Diamond Geezer
Gone But Not Forgotten
- Joined
- May 2, 2003
- Messages
- 13,884
The questions ( will post answers on Sunday)
Sir Henry Cecil
1 Alas, this was the year in which we lost perhaps the greatest Flat trainer Britain has ever produced. Of which horse was Cecil talking when he said this to The Guardian: "He's always smashing his box up. He breaks mangers and things like that. He's very hot-blooded."
2 Name the 1983 autobiography in which Cecil wrote: "Work and the care of the horses have to be taken very seriously indeed but I have never believed that any of us should be so solemn about it that there ceases to be any pleasure at all. I like to hear the lads laughing and chaffing each other, for I firmly believe that a happy staff makes happy horses."
3 Wearing Gucci loafers (by some accounts), Cecil walked which filly to the start of the 1988 Champion Stakes, which she duly won?
4 How many times did Cecil win the Oaks?
5 With which filly did Cecil win the Triple Crown in 1985?
Name the missing horse
6 The 2011 Supreme Novice Hurdle is working out well. Who was second?
1st Al Ferof
2nd ?
3rd Sprinter Sacre
4th Cue Card
7 You've already forgotten what won this year's St Leger, haven't you?
1st ?
2nd Talent
3rd Galileo Rock
8 What about the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes? (correct spelling required)
1st ?
2nd Trading Leather
3rd Hillstar
9 The Prince of Wales turned out to be the final run for one big name - who?
1st Al Kazeem
2nd Mukhadram
3rd The Fugue
4th ?
10 If you backed this winner, you don't care who was second. Still, there's a point in it for someone.
1st Auroras Encore
2nd ?
3rd Teaforthree
4th Oscar Time
Favourites
Which horse started favourite for these races in 2013?
11 The Grand National?
12 The 1,000 Guineas?
13 The Oaks?
14 The Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe?
15 The Hennessy Gold Cup? (Newbury version)
Jockeys
16 Which jockey went to Newmarket for two rides and came away as the winner of the July Cup and the Bunbury Cup?
17 Which jockey won the cross-country race at the Cheltenham Festival, nine years after his only previous success in Britain, in a Grade One at the Festival?
18 Which jockey seemed on her way to Cheltenham Festival success before being unseated on the run-in?
19 Which apprentice, who might have been champion in 2012 but for a broken collar bone, had his licence suspended for a couple of months this year and was later described as "unprofessional" by the Newmarket trainer who now holds his licence?
20 Which 40-year-old jockey started the year with no British Classics to his name and ended with two?
Trainers
21 Which trainer, the winner of two Fighting Fifths in previous years, told one reporter in the build-up to last month's renewal that he thought he had never won it?
22 Roger Charlton won the Prince of Wales and the Eclipse with Al Kazeem. Before that one came along, which horse gave Charlton his most recent British Group One win in a non-sprint race?
23 Which trainer ended a rough year, including hospital treatment for a life-threatening illness, by winning the first Group One race on Champions Day?
24 Five of the six races on the Cheltenham Festival's first day were won by Willie Mullins or Nicky Henderson. Name the only other trainer who made it to the winner's enclosure that day?
25 Which trainer, banned for three years in the summer, had a record of 2/14 with Top Notch Tonto, who then joined Brian Ellison to win three of his next four and finish second in the QEII?
In the blood
26 Which Derby winner sired the first, third and fourth in this year's Derby?
27 Which Derby winner, whose eldest progeny were three this year, sired either the winner or the runner-up in four Classics out of five?
28 The mother of Cue Card was once a first-fence faller in the Grand National. Name her.
29 The mother of Captain Chris, a lively outsider against Cue Card in next week's King George, turned over Flagship Uberalles in the Game Spirit 12 years ago. Name her.
30 Estimate, who won the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot for the Queen, is a half-sister to which horse who won the same race some years ago?
Rag bag
31 Which horse, partly owned by Harry Redknapp, won a Group Two at Glorious Goodwood?
32 Which track had to abandon in mid-raceday when it appeared as though heavy rain was sending the contents of the septic tank back into the weighing room?
33 Which British challenger for the Melbourne Cup made the headlines during the build-up when his groom committed a "severe breach of quarantine protocol" and was sent home?
34 The second, third, fourth and fifth in the Melbourne Cup were all trained in Britain or Ireland. The winner is now trained in Australia but was formerly based in Newmarket with which trainer?
35 Johnny Murtagh became the first man to ride a winner at Royal Ascot while holding a trainer's licence since Tom Cannon, great-grandfather of which champion jockey?
Who said it?
36 "It was the biggest bollocks of a race ever run at Cheltenham."
37 "He's a jockey, he's ready to go. He's had some blips. I think you're asking too many deep and intellectual and unnecessary questions. We want to welcome him back, that's all you need to write. Someone's got to give him his first ride and it happens to be me."
38 "If you don't ride out every day, you get into a bit of a rut and I don't think you're as sharp ... When you get up early in the morning, you're sharp and that's what I'm going to start doing. I think I'll start doing that next week. I'll try and find somebody really that wants me to ride out."
39 "He was very, very free, just basically out of control, I was just a passenger. He towed me to the front, I had no choice."
40 "We've made a whole heap of changes with senior staff and it's all working together. It was a time to cull things and change things and get everything how we wanted it and it's come together quicker than I ever thought it would."
Ancient history
41 Only one horse finished second to both Desert Orchid and Carvill's Hill during their steeplechasing career. Who?
42 Four Grand National winners have been trained by women. How many of those were returned at odds of 33-1 or shorter?
43 Kim Bailey won the Charlie Hall Chase with Harry Topper. Name the horse he trained some 20 years ago that won the Whitbread and was then placed in the Hennessy, the King George, the Gold Cup and the Grand National within the next year.
44 Jim Bolger, who won the 2,000 Guineas with Dawn Approach, also trained that horse's sire, New Approach, a Derby winner. Name New Approach's mother, trained by Bolger to win the Nassau Stakes in the 1980s.
45 For the third year in a row, the Derby was won by the same owning triumvirate. Name the horse that started that run for them.
Who am I?
46 From a famous racing family, I've spent a lot of this year on the sidelines with a shoulder injury. But I rode my 13th Cheltenham Festival winner in March, where my main employer has not exactly shone over the years. Those 13 have been provided by 11 different trainers.
47 Now in my 16th term with a licence, I've had 85 winners since the season started in May, just four short of my record for an entire year. I've had more than my share of serious injury and I've rarely been associated with the biggest yards, though I bagged a couple of Grade Ones for Paul Nicholls. My birthday's on Christmas Eve and my first name has a seasonal association.
48 You couldn't call it a brilliant year for me, since I made headlines during Royal Ascot for splitting from the trainer who had backed me for 13 years, though I continued to get the odd ride from him. Then I suffered bone breaks in a spectacular fall in September. But I'm among the winners once more and, as I told the Racing Post, "I've had more comebacks than Rocky".
49 I also had a difficult time, thanks in large measure to the steroid scandal that engulfed my employers in the spring. But that was down to a rogue employee who no longer has anything to do with us and we ended the Flat season as champion owner, so I feel justified in describing 2013 as "a fantastic year" for us, as I told the press after our Breeders' Cup win.
50 I lost my title as champion trainer but I still managed six Group One wins and there was no chance of me lying down for anyone. As I told a highly respected QC during a BHA hearing: "I think you don't know enough about racing".
Sir Henry Cecil
1 Alas, this was the year in which we lost perhaps the greatest Flat trainer Britain has ever produced. Of which horse was Cecil talking when he said this to The Guardian: "He's always smashing his box up. He breaks mangers and things like that. He's very hot-blooded."
2 Name the 1983 autobiography in which Cecil wrote: "Work and the care of the horses have to be taken very seriously indeed but I have never believed that any of us should be so solemn about it that there ceases to be any pleasure at all. I like to hear the lads laughing and chaffing each other, for I firmly believe that a happy staff makes happy horses."
3 Wearing Gucci loafers (by some accounts), Cecil walked which filly to the start of the 1988 Champion Stakes, which she duly won?
4 How many times did Cecil win the Oaks?
5 With which filly did Cecil win the Triple Crown in 1985?
Name the missing horse
6 The 2011 Supreme Novice Hurdle is working out well. Who was second?
1st Al Ferof
2nd ?
3rd Sprinter Sacre
4th Cue Card
7 You've already forgotten what won this year's St Leger, haven't you?
1st ?
2nd Talent
3rd Galileo Rock
8 What about the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes? (correct spelling required)
1st ?
2nd Trading Leather
3rd Hillstar
9 The Prince of Wales turned out to be the final run for one big name - who?
1st Al Kazeem
2nd Mukhadram
3rd The Fugue
4th ?
10 If you backed this winner, you don't care who was second. Still, there's a point in it for someone.
1st Auroras Encore
2nd ?
3rd Teaforthree
4th Oscar Time
Favourites
Which horse started favourite for these races in 2013?
11 The Grand National?
12 The 1,000 Guineas?
13 The Oaks?
14 The Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe?
15 The Hennessy Gold Cup? (Newbury version)
Jockeys
16 Which jockey went to Newmarket for two rides and came away as the winner of the July Cup and the Bunbury Cup?
17 Which jockey won the cross-country race at the Cheltenham Festival, nine years after his only previous success in Britain, in a Grade One at the Festival?
18 Which jockey seemed on her way to Cheltenham Festival success before being unseated on the run-in?
19 Which apprentice, who might have been champion in 2012 but for a broken collar bone, had his licence suspended for a couple of months this year and was later described as "unprofessional" by the Newmarket trainer who now holds his licence?
20 Which 40-year-old jockey started the year with no British Classics to his name and ended with two?
Trainers
21 Which trainer, the winner of two Fighting Fifths in previous years, told one reporter in the build-up to last month's renewal that he thought he had never won it?
22 Roger Charlton won the Prince of Wales and the Eclipse with Al Kazeem. Before that one came along, which horse gave Charlton his most recent British Group One win in a non-sprint race?
23 Which trainer ended a rough year, including hospital treatment for a life-threatening illness, by winning the first Group One race on Champions Day?
24 Five of the six races on the Cheltenham Festival's first day were won by Willie Mullins or Nicky Henderson. Name the only other trainer who made it to the winner's enclosure that day?
25 Which trainer, banned for three years in the summer, had a record of 2/14 with Top Notch Tonto, who then joined Brian Ellison to win three of his next four and finish second in the QEII?
In the blood
26 Which Derby winner sired the first, third and fourth in this year's Derby?
27 Which Derby winner, whose eldest progeny were three this year, sired either the winner or the runner-up in four Classics out of five?
28 The mother of Cue Card was once a first-fence faller in the Grand National. Name her.
29 The mother of Captain Chris, a lively outsider against Cue Card in next week's King George, turned over Flagship Uberalles in the Game Spirit 12 years ago. Name her.
30 Estimate, who won the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot for the Queen, is a half-sister to which horse who won the same race some years ago?
Rag bag
31 Which horse, partly owned by Harry Redknapp, won a Group Two at Glorious Goodwood?
32 Which track had to abandon in mid-raceday when it appeared as though heavy rain was sending the contents of the septic tank back into the weighing room?
33 Which British challenger for the Melbourne Cup made the headlines during the build-up when his groom committed a "severe breach of quarantine protocol" and was sent home?
34 The second, third, fourth and fifth in the Melbourne Cup were all trained in Britain or Ireland. The winner is now trained in Australia but was formerly based in Newmarket with which trainer?
35 Johnny Murtagh became the first man to ride a winner at Royal Ascot while holding a trainer's licence since Tom Cannon, great-grandfather of which champion jockey?
Who said it?
36 "It was the biggest bollocks of a race ever run at Cheltenham."
37 "He's a jockey, he's ready to go. He's had some blips. I think you're asking too many deep and intellectual and unnecessary questions. We want to welcome him back, that's all you need to write. Someone's got to give him his first ride and it happens to be me."
38 "If you don't ride out every day, you get into a bit of a rut and I don't think you're as sharp ... When you get up early in the morning, you're sharp and that's what I'm going to start doing. I think I'll start doing that next week. I'll try and find somebody really that wants me to ride out."
39 "He was very, very free, just basically out of control, I was just a passenger. He towed me to the front, I had no choice."
40 "We've made a whole heap of changes with senior staff and it's all working together. It was a time to cull things and change things and get everything how we wanted it and it's come together quicker than I ever thought it would."
Ancient history
41 Only one horse finished second to both Desert Orchid and Carvill's Hill during their steeplechasing career. Who?
42 Four Grand National winners have been trained by women. How many of those were returned at odds of 33-1 or shorter?
43 Kim Bailey won the Charlie Hall Chase with Harry Topper. Name the horse he trained some 20 years ago that won the Whitbread and was then placed in the Hennessy, the King George, the Gold Cup and the Grand National within the next year.
44 Jim Bolger, who won the 2,000 Guineas with Dawn Approach, also trained that horse's sire, New Approach, a Derby winner. Name New Approach's mother, trained by Bolger to win the Nassau Stakes in the 1980s.
45 For the third year in a row, the Derby was won by the same owning triumvirate. Name the horse that started that run for them.
Who am I?
46 From a famous racing family, I've spent a lot of this year on the sidelines with a shoulder injury. But I rode my 13th Cheltenham Festival winner in March, where my main employer has not exactly shone over the years. Those 13 have been provided by 11 different trainers.
47 Now in my 16th term with a licence, I've had 85 winners since the season started in May, just four short of my record for an entire year. I've had more than my share of serious injury and I've rarely been associated with the biggest yards, though I bagged a couple of Grade Ones for Paul Nicholls. My birthday's on Christmas Eve and my first name has a seasonal association.
48 You couldn't call it a brilliant year for me, since I made headlines during Royal Ascot for splitting from the trainer who had backed me for 13 years, though I continued to get the odd ride from him. Then I suffered bone breaks in a spectacular fall in September. But I'm among the winners once more and, as I told the Racing Post, "I've had more comebacks than Rocky".
49 I also had a difficult time, thanks in large measure to the steroid scandal that engulfed my employers in the spring. But that was down to a rogue employee who no longer has anything to do with us and we ended the Flat season as champion owner, so I feel justified in describing 2013 as "a fantastic year" for us, as I told the press after our Breeders' Cup win.
50 I lost my title as champion trainer but I still managed six Group One wins and there was no chance of me lying down for anyone. As I told a highly respected QC during a BHA hearing: "I think you don't know enough about racing".