Win, Place, Show Trivia Quiz

Answer: Dick Francis

Dick Francis won over 350 races and was designated as a Champion jockey in the 1953-54 season. He was also jockey for the Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth, in the 1950s. He retired from horse racing in 1957 after a serious fall. In the 1960s he began writing crime novels, going on to win the Edgar Award for best novel on three different occasions.

Answer: National Velvet

"National Velvet" is a 1944 film based on a novel by Enid Bagnold, starring Mickey Rooney and Elizabeth Taylor. The plot centers on a twelve year old girl who wins a horse in a raffle draw and trains it for the Grand National steeplechase. When she realises the night before the race that the hired jockey doesn't expect to win, she masquerades as a man and rides the horse to victory.

"Secretariat" is based on the life of a horse of the same name who won the Triple Crown in 1973. The life and racing career of the thoroughbred champion horse Seabiscuit, who won many notable races during the Great Depression, formed the plot for the 2003 film "Seabiscuit". "Phar Lap" is the story of an Australian racehorse.

Answer: Alaska

The race covers approximately 1049 miles from Anchorage to Nome, and can take up to 15 days. Each team consists of 12-16 dogs. Siberian huskies are the most popular pick for these races. Dog mushing is the state sport of Alaska.

Answer: Cerberus

Cerberus is a three-headed dog from Greek mythology who guarded the gates of the underworld. The three heads were considered to represent the past, present and future. The number of heads sometimes differed in different interpretations.

Sleipnir is an eight legged horse from Norse mythology and the steed of the Norse god, Odin. Pegasus is the winged white horse from Greek mythology, while the unicorn has found mention in mythical tales from various regions.

Answer: Existence of God

Pascal surmised that those who are unsure about whether or not God exists, should live life as if He does. Since human reason can never accurately prove or disprove the existence of God, Pascal postulated that if in the end God did exist, the person would win eternal life and if He didn't, there was nothing to lose.

Answer: Central Asia

Przewalski's Horse, also known as Mongolian Wild Horse, is native to the steppes of Central Asia, which includes China and Mongolia. The species was designated as 'extinct in the wild' in the 1960s until the 1990s when sixteen of the horses were released into the wild in Mongolia.

The animals were able to reproduce and sustain themselves in the wild, resulting in a change in status to 'Endangered' in 2005.

Answer: Drag racing

Flat racing involves a race of predetermined length run over level ground, while steeplechase includes jumping over different obstacles ranging from fences to ditches. In harness racing, horses compete at a particular gait, usually a trot or a pace.

Drag racing generally involves motorcycles or cars.

Answer: Anton Chekov

Anton Chekov was a Russian physician and author who was well-known for his short stories, novels and plays. In "The Bet", the banker agrees to pay the lawyer two million rubles if he could live in solitary confinement for 15 years. The banker was of the opinion that the death penalty was far more humane as it killed a man at once instead of the slow death that life imprisonment entailed.

The lawyer, on the other hand, believed that it was better to live in any manner rather than die.

Answer: United Arab Emirates

Camel racing is a popular sport in many Middle Eastern countries like Bahrain, Oman, and United Arab Emirates (UAE), along with others like India, Pakistan and Australia. Traditionally, small children have been used as jockeys mainly due to their light weight.

These children were usually victims of trafficking and abuse. In 2002, UAE introduced the use of robot jockeys and completely banned the use of children below 15 years of age for these races.

Answer: Ernest Hemingway

This anecdote appeared in the 1996 play "Papa" about Ernest Hemingway, written by John deGroot, and its authenticity has remained unverified. According to the tale, Hemingway was having lunch at the Algonquin, a famous group of New York City writers and intellectuals, when he claimed he could write a story in just six words. The others didn't think it was possible and agreed to cough up ten dollars each if he lived up to his claims. Hemingway then scribbled six words on a napkin - "For Sale. Baby Shoes. Never Worn." and purportedly won the bet.

Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954.