THE second staging of the Mark O’Hanlon Memorial Racing and Breeding Quiz brought a fine turnout at the Lord Bagenal Hotel in Leighinbridge, Co Carlow, on Monday night.
Joe Foley of Ballyhane Stud put together a fiendish set of questions which were expertly called out by question master Jonathan Mullin. Representatives of the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association and Irish Thoroughbred Marketing collected the answer sheets and totted up the scores.
The event was jointly sponsored by The Irish Field and Racing Post, with all proceeds going to the Stella McGrath Fund.
Last year’s winners from Horse Racing Ireland raced into an early lead but met their match in the team put together by Bobby O’Ryan which included the bloodstock agent’s son Aidan (‘Mouse’), racing journalist Ryan McElligott and film censor Ger Connolly.
The winners scored an incredible 95 out of 100. How many can you answer correctly?
The answers are on page A15 and the questions answered incorrectly by the winners are highlighted with an asterisk.
ROUND ONE
1. Randox Health are sponsoring which chase in 2017 for the first time?
2. What colour cap did the winning jockey wear when winning the 2017 Irish Gold
Cup?
3. Which horse did Donald Trump mention in his election victory speech?
4. The Group 1 Prix du Moulin at Longchamp is named after which landmark beside the track?
5. Name the jockey who has won the Moyglare Stud Stakes on Again, Misty For Me and Minding.
6. Name the only jockey to ride a Kentucky, English, French and Irish Derby winner.
7. Name Sea The Stars’ three classic winners?
8. Which mare, who won her first eight races, was named after a Muhammed Ali phrase?
9. Six jockeys have ridden 3,000 or more flat winners in Britain. One of them was born in Ireland. Name him.
10. By Street Cry out of Vegas Showgirl. Who am I?
ROUND TWO
1. What word connects a rock band and the owner of Cheltenham bound Forth Bridge?
2. To which Channel 4 presenter did A.P. McCoy announce his impending retirement?
*3. Name the two uncle and nephew combinations who finished in the top 50 of the British flat trainers’ list last year?
4. Name the Champion Hurdle winner who won his two biggest races ridden by the fathers of two subsequent world class champion flat jockeys?
*5. In France, what is the maximum permitted number of strikes with the whip that jockeys are allowed?
6. Name the first season sire whose first three runners all won in 2016?
7. Name the Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner who won a listed race in Cork last season?
8. Which trainer rode his own horse to victory at the Galway Festival last July?
9. The Pegasus World Cup took place at which racetrack?
10. Name the Royal Ascot winning jockey who also rode the winner of the Fox Hunters at Aintree?
ROUND 3
1. Which trainer holds the record for training the most amount of winners in Europe?
A. Jean Claude Rouget
B. Dermot Weld
C. Willie Mullins
D. Andre Fabre
2. Which racetrack is situated on Graun Hill?
A. Tramore
B. Bellewstown
C. Sligo
3. Who was the leading National Hunt stallion for the 2015/’16 season?
A. Presenting
B. Kayf Tara
C. King’s Theatre
D. Flemensfirth
4. Who rode Altior in the Champion Bumper at Punchestown in 2015?
A. Katie Walsh
B. Jane Mangan
C. Kate Harrington
D. Nina Carberry
5. Who said “One of the benefits of horse racing is that it makes your bum nice and peachy”?
A. Hayley Turner
B. David Mullins
C. James Nash
D. Victoria Pendleton
6. Jockey Kieron Fox was unseated at Sandown last September after his horse was distracted by what?
A. Streaker
B. Bouncy castle
C. Golf ball
D. Winning post
7. The Norwegian horse, Quarterback, raced at what big meeting last year?
A. Royal Ascot
B. Cheltenham
C. Galway
D. Irish Champions Weekend
8. Which horse is Aidan O’Brien’s highest earner?
A. Giant’s Causeway
B. St Nicholas Abbey
C. Highland Reel
D. Found
9. The prize money for which meeting is a record £/€4,305,000 this year?
A. Punchestown
B. Cheltenham
C. Goodwood
D. Royal Ascot
10: Who is the leading jockey at the Breeders’ Cup, both in terms of prize money and winners?
A. Pat Day
B. Mike Smith
C. Jerry Bailey
D. Frankie Dettori
ROUND 4
1. Name the horse who was pulled up on his only run at two; last of 14 on his first start at three; a maiden winner on his seventh start at Dundalk, and a winner to-date of 15 races including Group 1 events when ridden by Johnny Murtagh, William Buick and Craig Williams.
2. Bagenalstown born Niall McCullagh won the Irish St Leger on Royal Diamond for which trainer, formerly a champion jockey himself?
3. Nicky Henderson trained the first ITV televised winner last month but who rode it?
4. Who was the 2016 British champion apprentice?
5. Who trained the first winner of the Irish flat turf season in 2016?
6. Name the most recent Irish-trained winner of the Irish Champion Stakes?
7. Which two Irish-based trainers won races at the Barbury Castle International Point-to-Point last month?
8. Which jockey rode his first winner on his first ride, aged 15, on the Larry Greene-trained Muscari at Leopardstown?
9. Top chaser Gilgamboa was named after the bodyguard of which rock star?
10. Robert Sangster and Vincent O’Brien named what 2000 Guineas winner after the nickname of Northern Dancer’s trainer Horatio Luro?
ROUND 5
1. Three riders rode Hurricane Fly over hurdles; Ruby Walsh, Paul Townend and who else?
2. Don Poli was born in which country?
3. Who am I? Son of a champion, brother to a champion, I was dual champion myself and trained a Cheltenham winner.
4. Name the Group 1 winning jockey who took part in the 1994 Castletown Donkey Derby?
5. Name the multiple Group 1 winning American trained filly who finished fourth in 2015 and 2016 at Royal Ascot?
6. What did pinhookers trade before the term was transferred to the bloodstock market?
7. Dandy Flame equalled the British record as the longest priced winner of a flat race at Wolverhampton last July. What price was he?
8. Which jockey rode eight winners from a 12-race card in Tokyo last November?
9. Name the winners of the Triple Crown races in America last year.
10. Trainer Michael Bell supports which football team?
ROUND 6 –
Picture round
See www.theirishfield.ie to complete the picture round
ROUND 7
1. Who won a Grade 1 race by a record breaking 41 lengths last year?
2. Name the four Irish trainers who trained Royal Ascot winners last June?
3. Trained by Matthew Smith in Ireland, name the horse who unseated his rider in the Galway Hurdle on his last Irish start before moving to the USA and winning an Eclipse Award as Chaser of the Year.
4. What is Frankel’s stud fee?
5. Who am I? Born the son of a trainer, I rode my first winner at 16 and was a champion apprentice. I switched to training at 23, I’ve trained seven Royal Ascot winners and two Breeders’ Cup winners?
6. Name the only jockey to ride a British classic winner on a horse he bred?
7. Aidan Shiels, Niall Reilly and Donal Gavigan own which high earning performer?
8. Konig Dax is the only horse to have beaten which high class horse?
9. Name Andrea Atzeni’s four consecutive Racing Post Trophy winners?
10. Retired in 2016, what horse won a European record 17 pattern races on the flat?
ROUND 8
1. How many two-year-old races are run at Royal Ascot?
2. Last year’s Aintree Grand National winner was named after the 1980s hit single Everybody Wants To Rule The World. Who sang that song?
3. Top chaser Josses Hill was trained by whom on his first start before being sold to join Nicky Henderson?
4. Which brilliant race filly was ridden by the following jockeys during her career - Ahern, Spencer, Dettori, Fallon, Bailey, Peslier, Soumillon and Murtagh?
5. Name the champion jumps jockey in France in 2016?
6. Name the two Irish runners at last year’s Dubai World Cup night?
7. Name the four trainers who have trained winners at both the Cheltenham Festival and Breeders’ Cup?
8. Which golf major winner shares his name with an Irish jockey who rides for Karl Burke and Brian Ellison?
9. Which trainer won the Royal Bond with That’s My Man to post his first Grade 1 winner?
10. Golden Horn was beaten by how many colts during his racing career?
ROUND 9
1. Name the only person to have both ridden and trained more than 100 jump winners in a season?
2. Which Irish owner had a 1-2 in St Moritz last February?
*3. Name the most recent horse to win the Epsom Derby who was unraced as a two-year-old.
4. Which chaser was Ruby Walsh’s 50th Cheltenham Festival winner last year?
5. Which trainer equalled Henry Cecil’s 75 Royal Ascot winners last June?
6. The eighth fence in the Grand National is called what?
7. What’s the relationship between the 2016 Melbourne Cup winning jockey and the 2015 one?
8. Which trainer (with Bagenalstown connections) trained the first winner on the all-weather track at Newcastle?
9. Name the last French-trained winner of the Newmarket 2000 Guineas?
*10. What does the R.A. stand for in H.R.A. Cecil?
ROUND 10
1. What current flat jockey was born in Swaziland, apprenticed in Ireland and is now based in the UK?
2. All the Aga Khan’s Irish Derby winners have also won the Epsom Derby, bar one. Name him.
3. The father and son combination of Harry and Henry de Bromhead recently completed the family double in the Thyestes Chase with which two horses?
4. Even Song, Aidan O’Brien’s 50th Royal Ascot winner, is a half-sister to which 2015 classic winner?
*5. Predilection became which jockey’s 3,000th British winner last August?
6. Gigginstown House Stud owned the 2016 Ryanair Chase runner-up. Who rode him?
7. The 2016 Caufield Cup winner is named after which top tennis player’s middle name?
8. In 2010, which filly was awarded both the English and French 1000 Guineas having finished second in both races?
9. Recent hat-trick scorer Born To Finish is part-owned by which retired footballer who scored many hat-tricks himself?
10. In 2004 a future Champion Hurdle winner beat a future Gold Cup winner in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. Name both.
ANSWERS – Page a15