Just Asking--Here’s Big ‘Cap Quiz : Try These 50 Questions (and Answers) on the Great Race

There’s nothing trivial about a $1-million race, but the Santa Anita Handicap, which will be run Sunday for the 50th time, is chockablock with lore and perfect for trivia.

So here, then, is the 50th anniversary Santa Anita Handicap trivia quiz--50 questions with answers to follow. Get 40 or more right and go directly to the Racing Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.; 30 to 39 right means you probably work for the Daily Racing Form; 15-29 correct gets you a seat on a bench at Santa Anita Sunday, providing you arrive before 10 a.m.; get fewer than 15 right and you watch the race from the arboretum across the street from the track.

1. The winning jockey in the 1948 Big ‘Cap said he couldn’t have won if his horse hadn’t taken off after being struck by another rider’s whip. Who won, and who were the riders involved?

2. Bedside Promise’s owners, not having nominated their horse, are paying a $25,000 supplementary fee to run Sunday. What horse is the only supplementary entry ever to win the race?

3. Name the two horses who won the race and were disqualified, and which horses wound up winning?

4. Darrel McHargue rode Vigors to victory in 1978, but what else did the jockey accomplish that day?

5. The Charlie Whittingham-Bill Shoemaker trainer-jockey combination will be trying for a fifth Big ‘Cap win Sunday with Ferdinand. Name the four Whittingham-Shoemaker winners.

6. Name the Big ‘Cap winner who later became a champion in England.

7. Royal Glint won in 1976. Name his sire, who also had won the Big ‘Cap.

8. Who was the horse who won the San Fernando Stakes for his 14th straight victory, then missed the Big ‘Cap because of a hoof injury?

9. What was the biggest crowd ever to watch the race?

10. What year did they bet the most money, and how much?

11. A filly or mare has never won. Who are the two distaffers that finished second?

12. Herat, at 157-1, almost won last year’s race, finishing second to Greinton. What was the biggest payoff for a winner?

13. What was the smallest win price?

14. Which was the only horse to win the Big ‘Cap twice?

15. What horse has run the most times without winning?

16. First trick question: Who won the race in 1942?

17. Skywalker, before he was injured, was going into Sunday’s race off a grass prep. What Big ‘Cap winner had run on grass for the first time just two weeks before the race?

18. Who was the first Kentucky Derby winner to also win the Big ‘Cap?

19. What other Kentucky Derby winners have won the Big ‘Cap?

20. Seven winners have carried 130 pounds. Name four.

21. Who was the fastest winner?

22. How about the slowest?

23. Name 5 of the 10 foreign-breds that have won.

24. What horse finished second twice, then won in the final race of his career?

25. Who carried the most weight in the race?

26. Charlie Whittingham is starting three horses--Ferdinand, Epidaurus and Bruiser--Sunday. What trainer once saddled four starters?

27. Name the first and last of Bill Shoemaker’s record 11 winners.

28. What horses were involved in the only dead heat for second place?

29. Who was the oldest winner?

30. And the youngest?

31. Who was the Big ‘Cap winner who carried only 100 pounds?

32. Don Pierce won four Big ‘Caps, but he likes to talk about one in particular. Why?

33. Second trick question: How many horses running this year also competed in last year’s race?

34. In 1946, with a record 23 horses running, several starters were lumped into the pari-mutuel field. Who was the field horse that won?

35. One of the owners of a starter Sunday had a brother who won the Big ‘Cap. Name the winning brother and his horse.

36. What was the biggest margin for a Big’ Cap winner?

37. Name three of the six Big ‘Cap winners who won by a nose.

38. Ferdinand (Kentucky Derby) and Snow Chief (Preakness) give the Big ‘Cap field two Triple Crown race winners for the first time since 1950. Who were the two that ran that year?

39. Charlie Whittingham has saddled seven winners, more than any other trainer. Three times his horses ran 1-2. Who were those horses?

40. What was the smallest field?

41. Eleven horses have won the Triple Crown. Which is the only one to win the Big ‘Cap?

42. Which of Sunday’s starters has earned more money than the entire field of 20 horses that raced in the first ‘Big Cap?

43. Who got seven mares in foal the year before he won the Big ‘Cap?

44. Who got bumped at the start, fell 18 lengths behind and still won?

45. Lord at War and Gate Dancer were co-high weights at 125 pounds when Lord at War won in 1985. How many times has the high weight won?

46. What year was the winner’s circle presentation made the day after the race, on a day when Santa Anita wasn’t racing?

47. What trainer won the race after his father had won as a jockey?

48. Who was the Calumet Farm horse who tried to win the Big ‘Cap after he had won the Widener Handicap at Hialeah just the week before?

49. What owner won the race three times?

50. Who’s going to win the 50th Big ‘Cap?

ANSWERS 1. Eddie Arcaro won the race aboard Talon, who was struck in the face with Johnny Gilbert’s whip at the quarter pole.

2. Prince Dantan in 1974.

3. Intent, giving way to Miche in 1952, and Perrault, giving way to John Henry in 1982.

4. Vigors was McHargue’s sixth winner of the day.

5. Pretense in 1967, Ack Ack in 1971, Stardust Mel in 1975 and Lord at War in 1985.

6. Hill Rise, the winner in 1965.

7. Round Table in 1958.

8. Buckpasser in 1967.

9. 85,527 in 1985.

10. $12.6 million in 1985.

11. Next Move, behind Moonrush in 1951, and Gamely, behind Nodouble in 1969.

12. Bay View paid $118.40 in 1941.

13. Round Table paid $2.30 in 1958.

14. John Henry in 1981-82.

15. Autocrat started five times in the 1940s, never finishing better than seventh.

16. No one, since Santa Anita was closed because of World War II and the Big ‘Cap wasn’t run again until ’45. Whirlaway, the 1941 Triple Crown champion, was at Santa Anita, preparing for the ’42 Big ‘Cap, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

17. Crystal Water in 1977.

18. Lucky Debonair won the Big ‘Cap in 1966.

19. Affirmed won the Big ‘Cap in 1979 and Spectacular Bid won in 1980.

20. The seven are Seabiscuit in 1940, Thumbs Up in ‘45, Mark-Ye-Well in ‘53, Round Table in ‘58, Ack Ack in ‘71, Spectacular Bid in ’80 and John Henry in ’82.

21. Affirmed, whose time for the 1 miles was 1:58 3/5 in 1979.

22. Stardust Mel was clocked in 2:06 2/5 in 1975, but that was in the mud. The slowest winning time for a fast track was Talon’s 2:03 2/5 in 1948.

23. The 10 are Azucar (Ireland, 1935), Kayak II (Argentina, 1939), Olhaverry (Chile, 1947), Talon (Argentina, 1948), Noor (Ireland, 1950), Miche (Argentina, 1952), Poona II (Ireland, 1955), Cougar II (Chile, 1973), Lord at War (Argentina, 1985) and Greinton (England, 1986).

24. Seabiscuit, after being runner-up in 1937-38, won in 1940.

25. Citation, who carried 132 pounds while finishing second to Noor, with 110 pounds, in 1950. Johnny Longden, who was riding at 113 or 114 pounds at the time, sweated off the extra pounds to make the 110 on Noor.

26. Whittingham, who sent out four in 1976, could do not better than seventh with Top Command.

27. Rejected in 1954 and Lord at War in 1985.

28. Crimson Satan and Game in 1963.

29. The 8-year-old Olhaverry in 1947.

30. The 3-year-old Stagehand in 1938. Since 1969, the race has been for 4-year-olds and up.

31. Stagehand in 1938.

32. In 1962, Pierce rode Physician, who probably would have been 100-1 if he hadn’t run as an entry with Olden Times and Prove It. It was common then for jockeys to “save”--split their earnings with other riders in an entry--but Bill Shoemaker, aboard Prove It, and Alex Maese, on Olden Times, excluded Pierce because they thought Physician had no chance. As Physician, making his winning move, passed Prove It on the far turn, Shoemaker yelled to Pierce going by: “You’re in!” Pierce looked over his shoulder and yelled back: “(Bleep) you,” taking Physician to a two-length victory over Olden Times, with Prove It finishing off the board.

33. None.

34. War Knight.

35. Harry Meyerhoff won the 1980 running with Spectacular Bid. Robert Meyerhoff owns Broad Brush, who’s running Sunday.

36. Bobby Brocato beat Turk’s Delight by six lengths in 1956.

37. The six with prominent noses were Rosemont in 1937, War Knight in 1946, Talon in 1948, Cougar II in 1973, Stardust Mel in 1975 and Royal Glint in 1976.

38. Citation, who had swept the Triple Crown in 1948, and Ponder, the Kentucky Derby winner of 1949. Citation finished second and Ponder ran fourth in the Big ‘Cap.

39. Ack Ack and Cougar II in 1971, Cougar II and Kennedy Road in ’73 and Lord at War and Greinton in ’85.

40. Spectacular Bid beat four opponents in 1980.

41. Affirmed won in 1979, the year after his Triple Crown.

42. Snow Chief has earned $3.1 million. In 1935, the field went into the race with total earnings of $1.7 million.

43. Seabiscuit, who had returned from stud for the 1940 race.

44. Vigors in 1978.

45. 15.

46. The stewards took so long to disqualify Intent and move up Miche after interference in the 1952 running that the winning horse and his handlers, who had scattered, were honored at the track the next day.

47. Vance Longden saddled Triple Bend to win in 1972. His father, Johnny, rode four Big ‘Cap winners.

48. Armed, who was off the board in 1947.

49. Charles S. Howard--with Kayak II in 1939, Seabiscuit in 1940 and Noor in 1950.

50. This is the last of the trick questions.