Funny Cide goes from forgotten horse to favorite

Sackatoga Stable's Funny Cide has taken New York and the country by storm since he came home a winner in the 129th Kentucky Derby on May 3rd. Saturday, he goes for the second jewel in the Visa Triple Crown when he heads to Pimlico for the Preakness.

Belmont Park fans may get one more chance to wish him well, as trainer Barclay Tagg is considering schooling him in the paddock during this afternoon's races.

His on-track performances have made him a crowd-pleaser, as he always seems to have just a little more fight left when it looks as if the fight is over. But it is his off-track demeanor that has made him endearing.

"He's a lovely horse," Tagg said. "This horse is a gift from God. As for winning the Triple Crown, he either can do it or he can't. But he is such a lovely horse, that I feel blessed to have a horse like this to put in the race."

For the many media members that watched Funny Cide this week, their treat was to see him up close. Many had seen his races in New York last autumn, but had not seen him since, as he spent the winter in Florida. Many others surely missed him, at 12-1, in Kentucky.

But in the days after the Kentucky Derby, no one took his eyes off of Funny Cide. And a lot of people couldn't believe what they saw.

An Associated Press photo taken just two days after his historic victory showed him rearing up. Jockey Jose Santos, who told anyone who would listen that Funny Cide actually put on weight after his runner-up finish to Empire Maker in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, marveled at how fast his new favorite horse recovered.

He wasn't alone.

"He didn't act tired when we shipped him back on Sunday," said Tagg's assistant trainer, Robin Smullen, "and he didn't act tired on Monday, either. He was a handful."

In the ensuing days, Funny Cide continued to impress his admirers. Last Saturday, when Tagg opted to school Funny Cide in Belmont Park's paddock to get him used to the crowd, the chestnut gelding was covered in dapples and worked his audience like a lounge lizard on Ladies' Night. It was hard to believe he had won a mile and a quarter race just one week earlier.

Back at the barn, Tagg and Smullen made sure that Funny Cide stuck to his routine and sticking by his side, as always, were his groom, Zacarias Quintana, and his hotwalker Raunie Hart.

"One of those guys is always with Funny Cide," Tagg said. "I left one day at 5:30, came back at 9, then 11, then 1 and back in the morning, and one of them was always around. They are good, hard-working, dedicated people."

Such devotion has brought out the best in Funny Cide, who Smullen estimates is about 16 1/2 hands tall. As strong as he is in his races and as aggressive as he is in his gallops and works, Funny Cide is a laid back soul who is fond of candy, attention and, without question, his handlers. Her has a handsome face and a lean, but well-muscled body. Tagg describes him as "narrow."

Because he is a gelding, one of only eight to win the Kentucky Derby and the first since Clyde Van Dusen in 1929, Funny Cide has begun to draw comparisons with other geldings, most notably, the great five-time Horse of the Year, Kelso. So kind and likeable was Kelso that, when his racing days were over, Bohemia Stable's owner, Mrs. Allaire duPont turned him into her pleasure horse. Photos exist of Mrs. duPont and Kelso going over the jumps the wrong way at Saratoga Race Course, and taking his mistress out with the dogs on Mrs. DuPont's property.

It is no wonder that Tagg's admiration of Funny Cide, the first New York-bred to win the Kentucky Derby, borders on doting.

"I think that if he get a good trip, he'll be as tough as anybody else in the Preakness," Tagg said. "I'm certainly not going to trade him for anybody else. I feel very good going into this with Funny Cide.
"You work and wait all of your life for a horse like this. For, me he has made the last 30 something years seem worth it."