Outside the Fox Puzzles: Triple Crown Fox Derby #7 (RESULTS!)

The 7th 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.

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

Gate 1: Fan Of Xcitement!, Faux-Chi, Reginald, What the Heck
Gate 2: Kit Katsune, Ruin Seeker
Gate 3: Box
Gate 4: Bob, Fiddles, Poptimist 2001
Gate 5: Farrah Foxcett
Gate 6: Beelzebub
Gate 8: Vixen For A Fight
Gate 9: Tongo
Gate 16: Crimson Scarlet
Gate 49: Ferris Homer Swiper Carlson

Ron did not attempt the Kin-Kon-Kan and thus did not qualify. Gate 1 was the most crowded gate, with 4 foxes. Besides the winner Box, 6 other foxes managed to finish.

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

Gate 1: Ruin Seeker, What the Heck
Gate 2: Fan Of Xcitement!
Gate 3: Farrah Foxcett, Kit Katsune
Gate 4: Fiddles, Poptimist 2001, Reginald, Ron
Gate 5: Bob, Box, Faux-Chi
Gate 6: Beelzebub, Crimson Scarlet
Gate 8: Vixen For A Fight
Gate 11: Tongo
Gate 49: Ferris Homer Swiper Carlson

Most of the foxes in Gate 1 chose to vacate it, but since Ruin Seeker decided to give it a try, it once again failed to be a winning gate. Gate 4 became the most crowded gate, with 4 foxes. Besides the winner Fan Of Xcitement, only 3 other foxes managed to finish.

 

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

Gate 1: Faux-Chi, Vixen For A Fight, What the Heck
Gate 3: Fan Of Xcitement!, Ruin Seeker
Gate 4: Fiddles, Kit Katsune, Poptimist 2001, Reginald, Ron
Gate 6: Beelzebub, Bob
Gate 7: Box, Farrah Foxcett
Gate 10: Crimson Scarlet
Gate 11: Tongo
Gate 49: Ferris Homer Swiper Carlson
For the first time ever, no fox managed to win using Gate 1 in any of the three races. Gate 2 became completely empty, and no fox was brave enough to use it. Fan of Xcitement! was busy celebrating on the winners' podium, thus giving Ruin Seeker a clear break to dump Gate 1 for the winning Gate 3. Gate 4 remained the most crowded gate, with 5 foxes now. Besides the winner Ruin Seeker, 4 other foxes finished.

The three winners, Bo Green, Randy Rogers, and Spheniscine Kynosoura, will soon be contacted about redeeming their prizes. Additionally, a $50 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 ($16.67 each), and this donation will be matched by three anonymous benefactors. Thanks to you all for participating! The 8th quarterly Triple Crown Fox Derby will be held on October 5, 2025.

Wordy Wednesday 707: Logicrossword 19

WORDY WEDNESDAY #705
PENT WORDS 141 (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 (blue names indicate the testing team, and red names indicate Patreon supporters):
Joseph DeVincentis **
Kevin Orfield **
Russ Kale **
Sam Levitin **
Cathy Bowen **
Cindy Heisler **
Derek Allen **
Joe Bernard **
Marie desJardins **
Michael Lebowitz **
Pavel Curtis **
Randy Rogers *
Ryan Faley **
SquishmallowsUnited **
Steve Levy **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #706
TOUCHWORD 36 (hint)

As of this writing, 14 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 #707
LOGICROSSWORD 19
(click here for a PDF version)

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). A list of all acceptable 2-letter words is provided as a solving aid; all of the words which are not on this list and not mentioned in the clues should be familiar to most solvers. Use the clues, logic, and your vocabulary to find the solution.

Arrange the letters in the highlighted cells to get the final answer, a single Scrabble-legal word. (If any of the highlighted cells are blackened, then the final answer will be less than 8 letters long.) 

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

• No two black cells share an edge. All the white cells are connected through their edges. No word is repeated in the grid.
• Row 2 contains a word whose fourth letter is R.
• Row 9 and column A each contain an 8-letter word.
• Column C contains the word TOROSE.
• Column D does not contain the letter N.
• Column I contains exactly one instance of the letter I, but does not contain the letter A.
• The word OOH reading across intersects the word ETH reading down at cell E7.
• The words AD and DO intersect at cell I1.
• The word OGEE reading across intersects the word NAGA reading down.
• The words CRISSA and LYCRA read across.
• The words AM, ANATTO, OLLA, OSE, TE, and TO appear somewhere in the grid.

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What historic Memphis street is associated with blues?

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

Wordy Wednesday 706: Touchword 36

WORDY WEDNESDAY #704
ANACROSSWORD 51 (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 (blue names indicate the testing team, and red names indicate Patreon supporters):
Jason Boomer **
Joseph DeVincentis **
Kevin Orfield **
Russ Kale **
Sam Levitin **
Cathy Bowen **
Cindy Heisler **
Derek Allen **
Michael Lebowitz **
Pavel Curtis **
Ryan Faley **
Steve Levy **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #705
PENT WORDS 141 (hint)

As of this writing, 13 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 #706
TOUCHWORD 36
(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 Australian canine / Spud / Ascended
2 Reason to visit an auto repair shop, perhaps / One with a principal role / Completely occupy one’s interest
3 There are 100 in a dollar / Part of a guitar / Rock singer Tori
4 Challenge / ____ Toast Crunch (cereal)
5 Pointy beard / Vast expanse / ____ diagram
6 Small biting fly / Hollow rock / Period just before Christmas
7 Quite irate / One who is doomed: 2 wds.
8 Old-Testament-themed 2024 board game in which players rebuild Jerusalem: 3 wds.
9 Former Russian ruler / Soon / Hold dear
10 American nurse Barton / Get off the Internet: 2 wds.
11 Place for a figurative skeleton / ____ tape / What a windshield is made of
12 Non-poetic writing / Paradise / Falcon’s claws
13 Capital on the Vltava River / Wilder who played Willy Wonka / “The cheese stands ____”
14 Boast / Craving / City where Costco was founded
15 Game often played in churches and nursing homes / Target: ____ (2022 board game based on a Chicago rodent control campaign) / Common baby’s toy

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* A Logicrossword!

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

Outside the Fox Puzzles: Triple Crown Fox Derby #7

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

 

Outside the Fox Puzzles is proud to sponsor the 7th 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, July 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 #6: 10 triple solves, 11 double solves, 13 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 In the near future / The sharing in someone else’s feelings
2 Really ponder
3 Journey to the ____ of the Earth / Surname of Fred Flintstone’s boss
4 People in a club / Palm fruit
5 Venomous African snake / Obscure, as part of a document
6 ____ Mansion (1987 adventure game) / Vote into office
7 Little Orphan ____ / Famous folks, briefly
8 Beyond old / Experiment sites, for short
9 Bewitch / ____ and every
10 Toy invented in France under the name “L’Écran Magique”: 3 wds.
11 “Sticks and ____ may break my bones. . .” / Griffin of Suddenly Susan (1996-2000)

KIN-KON-KAN
Illustrated rules on puzz.link | Solve on puzz.link
Rules summary: Place some diagonal mirrors in the grid, each connecting two opposite corners of a single cell. Every outlined region must contain exactly one mirror. Any horizontal or vertical beam of light entering the grid from a position indicated by a letter outside the grid must exit the grid at the matching letter; the number beside the letter indicates how many times the light beam bounces off of a mirror along the way. (All mirrors are reflective on both sides.) To qualify for the Triple Crown Fox Derby, submit the completed grid.

SINGLELINGO
Fill in the 26 empty spaces with one copy of each letter of the alphabet to form valid words across and down. To qualify for the Triple Crown Fox Derby, submit the completed grid.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Wordy Wednesday 705: Pent Words 141

WORDY WEDNESDAY #703
LETRAVEX 6 (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 (blue names indicate the testing team, and red names indicate Patreon supporters):
Joseph DeVincentis **
Kevin Orfield **
Russ Kale **
Derek Allen **
Michael Lebowitz **
Pavel Curtis **
Randy Rogers *
Ryan Faley *
Steve Levy **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #704
ANACROSSWORD 51 (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 #705
PENT WORDS 141
(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 Setting for the movie 300 (2006) / Honey, I ____ Up the Kid (1992 movie)
2 Party / Adult male deer
3 Roundup need / German pharmaceutical company
4 Morning moisture / Costumed sports team representatives
5 Long rod / Space just below a roof
6 The ____ That Be (1992-1993 sitcom) / Goose’s sound
7 Desire for water / Put in order
8 Bivalve with a ribbed shell / Cut off, as tree branches
9 Ruse / Klutz’s shout
10 Big Man on ____ (1989 film) / Cutting side of a blade
PENTOMINOES:
• HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
• THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
• Thin biscuit
• Property of a line on the Cartesian plane
• Resource
• Actor Patterson of Gilmore Girls
• Poles on a ship
• Furniture for dining on, perhaps
• Big name in chewing gum and collectible cards
• Hiding place for valuables
• Adhere
• Participates in Lent, for example
• Inn
• Accept, as a coupon
• Put up as a stake
• The 44th President
• Dalmatian features
• Delicious
• Give it a ____
• Rascal

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 15-letter, 3-word answer for "Old-Testament-themed 2024 board game in which players rebuild Jerusalem"?
* Patron Puzzle #146, which will be delivered on July 8, 2026, exclusively to Patreon supporters at the Super Fan level and up ($5 or more per month), is a pair of Codewords.

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