The plotting hinges on the "curious incident of the dog in the night-time": Gregory (Scotland Yard detective): Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?

Bookmaker Fitzroy Simpson had come to Dartmoor (and specifically to King's Pyland) to gather information about Silver Blaze and his stablemate Bayard.

John Straker, Silver Blaze's late trainer, has been killed by a blow to the skull, assumed to have been administered by Simpson with his "Penang lawyer", a club-like walking stick.

One of the stable lads, Ned Hunter, was on guard duty the night of the crime but he proves to have been drugged with powdered opium placed in his supper.

No one else who ate the curried mutton made at the Strakers' house that evening suffered any ill effects but Hunter was in a profound stupor well into the next day.

[3] Straker's pockets contained a tallow candle and a milliner's bill for (among other things) a 22-guinea dress, made out to one William Derbyshire.

The curried mutton was a clue; only such a spicy dish could have masked the taste of powdered opium and it was impossible for Simpson to arrange a highly seasoned meal that evening for his purposes.

Straker's purpose in doing this was to use the cataract knife to inflict a slight injury upon one of the horse's legs, rendering him temporarily lame in a way that would be undetectable on examination and thus likely put down to strain.

Holmes notes that Gregory is "an extremely good officer" and observes that the only quality he lacks is imagination—the ability to imagine what might have happened and act on this intuition.

[6] A short film adaptation was released in 1923 starring Eille Norwood in the role of Holmes and Hubert Willis cast as Dr Watson.

[7] In 1937, the British film Silver Blaze was released starring Arthur Wontner as Holmes and Ian Fleming as Watson.

[8] The story was adapted as the 1977 television film Silver Blaze starring Christopher Plummer as Holmes and Thorley Walters as Watson.

A different adaptation of the story aired on the BBC Home Service in 1945 with Laidman Browne as Holmes and Norman Shelley as Watson.

[19] A 1962 dramatisation of "Silver Blaze" aired on the BBC Light Programme, as part of the 1952–1969 radio series starring Carleton Hobbs as Holmes and Norman Shelley as Watson.

It featured Jack May as Colonel Ross, Susan Sheridan as Mrs Straker, Brett Usher as Silas Brown, Terence Edmond as Inspector Gregory, and Petra Markham as Edith.

In 1966, jigsaw manufacturer Springbok released a circular puzzle called "Silver Blaze - From the Memories of Sherlock Holmes".

The title of Mark Haddon's award-winning novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is taken from a remark made by Sherlock Holmes in "Silver Blaze".