Outside the Fox Puzzles is proud to sponsor the 3rd triannual (and soon to be quarterly) 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!
With Kevin’s Puzzles at Home on hiatus, my plan is to run these contests on the first Monday of every January, April, July, and October, at 12:01 AM Central Time. This month, marking a transition period between the previous triannual schedule and a new quarterly one, is an exception. The entry deadline will be 13 days later (on a Sunday) at 11:59 PM Central Time; in this case, the deadline is Sunday, August 3, 2025, 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!
With Kevin’s Puzzles at Home on hiatus, my plan is to run these contests on the first Monday of every January, April, July, and October, at 12:01 AM Central Time. This month, marking a transition period between the previous triannual schedule and a new quarterly one, is an exception. The entry deadline will be 13 days later (on a Sunday) at 11:59 PM Central Time; in this case, the deadline is Sunday, August 3, 2025, 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 #2: 21 triple solves, 23 double solves, 23 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 NBC Nightly News with ____ Holt / ____ and error
3 “____ not, want not” / Talk a blue ____
4 Amount of money staked / Sound made by a mouse
5 “Lions and ____ and bears, oh my!” / Certain elementary particle
6 Site of an annual New Year’s Eve ball drop in Manhattan: 2 wds.
7 ____ Raider (1996 video game) / Fish often packed in a can
8 Hair stylist’s item / President whose middle name was Gamaliel
9 Piece of fabric / What’s ____ Gilbert Grape (1993 film)
10 Conspire / Locklear of Melrose Place
11 Round green vegetables / “Hot for ____” (Van Halen song)
SHIKAKU
Illustrated rules on puzz.link | Solve on puzz.link
Rules summary: Divide the grid along the grid lines into rectangles, each containing exactly one black circle. A number in a black circle indicates the area of its corresponding rectangle. To qualify for the Triple Crown Fox Derby, submit the completed grid.
Illustrated rules on puzz.link | Solve on puzz.link
Rules summary: Divide the grid along the grid lines into rectangles, each containing exactly one black circle. A number in a black circle indicates the area of its corresponding rectangle. To qualify for the Triple Crown Fox Derby, submit the completed grid.
MINI PATHFINDER
In this puzzle, each answer starts in the correspondingly numbered square, goes in some direction, and makes one or more right-angled turns as it winds through the grid. When you have finished, every letter will be used in exactly two entries. Answer enumerations have been withheld. To qualify for the Triple Crown Fox Derby, submit the completed grid.
In this puzzle, each answer starts in the correspondingly numbered square, goes in some direction, and makes one or more right-angled turns as it winds through the grid. When you have finished, every letter will be used in exactly two entries. Answer enumerations have been withheld. To qualify for the Triple Crown Fox Derby, submit the completed grid.
1 Quality of something that strikes a chord
2 Make a correction to
3 Piece of septum jewelry: 2 wds.
4 Secure
5 ____ La Fume (skunk character in Tiny Toons Adventures)
5 Celebrity
6 Forebear
7 On the rise
8 Cosine’s reciprocal
9 Opening
10 Public-facing part of a brick-and-mortar or online shop
11 Las Vegas’s WNBA team
2 Make a correction to
3 Piece of septum jewelry: 2 wds.
4 Secure
5 ____ La Fume (skunk character in Tiny Toons Adventures)
5 Celebrity
6 Forebear
7 On the rise
8 Cosine’s reciprocal
9 Opening
10 Public-facing part of a brick-and-mortar or online shop
11 Las Vegas’s WNBA team
