Fun Facts About Horse Racing for Your Next Trivia Night

Pop Culture
Gulfstream Park hosts a $12 million race in January. (Eclipse Sportswire)

Horse racing can be a complicated sport, and most people don’t know much about it beyond the Triple Crown. Luckily for you, there is a surplus of information and fun facts surrounding one of America’s oldest pastimes. Check out the list below if you’re looking for an edge on your next trivia night at the pub.

Aristides was the first Kentucky Derby winner. He won the race in 1875, when it was contested at 1 ½ miles rather than 1 ¼, and competed against 14 foes for a purse of $1,000-added.

The Eclipse Awards are racing’s equivalent of year-end honors like “MVP” or the Heisman Award. The top honor is Horse of the Year, which is given to the most impressive racehorse of the year, and there are divisions for different ages, genders and racing specialties, like surface and distance. They’re awarded each January for the preceding year.

Racing’s Hall of Fame is in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. An induction ceremony is held each summer honoring a variety of horses, trainers, jockeys and historical figures.

The oldest trainer to win the Kentucky Derby is Art Sherman. He won with California Chrome in 2014 at the age of 77.

California Chrome and Victor Espinoza. (Eclipse Sportswire)
The richest American racehorse of all time is California Chrome. His career earnings currently total $14,502,650, topping the all-time list for the U.S. and North America.

Twelve horses have won racing’s Triple Crown. American Pharoah is the most recent horse to sweep the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes, and when he did in 2015 it ended a 37-year drought since the last winner in 1978.

A Thoroughbred racehorse weighs around 1,000 pounds. They are medium-sized horses, with other breeds weighing in at 700 to more than 2,000 pounds. Thoroughbreds carry weight of around 110-130 pounds for races, including the weight of the jockey.

The Pegasus World Cup’s $12 million purse is higher than any other Thoroughbred race in the world. It will be held for the first time this year, on Jan. 28 at Gulfstream Park.

The universal racehorse birthday is Jan. 1. Regardless of the date they were born, all Northern Hemisphere Thoroughbreds are considered 1 year old on Jan. 1 of the year after their birth. They age another year each Jan. 1 thereafter. This is so horses can easily be grouped by age for competition purposes, as many races are restricted to certain age groups.

The Breeders’ Cup World Championships are the horse racing equivalent of the Super Bowl. It’s at the end of the racing season and faces the best of the best squaring off in 13 races for total purses of $28 million.

Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew was bought as a yearling for just $17,500. He won $1,208,726 in a career that included the 1977 Triple Crown sweep.

The best Thoroughbred races are categorized as Grade 1 stakes races. Stakes races in general have the best horses, and they can be categorized as “listed,” Grade 3, Grade 2 or Grade 1 in ascending order.

The Triple Crown races are only open to 3-year-old racehorses. Many horses begin racing at age 2 and some continue to age 5, 6, or older, but they only have one chance to run in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont.

Arcangues won the 1993 Breeders’ Cup Classic at odds of 133-1. He’s the only horse at 100-1 or greater to finish in the top three in a Breeders’ Cup race. A winning ticket paid $269.20 for a $2 bet.

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