1. Background
    Barclay Tagg  Sackatoga Stable 

2. Racing career
    2002: Two-year-old campaign  2003: Three-year-old campaign  2003 Kentucky Derby  2003 Preakness Stakes  2003 Belmont Stakes  Aftermath  2004: Four-year-old campaign  2005-2007 

3. Retirement

4. Honors

5. Pedigree

6. In popular culture

7. References

8. External links

Triple Crown classic race wins:
Kentucky Derby (2003)
Preakness Stakes (2003)

Funny Cide (foaled April 20, 2000) is a Thoroughbred race horse who won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes in 2003. He is the first New York-bred horse to win the Kentucky Derby and the first gelding to win since Clyde Van Dusen in 1929. He was an immensely popular horse^[2] and remains a fan favorite in retirement at the Kentucky Horse Park.

Background

Funny Cide was bred at WinStar Farm in Versailles, Kentucky, ^[3] but was foaled at the McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbred Farm, owned by Joe and Anne McMahon in Saratoga Springs, New York. His sire is Distorted Humor,^[4] who was then an unproven sire at WinStar, struggling to attract good mares. Belle's Good Cide, an Oklahoma-bred granddaughter of Seattle Slew, was already at the farm, and was therefore bred to him.^[3] She was then shipped to New York so her foal would be eligible for New York-bred races.^[5]

Funny Cide was part of Distorted Humor's first American crop when his stud fee was $12,500, dropping down the next year to $10,000. Due to the success of Funny Cide and the rest of his first crop, Distorted Humor's fee then rose to $20,000 in 2003.^[3] It would eventually go as high as $300,000 in 2008 for a live foal. The fee has since dropped, and in 2018 was $50,000.^[6]

Funny Cide was consigned to the August 2001 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga preferred yearling auction, where he was inspected by Tony Everard, a "pinhooker" looking for young, undeveloped horses to train and resell in a few months at a profit. Everard liked what he saw, even though the colt was a ridgling with one undescended testicle, and purchased the colt for $22,000. Everard then took the colt to his New Episode Training Center in Ocala, Florida, and made the decision to geld the colt.^[7] "With ridglings, it's better to go ahead and geld them early," he would later say. "My experience is once they start training around turns they are moving faster and getting pinched and it hurts them."^[8]

Barclay Tagg

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 Liberty Bell Park) was a journeyman who had been on the racing scene for over 30 years. The victory by Funny Cide made Tagg the first trainer to win the Derby in his first attempt since Neil Drysdale saddled Fusaichi Pegasus to win the 2000 Derby.

Ray Paulick of The 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."^[9]

Sackatoga Stable

Sackatoga Stable was formed by ten friends from Sacket's Harbor, a small town in upstate New York, who purchased their first horse by contributing $5,000 each. The managing partner was Jackson Knowlton, a health care consultant. They coined the name Sackatoga by combining their origins in Sacket's Harbor and Saratoga. Knowlton said, "We joined up with Barclay Tagg [in 1999] and he was able to locate a couple of nice horses for us. We claimed Bail Money for $40,000. She won three races and $130,000 for us before she was claimed for $62,500. So that really helped make things easier — we were playing with the house's money when we bought Funny Cide for $75,000."^[10]

Racing career

2002: Two-year-old campaign

The chestnut gelding, 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 under a hand ride, he easily won the six-furlong race by {{frac|14|3|4}} lengths. Three weeks later, Funny Cide won his first seven-furlong stakes race, the Bertram F. Bongard Stakes, under another hand ride, this time by 8 lengths.^[1] 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 mile race, the Sleepy Hollow Stakes (also at Belmont Park). Under a hard hold by Santos, he was for the first time challenged for the lead (by Spite the Devil). Despite being bumped several times, Funny Cide won by a neck.^[11] Santos believed he had found his Derby horse.^[12]

Funny Cide was named the Champion 2-year-old New-York bred for 2002, though little attention was paid to him nationally. He was not included on the Experimental Free Handicap, which was led by the champion 2-year-old Vindication.^[13]

2003: Three-year-old campaign

Funny Cide began his three-year-old campaign on January 18, 2003 in the {{frac|1|1|16}}-mile Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park. Breaking from post position 13, he hit the gate and raced wide for the entire trip, eventually finishing fifth behind Offlee Wild.^[14] He then shipped to Fair Grounds for the Louisiana Derby on March 9, where he faced Peace Rules, Kafwain, and Badge of Silver. Staying close to the pace, he rallied in the stretch, dropped back, and then came on again along the rail. Finishing third after Peace Rules, he was moved up to second place after the disqualification of Kafwain.^[15]

On April 12, he entered the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct as the second betting choice. Empire Maker, conditioned by Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel and ridden by Jerry Bailey, was the odds-on favorite after an impressive win in the Florida Derby. Funny Cide was bumped at the start then moved up to challenge New York Hero on the lead. Empire Maker raced in third, then took the lead as they entered the stretch. Funny Cide fought back gamely, losing by only {{frac|1|2}} length.^[16] Funny Cide earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 110 for the Wood.

2003 Kentucky Derby

Empire Maker was the favorite for the Derby despite suffering a bruised right front hoof that caused him to miss a few days of training: his odds did drift up though from 6-5 on the morning-line to a more lukewarm 5-2. Peace Rules, also trained by Frankel, was the second choice at 6-1 while Funny Cide was sixth choice at 13-1. Bumped again at the start, Funny Cide tracked the early pace set by Peace Rules, and moved to the lead heading into the stretch. Empire Maker then started closing fast but Funny Cide was able to hold on by {{frac|1|1|2}} lengths. "I hit him and he kept digging and digging and he did it," said Santos. "It was New York pride." Funny Cide's time of 2:01.19 was the tenth fastest time in Kentucky Derby history.^[17][18]

2003 Preakness Stakes

Shipped in at the last moment by Tagg and stabled in Mary Eppler's barn to keep him calm and out from under the press, this time Funny Cide was the betting favorite. On a cold, wet day in May, he broke from post position nine (only Layminister in 1910 and Canonero II in 1971 won from the ninth post) and was 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 {{frac|9|3|4}} lengths, the second-largest margin in Preakness history.

"I couldn't find my horse, so I was watching Funny Cide," said Bob Baffert, trainer of Senor Swinger, who finished fifth. "It was fun watching and listening to the crowd respond to Funny Cide as he drew off like that."^[20]

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 Jacobus in 1883 and Margrave in 1896 when the Preakness was run at Gravesend Race Track in Coney Island, New York.

2003 Belmont Stakes

With a Triple Crown on the line, Funny Cide and his connections were the center of attention in the weeks leading up to the 2003 Belmont Stakes. Funny Cide posted several fast works: too fast some worried. Then it rained all day before the Belmont Stakes, the most grueling of the three Triple Crown races and a quarter mile longer than the Kentucky Derby. Regardless, New Yorkers came to the track in near record numbers, hoping to see the New York-bred make history. Funny Cide broke well and rushed to the early lead, but wasted energy struggling against Santos's efforts to set a sensible pace down the backstretch. As they rounded the final turn, Empire Maker ranged up on the outside and gradually pulled clear. Funny Cide tried to respond but eventually tired, finishing third.^[21] The horses who beat him, Empire Maker and Ten Most Wanted, were both fresher horses, having skipped the Preakness Stakes.

Frankel had said before the race that if everyone hated him after the Belmont Stakes, then he had done his job. Robin Smullen, Tagg's assistant and companion, had predicted that win, lose or draw, Funny Cide would remain everyone's favorite horse. Both Frankel and Smullen proved to be correct.^[21]

Later that year, Island Fashion, trained by Tagg, won the Alabama Stakes. Her victory denied a $2 million Triple Tiara bonus to the owners of Spoken Fur, trained by Frankel.

Funny Cide became the 17th horse to take the Derby and Preakness and then lose the Belmont. Tagg wondered if the sloppy track may have played a role in the loss, despite training over it nearly every day regardless of weather. "I just feel bad for all the people who came out," Tagg said. "We were beaten by a good horse. I don't know what else to say. I am being honest. It is horse racing."^[22]