Outside the Fox Puzzles: Triple Crown Fox Derby #6 (RESULTS!)

The 6th quarterly Triple Crown Fox Derby from two weeks ago has concluded. Click here for a PDF of all the puzzle solutions. The contest results follow.

10 foxes qualified for the first race, the Kittucky Derby, by solving all three puzzles. Race results:

Gate 2: Ruin Seeker
Gate 4: Cowlitz, Faux-Chi, Kit Katsune
Gate 5: Bob, Neighsayer
Gate 8: Multiparticle Fox Pace, Vixen For A Fight
Gate 23: Kosh Naranek Jr.
Gate 47: Ferris Homer Swiper Carlson

Farrah Foxcett submitted an incorrect solution to the Shakashaka and thus did not qualify. Farrah Foxcett would have used gate 4, which would not have affected the outcome. Buster only solved the Shakashaka, and Ox only solved the Touchword. Gate 1 sat empty, waiting for some brave fox to enter at the last minute, but nobody took it. Gate 4 was the most crowded, with 3 foxes. Besides the winner Ruin Seeker, only 2 other foxes managed to finish.

11 foxes qualified for the second race, the Sneakness Stakes, by solving two puzzles. Race results:

Gate 2: Farrah Foxcett
Gate 3: Cowlitz, Ruin Seeker
Gate 4: Kit Katsune
Gate 5: Neighsayer
Gate 6: Bob, Faux-Chi
Gate 8: Vixen For A Fight
Gate 13: Multiparticle Fox Pace
Gate 32: Kosh Naranek Jr.
Gate 47: Ferris Homer Swiper Carlson

Due to Ruin Seeker's disqualification from this race as the winner of the previous one, only one gate, gate 6, managed to attract multiple foxes. Gate 1 was once again completely empty. Besides the winner Farrah Foxcett, only 7 other foxes managed to finish.

 

13 foxes qualified for the third race, the Tailmont Stakes, by solving one puzzle. Race results:

Gate 1: Vixen For A Fight
Gate 2: Cowlitz, Faux-Chi, Multiparticle Fox Pace
Gate 4: Kit Katsune
Gate 5: Neighsayer, Ox, Ruin Seeker
Gate 7: Farrah Foxcett
Gate 9: Bob
Gate 17: Buster
Gate 47: Ferris Homer Swiper Carlson, Kosh Naranek Jr.
Vixen For A Fight seized the gate 1 opening and made it pay off! Meanwhile, Kosh Naranek Jr. decided that Ferris Homer Swiper Carlson needed some company in gate 47. You know what they say: it's a bold strategy, Cotton. Gate 2 was the most crowded, with 3 foxes. Besides the winner Vixen For A Fight, 3 other foxes finished.

The three winners, Hollie Schmidt, Ken Crowell, and Spheniscine Kynosoura, will soon be contacted about redeeming their prizes. Additionally, a $34 money pool will be split between the Food Bank of West Central Texas, the Food Bank for Larimer County, and the Palm Beach County Food Bank ($11.34 each), and this donation will be matched by three anonymous benefactors. Thanks to you all for participating! The 7th quarterly Triple Crown Fox Derby will be held on July 6, 2025.

Wordy Wednesday 696: Touchword 35

WORDY WEDNESDAY #694
ANACROSSWORD 49 (answer)

Here is the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:
Cathy Bowen **
Derek Allen **
James Haddad **
Joe Bernard **
Michael Lebowitz **
Pavel Curtis **
Randy Rogers *
Russ Kale **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Steve Levy **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #695
PENT WORDS 139 (hint)

As of this writing, 12 people have solved this puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #696
TOUCHWORD 35
(click here for a PDF version)

Every row has one or more answers clued in order. Every letter shares an edge with at least one identical letter either immediately above or immediately below. The top and bottom rows are considered adjacent. (If you want more of these puzzles, the author offers the Touchword subscription service Outside the Fox Puzzles.) Arrange the letters in the shaded squares to form the final answer, a Scrabble-legal (unhyphenated, uncapitalized, etc.) 8-letter word. 

1 Attract with bait: 2 wds. / Projection in a church / Exercise in which you step forward while bending your front knee
2 Exact copy / Outer part of a banana / Craving
3 Place for bus passengers / Where to get an espresso / Unfocused, as vision
4 Enthusiast / Groundhog Day’s month
5 A large group / Della of "Touched by an Angel" / Mammogram target
6 2010 Justin Bieber hit / Washes with water / Theft
7 1986 film starring David Bowie as Jareth the Goblin King / What a stereotypical Australian might put on the barbie
8 Film based on Ward Greene’s short story “Happy Dan, the Cynical Dog”: 4 wds.
9 Animal that Mei Lee turns into in a Pixar film: 2 wds. / Take back, as a newspaper article
10 Answer / Remnant of history
11 Irritate / Washington bills / More rigid
12 Insipid / Young calfless cow
13 Eggy, nutty cake / Repeated series of programming instructions / Zenith
14 Starboard’s opposite / Dog who imagines himself as a flying ace / Correct
15 Writer of limericks / Hasty and rash, as a judgment / Vaccination implement

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* Which album by The Alan Parsons Project is named after a Catalan architect?

Submit your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. Until next time, happy solving!

Wordy Wednesday 695: Pent Words 139

WORDY WEDNESDAY #693
FRAMELINKS 29 (answer)

Here is the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:
Cathy Bowen **
Cindy Heisler **
Derek Allen **
James Haddad **
Michael Lebowitz **
Pavel Curtis **
Randy Rogers *
Russ Kale **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Steve Levy **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #694
ANACROSSWORD 49 (hint)

As of this writing, 10 people have solved this puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #695
PENT WORDS 139
(click here for a PDF version)

In this puzzle, you must divide the grid into pentominoes (regions containing five cells each), and write a letter in each cell. The rows, reading from left to right, will contain the words hinted at by the Across clues. The letters in the pentominoes, in reading order (left to right starting with the top row), will form the words hinted at by the Pentominoes clues; these clues are presented in no particular order. (In the example, the rows spell PLANT, SHARE, and BITES, and the pentominoes spell the words PLANS, TREES, and HABIT.) Use the ACROSS answers to determine where the pentominoes are.

ACROSS (two answers per row):
1 A bird’s roost / Earthy shade of brown
2 Wagon without sides / Trickster spider in African folklore
3 Prolonged state of unconsciousness / Season that begins in March in the Northern Hemisphere
4 “Cowardly” character in The Wizard of Oz / “Every ____ You Take” (hit song for The Police)
5 “Alas and ____” / Distinctive quality
6 A dog’s owner / ____-centered
7 Lowest male choir voice / State once represented by Tulsi Gabbard
8 Actor Ruffalo / Not rude
9 Story of a person’s life, briefly / Mustard’s rank in the board game Clue
10 Set, as cement / Monitor ____ (reptile)
PENTOMINOES:
• HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
• THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
• ____ Jackson and the Olympians
• Solitary person
• “All the news that’s fit to ____”
• Happen
• Titular roe deer in a Felix Salten novel
• Shrub with purplish flowers
• Doolittle who’s the heroine of My Fair Lady
• Hiatus
• Malfoy of the Harry Potter books
• Jurassic ____ (actual, real 2012 horror film about a prehistoric ocean predator)
• Look forward to
• Coffee grinder input
• Not loquacious
• Another name for infantile paralysis
• Collect
• Stone worker
• Hiking path
• Certain primate

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What animal does Mei Lee turn into in a Pixar film?

Submit your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. Until next time, happy solving!

Outside the Fox Puzzles: Triple Crown Fox Derby #6

 (Click here for a PDF of all of the puzzles and the contest rules.)

 

Outside the Fox Puzzles is proud to sponsor the 6th Triple Crown Fox Derby! Up to three winners of this contest will receive their choice of one of these prizes, for themselves or for anyone else of their choice:
• A 1-year subscription to Outside the Fox Puzzles, which comes with 150 puzzles just like the ones in this contest!
• A $10 gift card for Grandmaster Puzzles, with which one can buy ebooks of beautiful logic puzzles written by talented authors from around the world!
• A 2-month Premium membership on Board Game Arena, with which one can play board games in real-time and turn-based modes against opponents from around the world!

My plan is to run these contests on the first Monday of every January, April, July, and October, at 12:01 AM Central Time. The entry deadline will be 13 days later (on a Sunday) at 11:59 PM Central Time; in this case, the deadline is Sunday, April 19, 2026, at 11:59 PM Central Time.

This contest combines a Touchword puzzle, a gridded logic puzzle, and a variety word puzzle with a fox race. Yes, in the real world, people bet on horse races and greyhound races, but in the fantastic world of Outside the Fox Puzzles, it is foxes who race. To participate in the contest, send an e-mail to glmathgrant@[at]gmail[dot]com. Your entry should include:
• Your answers to the three puzzles, as explained in their respective instructions. (Any format, including scans or photos of printed pages, screenshots, or plain text, will work, so long as I can read and judge it.)
• The name of the fox you'll be entering in the race (this is just for fun and has no effect on the outcome).
• The number of the gate your fox will start from (any integer between 1 and 50 inclusive) in each of the three races (the Kittucky Derby, the Sneakness Stakes, and the Tailmont Stakes). You can use the same gate any number of times.

The first race is the Kittucky Derby; to qualify, you must have submitted correct solutions to all three puzzles. The second race, the Sneakness Stakes, requires only two correct solutions, and the Tailmont Stakes requires only one. Winning an earlier race disqualifies you from a later race; otherwise, you can qualify for, and participate in, one, two, or all three races. The winner of each race is the fox that started from the lowest-numbered gate that nobody else selected! Unfortunately, when two or more foxes are crammed into the same gate, they have a tendency to fight each other and to not notice when the race has started. If no foxes qualify for a race, or if all qualifying foxes end up in fights, then there will be no winner.

The Triple Crown Fox Derby now also supports the three food banks featured previously in Kevin’s Puzzles at Home. For every valid puzzle solution received during the contest, I will add $1 to a money pool which will be split between the Food Bank of West Central Texas, the Food Bank for Larimer County, and the Palm Beach County Food Bank. The money pool is capped at $150 ($50 per food bank), and will be matched by three anonymous benefactors.

These statistics on the previous Triple Crown Fox Derbies may give you an estimate of how many entrants the current Derby will have and help you plan your strategy. Enjoy the puzzles, and yappy racing!

Derby #1: 22 triple solves, 24 double solves, 24 single solves
Derby #2: 21 triple solves, 23 double solves, 23 single solves
Derby #3: 22 triple solves, 23 double solves, 23 single solves
Derby #4: 13 triple solves, 15 double solves, 15 single solves
Derby #5: 19 triple solves, 21 double solves, 21 single solves  

TOUCHWORD

PUZ version

Every row has one or more answers clued in order. Every letter shares an edge with at least one identical letter either immediately above or immediately below. The top and bottom rows are considered adjacent. To qualify for the Triple Crown Fox Derby, submit the completed grid.

1 Myanmar’s official language / Item on a Christmas tree, perhaps
2 They play in Truist Park / Consumed
3 Gulliver’s ____ / “Forever and Ever, ____” (Randy Travis song)
4 Item on a Christmas tree, perhaps / Schuster’s publishing partner
5 Storage containers, as for recyclable material / ____ lizard
6 2013 card game in which players are big video game baddies trying to defeat heroes: 2 wds.
7 The front part of the chest / Sea creature consumed in “The Walrus and the Carpenter”
8 Just middling: hyph. / First name of the President whose last name is the author’s first name
9 Immoral / Stands the test of time
10 Stuff to wrap around leftovers, perhaps / Book of the New Testament after John
11 State of unrest / Mark left from a skin injury

SHAKASHAKA
Illustrated rules on puzz.link | Solve on puzz.link
Rules summary: Shade some right triangles in the grid, each occupying exactly half of an empty cell. Each remaining white region must be shaped like a square or a rectangle. A number in a cell indicates how many shaded triangles occupy cells which share an edge with that cell. To qualify for the Triple Crown Fox Derby, submit the completed grid.

LOGICROSSWORD
Blacken some cells in the grid and fill the rest with letters to form words. Hereafter, a “word” refers to any string of two or more consecutive letters reading from left to right or top to bottom, bounded on both sides by black cells or the edge of the grid. All words are Scrabble-legal and appear in the NASPA Word List 2023 Edition (NWL2023); except for some 2-letter words (listed at the bottom of the page) and some obscure words which are mentioned explicitly in the clues, all of the words in the solution should be familiar. Use the clues, logic, and your vocabulary to find the solution. To qualify for the Triple Crown Fox Derby, submit the completed grid.

• No two black cells share an edge. All the white cells are connected through their edges. No word is repeated in the grid.
• Row 1 contains the word HUMBUGGED, which intersects BOHO and UTA.
• Row 2 contains a 2-letter word that contains the letter U.
• Row 5 contains the word EPHAH (which intersects PAGE) and a 2-letter word.
• Row 6 contains exactly one black cell.
• Row 9, column C, and column F each contain 6-letter words whose last letters are all the same.
• Column A contains the word ODAH.
• Column E contains the word YON (which intersects ODD), exactly one instance of the letter F, and exactly three black cells.
• Column G contains a 3-letter word that contains the letter E.
• Column H does not contain the letters N or R.
• Column I contains a 3-letter word that contains the letter C. Column I does not contain the letters I or L.
• The words ALONE, LO, OE, and REP appear somewhere in the grid.

 

AA AB AD AE AG AH AI AL AM AN AR AS AT AW AX AY BA BE BI BO BY DA DE DO ED EF EH EL EM EN ER ES ET EW EX FA FE GI GO HA HE HI HM HO ID IF IN IS IT JO KA KI LA LI LO MA ME MI MM MO MU MY NA NE NO NU OD OE OF OH OI OK OM ON OP OR OS OW OX OY PA PE PI PO QI RE SH SI SO TA TE TI TO UH UM UN UP US UT WE WO XI XU YA YE YO ZA 

Wordy Wednesday 694: Anacrossword 49

WORDY WEDNESDAY #692
CODEWORDS 34 (answer)

Here is the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:
Cathy Bowen **
Derek Allen **
Michael Lebowitz **
Pavel Curtis **
Randy Rogers *
Russ Kale **
Kevin Orfield **
Marie desJardins **
Ryan Faley *
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #693
FRAMELINKS 29 (hint)

As of this writing, 10 people have solved this puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #694
ANACROSSWORD 49
(click here for a PDF version)

Solve the crossword using the clues provided. When the letters in the numbered squares are transferred to the same-numbered blanks, you will reveal a clue to the final answer. Work back and forth between the blanks and the crossword to finish the puzzle. The clues are listed alphabetically by their answers; you must determine where each answer belongs. Additionally, spaces and punctuation are not provided for the final clue.

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91
CLUES
• Paramedic’s vehicle
• Basin for robins
• Line of things linked together in series: 2 wds.
• Lane mentioned in “The Muffin Man”
• “Retrieve the ball, Rover!”
• Nectar-rich flower
• Drink made from ice cream
• Narrate from memory
• There’s ____ About Mary (1998 Cameron Diaz film)
• 1982 Meryl Streep film based on a William Styron novel: 2 wds.
• “Truth is ____ than fiction”
• Hardened plaque
• It protects a professor from dismissal

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 5-letter word for "Jurassic ____ (actual, real 2012 horror film about a prehistoric ocean predator)"?
* Patron Puzzle #143, which will be delivered on April 8, 2026, exclusively to Patreon supporters at the Super Fan level and up ($5 or more per month), is a Logicrossword.

Submit your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. Until next time, happy solving!