In the latest instalment of his unmissable series listing his personal favorites, Jay Hovdey recalls a populist equine icon whose failure to complete the Triple Crown did little to diminish a famous legacy
It began raining around mid-morning, a steady rain descending from the Long Island sky as if a soaked rag was being wrung slowly over Belmont Park for hours on end.
By noon, tens of thousands were filing into the racetrack braced for a long day in soggy, uncomfortable conditions. And yet, as racing fans do, they clung to the twin hopes of the ever faithful: that the rain would stop, and that they would witness the first Triple Crown winner in a quarter of a century.
Neither happened.
Maybe the rain and the mud were to blame for Funny Cide’s failure to add the 2003 Belmont Stakes to his thrilling victories in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness.
Maybe it was a pair of classy colts named Empire Maker and Ten Most Wanted who were fresh and eager after an extra two weeks of rest.
Or maybe it was the unreasonable expectation that a modestly-priced gelding bred in New York State could do what such champions as Pleasant Colony, Alysheba, Sunday Silence, and Silver Charm could not.
Whatever the reason, the sight of Funny Cide laboring gallantly through the final furlong of the mile-and-a-half Belmont, only to finish third, was among the most disheartening sights this reporter has witnessed out there between the rails.
Nobody died, true enough. But dreams did, and this dream was so ripe for harvest that the Belmont result had the feel of a cosmic betrayal.
Bobby Frankel, trainer of the victorious Empire Maker, told the Associated Press before the Belmont: “I want to be the villain.”
Four-legged fairytale
He got his wish. Trainer, horse, and jockey Jerry Bailey were roundly booed by the damp, embittered Belmont crowd. They had just mauled racing’s unicorn, a four-legged fairytale that had become the focus of a media frenzy and the center of a small cottage industry.
Two books about Funny Cide were in the works. Leroy Nieman was painting his portrait. There was Funny Cide wine, Funny Cide beer, Funny Cide candy, and Funny Cide Pride ice cream (butter pecan with a fudge swirl, chunks of fudge, and pecans).
His owners, a partnership of upstate New York pals called Sackatoga Stable, were being heralded far and wide as working-class heroes.
Schoolchildren in the upstate New York neighborhoods of the Sackatoga Stable partners were learning the Funny Cide story by heart, right down to a pedigree that contained just enough class to justify such a breakthrough individual, featuring a 5x5 inbreeding to the benchmark stallion Ribot, through his sons Tom Rolfe and Graustark.
Distorted Humor, the sire of Funny Cide, was a very good racehorse, just a cut below group one quality, who was at his best going seven-eighths or a mile. His sire Forty Niner was the two-year-old champion of 1987 whose battles with Seeking The Gold and Winning Colors made the 1988 season wildly entertaining. Danzig’s Beauty, Distorted Humor’s dam, won the Gardenia Stakes at two and finished second in the 1990 Acorn Stakes to Stella Madrid. She also traced in direct female lineage to Nectarine, a full-sister to Bull Lea. Enough said.
In 1999, Distorted Humor went to stud at Prestonwood Farm in Kentucky, just as the place was in the process of being sold to Kenny Troutt and Bill Casner, later to be renamed WinStar Farm.
Part of the deal
Distorted Humor was part of the deal, as was the six-year-old Oklahoma-bred mare Belle’s Good Cide, a granddaughter of Seattle Slew and Little Current, who was carrying a Distorted Humor foal.
In January 2000, WinStar sold Belle’s Good Cide for $100,000 at the Keeneland mixed sale. Her new owners took her to New York, where her foal would be considered a product of the state and therefore eligible to an increasingly generous purse program.
The son of Distorted Humor was born on April 20, 2000, at McMahon Thoroughbreds just east of Saratoga Springs, registered as bred in New York by WinStar Farm.
At the 2001 Fasig-Tipton preferred yearling sale in Saratoga Springs, Funny Cide went for $22,000 to Tony Everard, an Irish horseman with an operation in Ocala, Fla. The young Funny Cide was a ridgling, so he was gelded to enhance his chances to become a decent racehorse.
Barclay Tagg recalls giving the yearling version of Funny Cide only a glance at the Saratoga sale. “He was real skinny,” Tagg said. “I didn’t like his looks, so I walked on.”
Then nature intervened, and it was a much different Funny Cide that turned Tagg’s head that winter at Everard’s farm.
“I know it sounds like storytelling, but I had my back to the rail when I heard this horse go by that sounded like a tank,” Tagg said. “I asked, ‘Who was that?’ and watched him go on down around the bend. You couldn’t help but fall in love with him.”
Thumbs up
Gelded yearlings don’t get much love, but Tagg couldn’t get the son of Distorted Humor out of his mind. After getting a thumbs up from Robin Smullen (right), Tagg’s assistant trainer and life companion, the trainer alerted a relatively new client named Jack Knowlton. The price was $75,000, which was fine with Knowlton if Tagg approved. He did.
In his youth, Tagg worked for Hall of Famer Frank Whiteley just long enough to validate what he thought he was figuring out about being a Thoroughbred trainer.
The horse, in Whiteley’s world, came first, last and always. Everyone should work as hard as the trainer. And never expect anyone outside the backstretch fence to understand the job.
This reporter first noticed Tagg when he came out west in 1991 with the outstanding turf mare Miss Josh, who beat a classy field in the Gamely Handicap at Hollywood Park. After that, he had a good run with Royal Mountain Inn, a half-brother to Miss Josh, who rebounded from extensive leg repair to win the 1994 Man o’War Stakes at Belmont Park.
With Funny Cide on his way to the Tagg barn, Knowlton put together a ten-person partnership named for their New York hometowns of Sackets Harbor and Saratoga Springs.
Joining Knowlton in the Funny Cide group were Harold Cring, Gus Williams, David Mahan, Lew Titterton, Eric Dattner, Mark Phillips, Jon Constance, Pete Phillips, and Larry Reinhardt. Their professions included construction, health care, catering, education, and optical services – not a hedge fund manager among them.
Funny Cide made his first start for Sackatoga Stable on Sept. 8, 2002, in a state-bred race at Belmont Park. He won by an official 14¾ lengths, which is not easy to run up going only six furlongs.
After that, Funny Cide took a pair of stakes for New York-breds, then commenced his three-year-old season with third-place finishes in the Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream and the Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds.
Funny Cide arrived at Churchill Downs just a few days before the Derby on May 3, fresh from a second-place finish to Empire Maker in the Wood Memorial.
Rewriting history
History, though, was not on his side. A gelding had not won the Kentucky Derby since 1929, when Clyde Van Dusen, a shrimp of a chestnut, skimmed over a watery surface to provide Man o’War with his first Derby winner as a stallion.
Even so, by 2003 it seemed as if it was only a matter of time before a gelding would break through once again. Best Pal was beaten only a length by Strike The Gold in 1991. Cavonnier lost by a lip to Grindstone in 1996. And just the year before, Perfect Drift had finished third to the front-running War Emblem.
A field of 16 answered the Derby bell, including Buddy Gil and Indian Express, the one-two finishers in the Santa Anita Derby, and longshot Atswhatimtalknbout, owned in part by director Gary Ross, who was about to premiere his film Seabiscuit. Jose Santos, who had been aboard the gelding from day one, was back in the saddle for Tagg.
Peace Rules and Brancusi, first and second in the Blue Grass Stakes, went straight to the lead. After shaking off a bump at the start, Funny Cide was quickly in pursuit to find comfort in third, along the rail. The pace was quick – 46 seconds and change to the half.
Around the far turn, Brancusi peeled away, leaving Funny Cide to challenge Peace Rules as they curved into the long Churchill Downs stretch, while Empire Maker joined the scrum on the outside.
The final furlong was a desperate grind, but finally, in the last 50 yards, Funny Cide opened daylight on his opponents. Empire Maker, laboring on a repaired hoof crack, managed to edge stablemate Peace Rules for second. And just like that, a gelding from New York had won the 129th Kentucky Derby. Given the unprecedented combination, Funny Cide’s odds of 12-1 seemed low.
Human frailties can spoil any occasion, which is the only explanation for what happened in the week following Funny Cide’s glorious Derby victory.
A story in the Miami Herald alleged that Santos could have been carrying some kind of electrical device in the race. The story was rushed to print based on an inconclusive photo, a misinterpreted statement from Santos to a reporter, and a rash comment from a Kentucky steward who called the photo “suspicious”.
Firestorm of coverage
After an extensive investigation, the Churchill Downs board of stewards concluded it was all nonsense, but nothing could be done about the firestorm of coverage ignited by the initial, irresponsible allegation.
Funny Cide and Santos went back to work at Pimlico to defeat an outclassed Preakness field by 9¾ lengths. Of the Derby runners, only Peace Rules and a pair of distanced longshots returned from the Derby field. Tagg then took his horse back home to Belmont Park, trailed by a legion of media.
Compared to the media that surrounded Funny Cide after the Derby, the post-Preakness onslaught was overwhelming, and especially for Tagg, who tried in vain to explain how an interview with ESPN3 or the Podunk Dispatch did not take precedence over feeding time.
Then again, the media had become spoiled rotten. Since the mid-90s, the only trainers with a shot at the Triple Crown had been named either Wayne Lukas or Bob Baffert, both drawn to cameras and microphones like moths to an electronic flame.
The gates for the 135th Belmont Stakes opened at 6.40pm. Funny Cide may not have been fresh, but he was typically eager as he took the lead around the first turn and remained in command down the backstretch.
In deep water
Empire Maker was never far behind, though, and by the time the pair reached the quarter pole, it was clear Funny Cide was in deep water. Bailey rocked on with Empire Maker, generating enough momentum to turn back a late challenge from Ten Most Wanted and Pat Day that fell three-quarters of a length shy. Funny Cide was another four lengths back.
For those not paying attention, Tagg pointed out that Funny Cide was making his sixth graded stakes start of the year and third start in 36 days after just running the fastest race of his life in the Preakness.
“‘Funny’ never rated himself,” Tagg said. “Some horses, you can tell you’re trying to settle them down for the third race in a series like that. But there was no telling Funny what to do.
“In reality, he was probably done for the year after the Preakness,” the trainer added. “But it’s hard not to run them when they’ve won the first two legs of the Triple Crown. We were asking a lot, and I was very proud of him. ”
The owners were similarly torn. “Those three weeks between the Preakness and the Belmont were so incredible,” Knowlton said. “And even though he finished third, how could we be disappointed in him. He’d already made history as New York-bred gelding who won the Derby and the Preakness.”
In addition, Funny Cide became the first New York-bred champion as the Eclipse Award-winning three-year-old male of 2003.
After the Belmont, Funny Cide soldiered on for another 29 races. His popularity never waned, despite the fact that he won only six times during that stretch, most importantly in the 2004 Jockey Club Gold Cup. He also took the Excelsior Handicap at Aqueduct during his four-year-old campaign.
“What I remember best about the Gold Cup is Tom Durkin’s call,” Knowlton said. “Coming around the fourth turn, he said, ‘Funny Cide is stopping!’ Actually, Jose was giving him a little break, then he came back on, split horses, and won the race. He showed he still was a grade one horse after the rigors of the Triple Crown.”
Funny Cide’s second act also included also a cluster of respectable seconds and thirds in top stakes company, most notably the day he was beaten a neck and a nose in the 2004 Suburban Handicap at Belmont Park, and his narrow miss in the Massachusetts Handicap at Suffolk Downs.
After missing most of 2005 with a back injury caused when Santos had to check hard during the running of the Suburban, Funny Cide returned to work in 2006 with a robust campaign of ten races.
Tough attitude
“He had that tough, Funny Cide attitude right to the end,” Tagg said. “But after that incident with the back you could handle him a little better – and he wasn’t quite the racehorse he been.”
The highlight of 2006 came in July, when the Funny Cide entourage traveled to Canada to watch their star take the Dominion Day Stakes at a mile and a quarter.
In a gesture befitting an aging, still beloved movie star, Funny Cide found himself at little Finger Lakes racetrack in western New York on the Fourth of July, 2007.
He was making the 38th start of a long career in the Wadsworth Memorial Handicap, a nine-furlong contest named for a family of local influence for more than two centuries. After indulging a field of overmatched hopefuls to mid-stretch, Funny Cide drew off to win by three.
“We hadn’t planned on that being his last race,” Knowlton noted. “But when it was all said and done, what more could we ask of him? Going out a winner was a big deal.”
Funny Cide’s final tally read 38 starts at 13 tracks, 11 wins, six seconds, and eight thirds for earnings of $3,529,412. For those keep a certain kind of score, he also recorded 17 Beyer speed figures of 101 or more.
A different configuration of the Sackatoga partnership struck again in 2019 with Tiz The Law, a son of Constitution out of a Tiznow mare. Another New Yorker with Tagg at the helm, Tiz The Law took the Champagne Stakes at two, then in 2020 he won the Holy Bull Stakes and the Florida Derby before taking the pandemic shortened Belmont Stakes and the Travers Stakes.
“Even though we raced Tiz The Law and all he accomplished, when people want to talk with me, 90 percent of the time they still want to know about Funny Cide,” Knowlton said.
After about a year at the track in service as the Tagg stable pony, Funny Cide was retired to the Kentucky Horse Park in December 2008. In 2014, upon the death of Horse Park kingpin Cigar, Funny Cide moved into the number one stall.
Up close and personal
“You could tell the impact he still had in his 15 years at the Kentucky Horse Park,” Knowlton said. “It was a fabulous place for people to get up close and personal with a Kentucky Derby winner. The were devastated when he died.”
That day came on July 16, 2023, when Funny Cide suffered a bout of colic severe enough to be sent to nearby Hagyard Equine Medical Institute, but he could not pull through. The news of his death made the nation’s media, while his ashes were divided and interred at the Horse Park, Saratoga racetrack, and McMahon Thoroughbreds, his place of birth.
In July 2025, the Kentucky Horse Park plans to add a statue of Funny Cide to the attraction’s extensive collection of bronze tributes to a variety of champions and breeds. Shelley Hunter, the sculptor responsible for the Horse Park’s statues of John Henry and Alysheba, has created the Funny Cide bronze as well.
“In my office I’ve got what I call the Wall of Fame,” Knowlton said. “There are photos of his eight big wins, an original print of the Leroy Nieman portrait, a Peb caricature of Kentucky Derby Legends Day – somehow I snuck in there – and a photo of the promotion for his race at Woodbine with the sign, ‘See an American Hero on Canada Day’.”
More than two decades after his Triple Crown dramatics, the chestnut gelding remains one of the most popular Thoroughbreds of the last half-century.
Win or lose, he steadfastly represented a joyful departure from the often deadly serious business of racing Thoroughbreds.
“We had a lot of fun with all the Funny Cide shirts, hats, all kinds of memorabilia,” Knowlton said. “In my basement I’ve still got the first case of Funny Cide beer that came off the line. We always remember, though, it was Funny Cide who took us there.”
• Visit the Sackatoga Stable website and the Kentucky Horse Park website
• Read all Jay Hovdey's features in his Favorite Racehorses series
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Hollywood Wildcat: ‘She made my job easy’ – Eddie Delahoussaye
Shooting star with a personal impact: ‘You never forget a horse like Candy Ride’ – Julie Krone
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