Thanks to everyone who entered the Virginia Derby Trivia Sweepstakes. We appreciate your participation and hope that you enjoyed the contest. Although we had a number of people who answered the three trivia questions correctly, the Virginia Derby winner with the most career victories stumped more than 50% of our participants. As a result, there were only two entries which correctly answered the three trivia questions and picked War Dancer as this year’s winner — including one who selected War Dancer before entries were drawn on Wednesday, July 10!
In order to award all of the prizes, all entries answering three of the four questions correctly will be entered in a drawing for the third $100 prize. We will select and notify the third winner on or about Tuesday, July 16. The Racing Biz will post the winners’ names on our website after everyone has claimed their prizes.
And now, without further ado, the answers to our Virginia Derby Trivia questions:
1. Which Virginia Derby winner holds the stakes records for both the fastest winning time and the longest winning odds?
Answer: Red Giant, who won in 2007 and paid $76 for a $2 win bet. Red Giant also holds the Derby record for the fastest winning time at 1:59.62 minutes.
2. Which Virginia Derby winner collected the highest career earnings on the track?
Answer: Gio Ponti, whose career earnings on the track totaled $6,169,800. Several entries selected English Channel, whose track career earnings totaled $5,319,028.
3. Which Virginia Derby winner recorded the most career victories?
Answer: Silver Tree, who had 14 career victories. English Channel, a very popular choice, had one fewer at 13 wins, and Gio Ponti had 12 wins.
As for the 2013 Virginia Derby itself, of course War Dancer took the money in a thrilling, three-way finish with Charming Kitten and Jack Milton. Rydilluc, the morning-line and post-time favorite, also was the favorite of our contest participants, who as a group would have made him 9-5 — exactly his morning line odds.
