Funny Horse Photo
Funny Horse Photo
Funny Cide (foaled April 20, 2000) is a Thoroughbred race horse who won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes in 2003. He is the first New York-bred horse to win the Kentucky Derby and the first gelding to win it since 1929 (when Clyde Van Dusen took home the roses).
Early years
Bred at Bill Casner and Kenny Troutt's WinStar Farm in Versailles, Kentucky, he was foaled at the McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbred Farm, owned by Joe and Anne McMahon in the upstate New York town of Saratoga Springs. By Distorted Humor (a Mr. Prospector line sire), he is out of the winning, but short-lived, Belle's Good Cide by Slewacide by Seattle Slew.
Funny Cide was a member of one of Distorted Humor's first American crops when his stud fee was $10,000. (Distorted Humor's fee for 2008 was $300,000 for a live foal.)
Funny Cide was originally purchased in August 2001 at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga preferred yearling auction in Saratoga Springs for $22,000 by Tony Everard. With the average sale of a yearling running about $43,000, Everard saw the colt as a bargain, a horse he could train at his New Episode Training Center in Ocala, Florida, for a fast financial turnaround. As Everard said, "He was a little bit on the immature side but he had a good frame and a big, deep girth. He was also a ridgling (meaning one testicle had not descended), and they usually sell cheaper." "Best," said Everard, "to do this early. The undescended testicle hurts them, and they don't learn as they should."
Barclay Tagg finds his "Big Horse"
Barclay Tagg purchased the gelding for $75,000 in a private transaction in March, 2002, for Sackatoga Stable.
Once a steeplechase jockey, Tagg, who grew up in Abington, Pennsylvania, and won his first race in 1972 at old Liberty Bell Park, was a journeyman who'd been laboring in the racing scene for over thirty years. The victory by Funny Cide made Tagg the first trainer to win the Derby in his first attempt since Cam Gambolati saddled Spend A Buck to win the 1985 Derby.
Ray Paulick of Blood-Horse said of Tagg, "He has some characteristics uncannily like hall-of-famer "Silent" Tom Smith, the trainer of Seabiscuit. He takes care of his horse, doesn't rush into anything or run him when he shouldn't. I like that about Tagg. Like Tom Smith, he's his own man and will put the horse first. I wish we had more trainers out there like him."
Early races
The chestnut gelding trained by Tagg and ridden by jockey Jose Santos made his two-year-old racing debut at Belmont Park on September 8, 2002. Running away from the New York field and under a hand drive, he easily won the six furlong race by fifteen or more lengths. Twenty-one days later, Funny Cide won his first seven furlong restricted stakes race, the 25th running of the Bertram F. Bongard Stakes, under another hand drive and by a similar margin. In the Bongard, his Beyer Speed Figure was 103. No two year old in the country had run faster.
His third winning effort as a two-year old was his first try at a mile, the restricted Sleepy Hollow Stakes, also at Belmont Park. Under a very hard hold by Santos, he was, for the first time, challenged for the lead (by Spite the Devil), but proved he could not only be rated (held back in a certain position waiting for the best time and place to make a move), but easily had enough grit to hold off such challenges. It also proved he could handle longer distances.
By October 2002, Jose Santos believed this horse would be his "Derby horse," although there was more press coverage of Empire Maker, as well as his stablemate Peace Rules, both horses trained by Robert J. Frankel.
At three, Funny Cide ran in the one and one-sixteenth mile long Grade III Holy Bull Stakes. Breaking from post position 13, he hit the gate, then raced wide for the entire trip. He came in 5th in a field of strong horses, including Offlee Wild. In the Grade II Louisiana Derby, he faced Peace Rules, Kafwain, and Badge of Silver. Staying close to the pace, he rallied in the stretch, dropped back, and then came again along the rail. Finishing third after Peace Rules, he was bumped up to second upon the disqualification of Kafwain. But it was his strong second place showing against Empire Maker (ridden by Jerry Bailey) in the one and one eighth mile Grade I Wood Memorial on April 12 that clinched his entry into the Kentucky Derby. Funny Cide lost the Wood by a short neck and was pressing Empire Maker at the wire, even after New York Hero early on bore out very wide, taking the gelding with him and losing him his early momentum. Funny Cide earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 110 for the Wood.
2003 Kentucky Derby
Coming into the Derby after a second in the Wood, Funny Cide, the New-York bred longshot gelding won the 2003 Kentucky Derby running between the strong double entry of Frankel's Empire Maker (again with Jerry Bailey in the saddle) and Peace Rules ridden by Edgar Prado but neither of them could catch him. He won the Derby by 1 3/4 lengths over the favorite Empire Maker, paying $27.60 for every 1 dollar bet to win, in front of a crowd of 148,530.
2:01.19, Funny Cide's time, is the 10th fastest time in the history of the Kentucky Derby.
2003 Preakness Stakes
Blood-Horse magazine's Steven Haskin wrote: "Pimlico stakes coordinator David Rollinson had to go out and recruit Preakness Stakes horses when it looked like only six or seven were going to run. All was calm that first week after the Derby. Then, Empire Maker was officially declared out, leaving only six confirmed starters. Then Midway Road came in. Then all hell broke loose when the Miami Herald’s bogus story and photo of Santos cheating in the Derby appeared. Empire Maker suddenly jumped back in, his Triple Crown hopes alive once again. Hours later, when the inferno began to subside, he was back out. Then Peace Rules officially came in. Sometime, in between all that, Champali scratched after colicking. Then Kissin Saint and Alysweep came in. Then Indian Express came out. Then Rollinson popped a couple of Advil and braced for week two." Week two was like week one, now also including the in and outs and ins of New York Hero, Ten Cents A Shine, Foufa’s Warrior, and During. As Haskin goes on to say, "All this confusion could have been avoided if all involved had known how Funny Cide was going to run in the Preakness."
Vanned in at the last moment by Tagg and stabled in Mary Eppler's barn on the backside of the track to keep him calm and out from under the press, this time Funny Cide was the bettors' favorite. On a cold wet day in May, he burst from post position 9 (only Layminister in 1910 and Canonero II in 1971 won from 9), the runaway winner of the 2003 Preakness Stakes at Baltimore's Pimlico Race Course. His time was 1:55:61 and he took the race by 9 3/4 lengths, the second largest margin in Preakness history.
In the Preakness, with its sharp turns and hard, fast track, Funny Cide earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 114. He was only the third New York bred to win the Preakness. The other two were Margrave in 1896,, when the Preakness was run at Gravesend Race Track on Coney Island in New York, and Jacobus in 1883.
2003 Belmont Stakes
It rained all day before the Belmont Stakes, the most grueling of the three races and a quarter mile longer than the Kentucky Derby. New Yorkers came to the track in record numbers, only to see Jose Santos ride Funny too close to the rail where the slop was deepest (called a "dead rail"), as well as fighting too hard to rate him. Funny Cide finished third in the slop behind a fresh Empire Maker and Ten Most Wanted, both horses having skipped the Preakness Stakes. Frankel expressed himself a happy man to have spoiled such an exciting run by such an exciting horse. "It may be mean," he said, "but I'm glad I did it."
As a side note, Tagg got a measure of revenge later that year, when his horse, Island Fashion, won the Alabama Stakes. Her victory denied a $2 million Triple Tiara bonus to the owners of Spoken Fur, who was trained by Frankel.
Immediately after the race, Tagg said Funny Cide hadn't taken to the track. It was an odd comment, considering that Belmont was Funny Cide's home track and he trained over it almost ever day, rain or shine.
In an article published in March 2007, one read: "Looking back, Tagg wonders if Funny Cide's 9 3/4-length victory in the Preakness and his overly fast workout the week before the Belmont weren't the results of an on-edge horse who had little left for the final leg of the Triple Crown. Tag was quoted as saying, 'He didn't need to have his adrenaline popping through his head every time a bunch of people came running down the aisle way.'"
That same year, dual classic winner Funny Cide, once again up against Frankel and Empire Maker, won the Eclipse Award for 3 Year Old Male of the Year. He was only the second New York bred to ever do so, the first being Saratoga Dew, who was named Champion 3 Year Old Filly of 1992.
Troubled years
At four, Funny Cide flashed his old form in the Massachusetts Handicap on July 3, 2004, earning a 110 Beyer Speed Figure. The finish was a thrilling three way photo at the wire between runner-up Funny Cide, the winner Offlee
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