History Challenge answers

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1. The filly Flamma, under future Hall of Fame rider John Loftus, acted up before the start of the 38th Kentucky Derby in 1912 and was away poorly. After trailing for the first half of the race, she closed willingly but was no match for the winner, Worth, who went wire to wire, and the runner-up, Duval. Flamma finished third in the seven-horse field.

In the Kentucky Oaks, run 17 days after the Derby, Flamma beat Floral Day and Beautiful to the wire in the slop to collect the $1,910 winner's share of the purse and became the first Derby starter to win the Oaks.

Over the next 18 years, four more Derby starters were Oaks winners: Bronzewing (third in the 1914 Derby), Viva America (third in the 1918 Derby), Startle (eighth in the 1922 Derby), and the outstanding broodmare Alcibiades, who ran 10th behind Gallant Fox in the 1930 Derby. (Alcibiades's name lives on today in a Grade 1 stakes at Keeneland.)

The last filly to contest both the Oaks and Derby was Oscillation in 1932. She was out of the money in both events.

2. Bred by the legendary John E. Madden, Princess Doreen made 94 starts in a career that spanned from 1923 to 1927. Her first significant stakes win came on a disqualification in the 1924 Kentucky Oaks, run on the last day of the 19-day meeting.

Princess Doreen won 34 races during her career and was generally acclaimed by trade publications as champion female at ages 3, 4, and 5. She regularly competed against the best males of her era, including Crusader, Sarazen, and Zev - all today members of the Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Racing in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Princess Doreen was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1982.

3. In the 1940s, five winners of the Pimlico Oaks went on to be champions: Vagrancy, Twilight Tear, Gallorette, But Why Not, and Wistful.

Despite winning only three stakes races in 1949 - all of them in May - Wistful managed to tie with Two Lea in the year-end voting for champion 3-year-old filly. Wistful's first win of the year was the Kentucky Oaks on May 6, making her the first winner of that race to be named a champion since the advent of formal polling.

Wistful came back a week later to capture the Pimlico Oaks and 15 days later to take down the Coaching Club American Oaks at Belmont Park.

4. Princess Turia ran so strongly in the Oaks Prep on opening day of the 1956 Churchill Downs spring meeting that she was favored in the Oaks over juvenile filly champion Doubledogdare, who would go on to be voted champion filly again that season.

In a heart-pounding finish, Princess Turia, a daughter of Blue Delight, prevailed in the Oaks by a scant nose.

Blue Delight produced 10 foals, half of whom were stakes winners. Included in this group were 1949 Kentucky Oaks winner Real Delight and 1950 Oaks winner Bubbley.

Real Delight won 9 of 10 starts at age 3 and was voted not only champion 3-year-old filly, but champion handicap female as well.

5. Bred and owned by the Meadow Stable (later of Secretariat fame), Cicada, champion 2-year-old filly of 1961, ran the race of her life in the 1962 Florida Derby. She fought the brilliant colt Ridan the length of the stretch at Gulfstream Park and lost by only a nose.

Cicada and her stablemate Sir Gaylord were the morning-line favorite 1-1A entry in the Derby. When the colt Sir Gaylord was injured and scratched early on Oaks Day, many thought Cicada would then opt for the Derby. Meadow Stable's owner, Christopher Chenery, and trainer Casey Hayes chose to keep Cicada in the Oaks, which she easily won.

Cicada went on to be champion female again at ages 3 and 4 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1967.