NEWS
Funny Cide headed to Kentucky
Posted: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 12:13 PM
FUNNY CIDE
NTRA photo
Kentucky Derby (G1) and Preakness Stakes (G1) winner Funny Cide will be the newest resident of the Kentucky Horse Park on December 5.
Since his retirement as a race horse in 2007, the eight-year-old Distorted Humor gelding has worked as trainer Barclay Tagg’s stable pony.
“The rigors of racing and training for several years have started to cause him mild discomfort recently as he continued working on a regular basis as my stable pony,” Tagg said. “So now the time has come, as he is turning nine years old, to really retire.”
Funny Cide will join another Kentucky Derby winner, Alysheba, who came to the park in October.
John Nicholson, executive director of the Horse Park, said Funny Cide will be a welcome addition to the Hall of Champions.
“He was one of those rare horses who captured the public’s imagination while he was on the track and continues to have a significant following of loyal fans,” Nicholson said. “He is quite a young horse, so we hope the public will visit him often and get to know him over the coming years, and develop a special relationship with him the way they have so many of our other resident champions.”
Out of the Slewacide mare Belle’s Good Cide, Funny Cide was bred by WinStar Farm in a collaborative venture with McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds in Saratoga Springs, New York, where he was foaled, raised, and sold as a yearling for $22,000 at the 2001 Fasig-Tipton New York-bred preferred yearlings sale.
He later was purchased privately by Sackatoga Stable for $75,000. Funny Cide won 11 of 38 starts and earned $3,529,412, making him the highest-earning New York-bred in history. He was named champion three-year-old male of 2003.
Jack Knowlton, managing partner of Sackatoga Stable, said the ten owners involved with Funny Cide were honored he was invited to live at the Horse Park and happy his fan base would have an opportunity to visit him.
WinStar President Doug Cauthen said Funny Cide helped put the Versailles, Kentucky farm on the map.
“He proved we could breed a top horse, and that we were willing to sell our best to promote our stallions,” Cauthen said. “He was the first classic winner for his sire Distorted Humor, who is the foundation stallion at WinStar Farm, and who has proven to be one of the top sires in the world. Watching Funny Cide win the Kentucky Derby was a surreal moment, and a game-changing event for WinStar Farm. We owe him big!”
Robin Smullen, assistant trainer to Tagg, said they will miss him dearly in their daily routine.
“We have been fortunate and very blessed to have had Funny Cide in our lives,” Smullen said. “He has changed people’s perspective about horse racing. Realistically, he is a once-in-a-lifetime horse and now he will be able to touch other people’s lives in his retirement.”
The public is invited to the Horse Park for Funny Cide’s welcome reception on December 5 at 2 p.m. During the winter the park is open Wednesdays through Sundays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information contact the Kentucky Horse Park, 859-233-4303 or www.KyHorsePark.com.
