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Top three of 25 horses with five-lane races

Question

You have 2525 horses with distinct, consistent speeds and a track that fits 55 horses per race. You only learn finishing order, not times. What is the fewest races that guarantees you know the 33 fastest horses in order?

Short answer

7. Five heats rank each group, and a race of the five winners finds the overall fastest. Only five horses can still be second or third: the 2nd and 3rd of the champion's heat, the winner and runner-up of the heat whose winner came second, and the winner of the heat whose winner came third. One more race among these settles it.

Adapted from QuantQuestions.io; question and answer rewritten by SelfMadeQuant.com.

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