Triple Crown Trivia Quiz

Answer: Eddie Arcaro

All of these jockeys had stellar careers, and had multiple wins in Triple Crown races, but Eddie Arcaro (1916-1997) is the only jockey to have ridden two Triple Crown winners during the 20th century.

Bill Shoemaker won eleven Triple Crown races, including four victories in the Kentucky Derby (his 1986 victory at the age of 54 making him the oldest jockey at that time to have won the race), but never won an actual Triple Crown. In the 1957 Kentucky Derby he misjudged the finish, standing up in the stirrups too soon, so that his horse, Gallant Man, finished second to Iron Liege, ridden by Bill Hartack.

Bill Hartack and Eddie Arcaro are the only two jockeys to have won the Kentucky Derby five times in the first 140 times it was run.

Angel Cordero was the first Puerto Rican jockey to win the Kentucky Derby, the Belmont Stakes and the Preakness Stakes, but the closest he came to winning a Triple Crown was on Bold Forbes, who won the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes in 1976.

Answer: D. Wayne Lukas

Lukas trained Thunder Gulch, who won the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes in 1995, and came third in the Preakness Stakes; his horse Timber Country won the Preakness Stakes, after coming third in the Kentucky Derby. Timber Country had to be withdrawn from the Belmont Stakes due to a virus. It is unusual for a trainer to have two such dominant horses in the same year. In 2013 Lukas became the first trainer to attain fourteen victories in Triple Crown races.

Gary Stevens rode Thunder Gulch (owned by Michael Tabor) in his Triple Crown races. Pat Day rode Timber Country.

Answer: Triple Tiara

The Triple Tiara described in the question, also sometimes called a Filly Triple Crown, includes the Kentucky Oaks (run at Churchill Downs on the day before the Kentucky Derby), the Black-eyed Susan Stakes (run at Pimlico Racecourse on the day before the Pimlico Stakes) and the Acorn Stakes (run at Belmont Park on the same day as the Belmont Stakes). There is a proposal to replace the last race with the Mother Goose Stakes, run at Belmont on a slightly later date, so as to give fillies a bit more time to recuperate between races. In 1979, Davona Dale won all four of these races, so no matter which combination you favor, she won the Triple Tiara that year.

This is not the only Filly Triple Crown; in fact, the one that has actually been given official recognition since 2010 involves three races that are all in New York: the Acorn Stakes at Belmont, and the Coaching Club American Oaks and the Alabama Stakes, both run at Saratoga.

Answer: New Providence

With Approval (1989) and Izvvestia (1990) were both ridden in all three races by Don Seymour (the first jockey to ride two Triple Crown winners in Canada); Pat Day rode Dance Smartly to a Triple Crown in 1991. In 1959, New Providence was ridden by Bobby Ussery in the Queen' Plate, but by Avelino Gomez in the Prince of Wales Stakes and the Breeders Stakes.

The Canadian Triple Crown, like the US Triple Crown but unlike many other international Triple Crowns, allows geldings to participate in all three races that count towards the title. The Queen's Plate is run over a distance of 1 1/4 miles on a Polytrack surface at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto; the Prince of Wales Stakes is run over 1 3/16 miles on a dirt track in Fort Erie; the Breeders' Stakes is a 1 1/2 mile race on turf, at Woodbine (but a different track from the one used for the first leg).

Answer: Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe

The first three winners of the Mexican Triple Crown were fillies: Plucky Flag in 1946, Re-Torta in 1949, and Cachava, the first Mexican-bred winner, in 1966. The 2015 winner, Huitlacoche, shares its name with a fungus that grows on corn, forming galls that are also sometimes called corn truffles, which are considered a delicacy in Mexican cuisine.

The Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, as its name suggests, is a French race run at Longchamp racecourse in Paris.

Answer: Nijinsky

The three races considered to be the English Triple Crown are the 2000 Guineas Stakes (run at Newmarket), the Epsom Derby (run at Epsom Downs) and the St. Leger Stakes (run at Town Moor in Doncaster). Their designation as a Triple Crown started in 1853 when West Australian accomplished the feat. Gladiateur and Flying Fox were also 19th Century winners.

The great Nijinsky (1967-1992), named after the Russian ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, was bred in Canada (sired by Northern Dancer) and trained in Ireland. In 1969 he was unbeaten in four Irish races before trying his luck in England. He was ridden to victory in the Dewhurst Stakes by the great jockey Lester Piggott, who also rode him to his Triple Crown victory in the following year. Following lack of success in his next two races after completing the title he was retired to stud in the United States, where he was known as Nijinsky II. He has sired a number of well-known racehorses, including Ferdinand, winner of the 1986 Kentucky Derby, and named United States Horse of the Year in 1987 after winning the Breeders' Cup Classic in that year.

Answer: Stayers Triple Crown

The most prestigious of these three events, the Gold Cup, is run over two miles and four furlongs (a bit over four kilometers) on the third day of the Royal Ascot meeting in June. It is only open to horses who are at least four years old. The other two are contested by horses aged three and over.

The Goodwood Cup is run at (surprisingly enough) Goodwood in late July or early August, and the Doncaster Cup at Doncaster in September. All three of these races are significantly longer than the races in the traditional Triple Crown, which are all around one mile in length.

Answer: Winston Griffiths, from Jamaica

This is possibly a geography question, for those who are not very familiar with international racing, as Jamaica is the only Caribbean country in the list. Winston 'Fanna' Griffiths rode five of the first seven Jamaican Triple Crown winners, in 1981 (Royal Dad), 1989 (The Viceroy), 1992 (Milligram), 2001 (I'm satisfied) and 2002 (Simply Magic). He has received wide recognition for his skills and achievements, which include riding the winner of the Jamaican Derby three times in a row on two occasions (1988-1990 and 2002-2003). Many of these horses were trained by Philip Feanny, one of Jamaica's 'winningest' trainers.

The others are also leading jockeys, although not primarily based in their native country. Victor Espinoza moved from his native Mexico to race in the United States, where he won the US Triple Crown on American Pharaoh in 1973, becoming the oldest jockey at that time, as well as the first Hispanic jockey, to do so.

Answer: New South Wales

Both Sydney and Melbourne are the homes of major Australian races, but it is Sydney where the Triple Crown events are held. The Randwick Guineas is 1600m, the Rosehill Guineas 2000m, and the Derby 2400m. The Canterbury Guineas (1900m) was formerly part of the Triple Crown, but was replaced so that the three races would increase steadily in length.

The most widely-known Triple Crown winner was Octagonal, who won it in 1996, and was named Australian Champion Three Year Old and Australian Horse of the Year for 1996.

He had previously been named Australian Champion Two Year Old, after winning the AJC Sires Produce Stakes and coming second in the other two races of the trio called the Two Year Old Triple Crown, the Golden Slipper and the AJC Champagne Stakes. Octagonal retired to stud in 1997 with nearly $6 million in winnings, from 14 first place finishes, 7 seconds, and 1 third place in his 28 starts.

Answer: Yes

Even without being a keen fan of international racing, you would be inclined to suspect that this accomplishment, while impressive and unusual, was not unique. The first two horses to do so in the United Kingdom, Ormonde (1886) and Bahram (1935), went on to retire undefeated, which is even more amazing.

Other horses to win their Triple Crowns without any previous losses include Camarero (Puerto Rico, 1954), Gradisco (Venezuela, 1960), Royla Dad (Japan, 1984) and Invasor (Uruguay, 2005).