A horse called Funny Cide is on the cusp of delivering a smart kick in the goolies to the plump and pampered bloodstock industry. He has already won the Kentucky Derby, for which he was a 14 to one shot, and the Preakness, for which he was favourite, by nearly 10 lengths. On Epsom Derby Day, he lines up for the Belmont Stakes in an attempt to become the first Triple Crown winner in the United States since Affirmed 25 years ago.
Funny Cide’s success is trebly remarkable. First, at a time when high-rollers tend to monopolise the big races he was bought for a relatively trifling $75 000 by a syndicate of bit-part players. He is only the ninth horse the Sackatoga Syndicate has owned.
Second, he is trained by 65-year-old Barclay Tagg, who looks after a stable of 20 horses in New York and has waited 30 years for a contender. Neither Tagg nor the New York trainers have any record in the Triple Crown races.
Third, he is a gelding. The last gelding to win the opening leg of the Triple Crown was Clyde von Duren in 1929. No gelding has won all three legs.
Little wonder Jackson Knowlton, spokesman for the syndicate, says he is ”having fun beyond compare”. He is a health-care consultant running a five-person firm. The other members are retired teachers, opticians, an owner of eye-glass stores, a utility worker, a construction worker and ”a fella who retired from being a math teacher”. The three main shareholders are all old high school friends and travel to the races in their yellow and black bus. On June 7 they are in line for a $5-million bonus if the ”Big Red” makes history.
Yet it could have been so much more if he’d kept his balls. If, instead of being lowly bred, he had come from an established line like Empire Maker, the favourite for the Kentucky Derby, whose sire was Unbridled. Jerry Woods, long-time president of the Washington Thoroughbred Association, reckons if Empire Maker had achieved what Funny Cide has done he would already be assured of a stud fee in the region of $500 000. Victory in New York in two weeks, and a Triple Crown, would take the fee far higher.
”Do the math,” says Woods. ”The average stallion services 80 to 100 mares a season — that’s $40-million a year plus by my calculations.” And you can add another 50% to that figure if the horse continues to pursue its stud duties in Australia in the off-season.
Instead, because he had one undescended testicle, Funny Cide was sent to the vet and the vast fees disappeared with his balls.
Knowlton is not concerned about the lost jackpot. If the horse had remained entire, ”someone would have dangled $10- or $15-million at us and we’re not a bunch of rich guys and none of us can earn that, so we would have had to sell him”.
The gelding of Funny Cide meant both the horse and his owners were no longer subject to temptation. And, furthermore, promises much excitement for the future because Funny Cide, rather than being hidden away at stud, will continue to run for as long as possible.
The New York-housed horse, who will go for the Crown in New York State, is already popular. ”There’ll be 120 000 to 125 000 at the Belmont if we get a nice weather day,” says Knowlton. ”That’ll be the highest attendance day for any sports event ever in New York.”
If he continues to run and win, Funny Cide will be bigger than Sea-
biscuit (an extraordinarily popular horse of the 1930s), the film of whose life opens in New York the week after the Belmont. ”He’s already accomplished an awful lot more than Sea-biscuit,” says Knowlton, becoming excited. ”He could be the greatest horse of all time. Possibly.”
There is an outside chance that Funny Cide might run in Europe. ”I wouldn’t rule out anything,” says Knowlton. ”Barclay has historically been a trainer of turf horses.”
Sadly, as the rules stand, he wouldn’t be able to run in the Arc for, in a sop to the breeders, geldings are banned, just as they are from any European Classic. But he could become the first US Triple Crown winner to run in the King George.
Even though geldings are of no use to the breeding industry, they are invaluable in proving the worth of different generations. Bill Watts, who trained the gelding Teleprompter to win the Queen Elizabeth Stakes when he was four, and the Arlington Million at five, says: ‘The whole point about geldings is that you can race a lot of good horses against them and provide a good form line. With a lot of good horses you see a glimpse of them and then they’re gone to stud. The only thing a gelding can do is race.”
Teleprompter ran all over the world, winning six races. It took a couple of good ones to beat him when, in the 1986 Eclipse, he finished third to Dancing Brave and Triptych. ”They probably put him in his place. Mind you, he was only a length behind Triptych,” says Watts.
It remains to be seen how good the horse that ends Funny Cide’s run will be. What is exciting is that as a gelding he can be watched by the public rather than hurried off to be housed in private, and when he does retire is likely to be put on display for everyone to see. He may go on to be as popular in the US as another gelding, Phar Lap, was in Australia. He may go on to be ”the greatest horse of all time. Possibly.” What is certain is that he won’t be rushed off to stud. —