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.
• 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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
• 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
