160 free Lexington trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
42 free Lexington trivia questions with answers. This Lexington quiz is built mainly around Lexington, Kentucky, the Horse Capital of the World: how the frontier camp got its name in 1775, why the region is called the Bluegrass, the horse farms, Keeneland and the Kentucky Horse Park, Rupp Arena and the Wildcats' eight national titles, Transylvania University, Henry Clay and Mary Todd Lincoln, bourbon rules and beer cheese, and the Nobel laureate and Hall of Fame jockey the city produced. Because searchers ask about more than one Lexington, it also drops in the essentials on Lexington, Massachusetts, where the Revolution's first shots were fired, and Lexington, Virginia, home of VMI. Questions start easy enough for a new arrival and build to details longtime residents will enjoy: the first urban growth boundary in the country, the peanut butter plant that out-produces every other, and the last racetrack in North America to install a public-address system. It suits a bar quiz off Limestone Street, a UK tailgate or a family game. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and reference sources, and each question shows an explanation and its citation once you answer.
30 of 160 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Lexington, Kentucky, the Horse Capital of the World, is in which region of the state, named for its grass?
The Bluegrass
The area's limestone bedrock gives the soil a high calcium content, which planters noticed by 1800 made for hardier horses.
Q 02Frontiersmen camping in Kentucky in June 1775 named their site after hearing news of what?
The opening battle in Massachusetts
It was the first of many American places named after the Massachusetts town, and it happened 17 years before Kentucky became a state.
Q 03Lexington, Kentucky's city government has been merged with which county since 1974?
Fayette
The consolidated city is coterminous with the county and runs a nonpartisan mayor-council system with 12 districts.
Q 04In 1958 Lexington enacted what national first to protect its surrounding horse farms?
An urban growth boundary
New development is restricted to an urban service area, which is why farmland begins so abruptly at the city's edge.
Q 05Keeneland Race Course has held live meets in which two months since 1936?
April and October
The track's retro feel is why most of the racing scenes in the 2003 film Seabiscuit were shot there.
Q 06Keeneland was the last track in North America to do what, holding out until 1997?
Broadcast race calls over a public-address system
The track also runs the world's largest Thoroughbred auction house, which has sold 19 Kentucky Derby winners.
Q 07Which Triple Crown winner took the Breeders' Cup Classic when Keeneland hosted the event in 2015?
American Pharoah
The colt's pedigree traces back to Man o' War 23 times.
Q 08The Red Mile in Lexington holds what distinction among American racetracks?
Second-oldest in the nation
It is a harness-racing track and the oldest in the city.
Q 09The Kentucky Horse Park, opened in 1978, has a famous statue near its entrance of which horse?
Man o' War
The great champion, who won 20 of 21 races and lost only to a colt named Upset, is buried beneath it; the park also has a life-size Secretariat.
Q 10In 2010 Lexington became the first city outside Europe to host which event?
The World Equestrian Games
The Kentucky Horse Park hosts the annual Kentucky Three-Day Event, one of the top three eventing competitions in the world.
Q 11How many NCAA championships had the University of Kentucky men's basketball team won by 2025?
Eight
It also has the most all-time wins and best winning percentage in the sport, and was the first programme to reach 2,000 victories.
Q 12Rupp Arena, home of the Wildcats, is named after a coach known by what nickname?
The Baron of the Bluegrass
Adolph Rupp won four national titles and 876 games in 41 years; his 1948 champions won Olympic gold as the US team.
Q 13By 2025, Kentucky's men's basketball national titles had been won by how many different coaches?
Five
Rupp, Joe B. Hall, Rick Pitino, Tubby Smith and John Calipari each cut down the nets.
Q 21The Hot Brown, a Kentucky classic, was invented in 1926 at a hotel in which city?
Louisville
Fred Schmidt's open-faced turkey and bacon sandwich in Mornay sauce was a late-night alternative to ham and eggs.
Q 22Despite its name, the grass that gives the region its nickname is native to where?
Europe and North Africa
The name comes from its seed heads, which look blue when the plant grows to its natural two or three feet.
Q 23A factory in Lexington produces more of what than any other plant in the world?
Peanut butter
The Jif plant on Winchester Road holds the title; the city is also home to printer maker Lexmark and A&W Restaurants.
Q 14Which Lexington college, chartered in 1780, is Kentucky's oldest and the first west of the Alleghenies?
Transylvania
It counts two vice presidents, three Supreme Court justices and 50 US senators among its alumni, and Henry Clay taught law there.
Q 15The Great Compromiser, whose Ashland estate is a Lexington landmark, was which statesman?
Henry Clay
He was Speaker of the House, Secretary of State, a Treaty of Ghent negotiator and a founder of the Whig Party.
Q 16Which First Lady was born in Lexington in 1818, the daughter of a wealthy banker?
Mary Todd Lincoln
She grew up in a wealthy slave-owning family but came to oppose slavery, and her girlhood home is now a museum.
Q 17Lexington native Thomas Hunt Morgan won a 1933 Nobel Prize for work with which organism?
Fruit flies
His Fly Room at Columbia proved that genes are carried on chromosomes; he was a nephew of Confederate raider John Hunt Morgan.
Q 18Isaac Burns Murphy, raised in Lexington and born enslaved, achieved what distinction as a jockey?
First inducted into the Hall of Fame
He won the Kentucky Derby three times and entered the Hall of Fame at its creation in 1955.
Q 19By federal law, bourbon must be made from a grain mixture that is at least what percentage corn?
51 percent
It must also be aged in new charred oak and was declared a 'distinctive product of the United States' by Congress in 1964.
Q 20The Bourbon Trail tourism programme was launched in 1999 by which body?
The state distillers' association
The association registered the phrase as a trademark; several trail distilleries lie within an hour of Lexington.
Q 24Lexmark, the printer company headquartered in Lexington, was spun off in 1991 from which corporation?
IBM
IBM, Xerox and Lockheed Martin remain large local employers.
Q 25The Toyota plant in the Lexington metro area, opened in Georgetown, chiefly builds which model?
Camry
The plant was announced in December 1986 and also builds engines.
Q 26The stuffed animal nicknamed Pablo Eskobear in a Lexington mall inspired which 2023 film?
Cocaine Bear
The bear, nicknamed Pablo Eskobear, overdosed on cocaine dropped from a smuggler's plane in 1985.
Q 27In 2025, the Lexington Legends baseball team belonged to which independent circuit?
The Atlantic League
The independent MLB Partner league took the club after minor league restructuring; earlier city teams included the Kentucky Thoroughblades.
Q 28Kentucky's football stadium, formerly Commonwealth Stadium, took which company's name in 2017?
Kroger
The supermarket chain took the naming rights in 2017.
Q 29What was the horse that handed Man o' War his only defeat called, a name now a sports cliché?
Upset
The defeat at Saratoga in 1919 helped earn that track its nickname, the Graveyard of Champions.
Q 30The 1973 Triple Crown winner, foaled near Lexington, won the Belmont by how many lengths?
31
He set records in all three Triple Crown races that year, and his Belmont time still stands as the American dirt record for the distance.