His chronic lack of success saw him acquire something of a cult following comparable to Zippy Chippy in the United States and Haru Urara in Japan.
Quixall Crossett was a bay gelding with no white markings[2] bred by the husband and wife team of Ted and Joy Caine.
[5] Quixall Crossett was sired by Beverley Boy, a moderately successful racehorse who won several handicap races over long distances.
[6] Quixall Crossett's dam Grange Classic was a female-line descendant of the British broodmare Harpy (foaled 1921) making her a distant relative of Bobbyjo, Cigar and Gio Ponti.
In the spring of 1996 he showed marginal improvement when he ran second in a race on the amateur point-to-point circuit and then took third place in a hunter chase at Newcastle Racecourse on 16 March.
[11] Quixall Crossett's assistant trainer Geoff Sanderson, who also ran the horse's fan club, commented, "We brought him back to be unsaddled and he got the most tremendous cheer you've ever heard on a race course...
[4] Over the next sixteen months Quixall Crossett ran 24 times and managed one third place when coming home last of the finishers in the Hartwell Ford Novices' Chase at Market Rasen on 8 August.
When Quixall Crossett returned to the track as a fifteen-year-old in 2000 his losing run began to attract increasing attention from the mainstream media.