to step in for one of his rides at Royal Ascot and get my first top-class victory. By the end of the year, I’d racked up five Group Ones.
45 A 23-year-old jump jockey, I enjoyed a first taste of the big time with a high-profile success in a TV race – only to have the state of my teeth ridiculed by the presenter. I had the last laugh when dentists started falling over themselves to offer me free treatment.
Final furlong
46 Whose Grand National form figures now read: FPFFU33PFC30F7
47 Which rider failed a pre-race breath test for alcohol in Ireland for the second time in his career? (In Ireland, no other jockey has failed such a test even once)
48 Denman is part-owned by Paul Barber and Harry Findlay. He carries Barber’s green silks one season and Findlay’s purple silks the next. Whose colours is he carrying this season?
49 “He’s so small you can hardly see him!” Which jockey was reported to have referred to the trainer Andre Fabre in such slighting terms?
50 Kieren Fallon returned to action on British racecourses in September. In which year had he last taken part in races in Britain?
Good luck if you’ve decided to have a go. A full set of answers will be posted on here next week.
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