Horsephotos

Funny Cide (above) will likely face Empire Maker and Dynever in the Belmont Stakes June 7, when he attempts to become the 12th Triple Crown winner.

Funny Cide left Pimlico Race Course exactly three hours after he crossed the wire in the Preakness and headed back late Saturday night to Belmont Park, where he is based with trainer Barclay Tagg. He arrived at 1:15 Sunday morning, but the race and schedule appeared to have taken little out of him, according to Robin Smullen, who is Funny Cide's assistant trainer and exercise rider.

"Yesterday I took him out to graze," Smullen said Monday morning at Belmont Park. "He was rearing up and striking at me in the afternoon. I couldn't believe it,"

Funny Cide will have to save some of that energy for the Belmont, which at 1 1/2 miles is the longest of the Triple Crown races. It will be his third race in five weeks, and he will be meeting several worthy rivals - such as Atswhatimtalknbout, Dynever, Empire Maker, and Ten Most Wanted - who bypassed the Preakness to point for the Belmont.

Other possibilities for the Belmont are Midway Road, Most Feared, Outta Here, Scrimshaw, and Ten Cents a Shine. A runner or two could also emerge from Saturday's Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont Park, which is expected to include Alysweep, Christine's Outlaw, and Spite the Devil.

But Funny Cide has several points in his favor. He is returning to Belmont Park, where he won all three of his starts last year to begin his career. He is clearly thriving at the opportune time. His 9 3/4-length victory in the Preakness is officially the second-biggest margin in that race's 128 runnings. However, the record of 10 lengths was recorded in the first Preakness, in 1873, when winning margins were estimates made by placing judges or chart callers for newspapers, not precise measurements using photo finishes. In addition, that Preakness was run at 1 1/2 miles. So, Funny Cide's winning margin is the biggest since the Preakness was run at 1 3/16 miles beginning in 1925.

Funny Cide got a Beyer Speed Figure of 114 in the Preakness. That is the best figure run by a 3-year-old this year in a race farther than seven furlongs.

Funny Cide is scheduled to return to the track for a jog on Wednesday, but Smullen on Monday said she might take Funny Cide to the track on Tuesday, just to let him stand, if he continues to act as fresh as he has since the race. She said Funny Cide would have two works between the Preakness and Belmont, most likely on May 27 and June 3. That schedule would be identical to Funny Cide's preparation in the three weeks between the Wood Memorial and the Derby.

"You'd like to have four or five weeks, but he's a big, stout horse and seems to be handling everything well," Tagg said Sunday in a conference call. "You always have to wonder about a horse. Sometimes they're doing really well and they fall apart. They are athletes, and we put them under a lot of stress. Every day I'm glad that I didn't do more than three races before the Kentucky Derby, so I left some leeway there. I was going to put four races in him before the Derby, but I'm glad I didn't. Hopefully the plan will work. It's worked so far."

Funny Cide is the 27th horse who has won at least the first two legs of the Triple Crown, and the ninth since Affirmed. The eight previous horses since 1978 - Spectacular Bid, Pleasant Colony, Alysheba, Sunday Silence, Silver Charm, Real Quiet, Charismatic, and, last year, War Emblem - all lost the Belmont. Of those eight, only Spectacular Bid and Pleasant Colony had previously raced at Belmont Park. All 11 Triple Crown winners had raced at Belmont Park at least once before the Belmont.

"I have no clue how he'll run a mile and half. I have a feeling he'll handle it rather easily," Tagg said. "Everybody has been such naysayers on this horse being a true distance horse that I've always been a little guarded in my opinion. So far he's proved it, but adding another quarter of a mile is a big difference."

Funny Cide was sired by Distorted Humor, a son of Forty Niner and grandson of Mr. Prospector. Funny Cide's female family traces to Seattle Slew, the 1977 Triple Crown winner, and Little Current, who won the Preakness and Belmont in 1974.

Two of the colts scheduled to challenge Funny Cide in the Belmont, Atswhatimtalknbout and Empire Maker, were scheduled for workouts on Tuesday. Atswhatimtalknbout, who was fourth in the Derby, is training at Churchill Downs.

"He's doing really well," Ron Ellis, the trainer of Atswhatimtalknbout, said Monday from Kentucky. "He's getting stronger and stronger by the day." A.P. Indy, the sire of Atswhatimtalknbout, won the Belmont in 1992.

Empire Maker, who finished second as the favorite in the Derby, has been training at Belmont Park since leaving Churchill Downs. He has split two meetings with Funny Cide, having beaten the Derby winner in the Wood Memorial.

"It'll be a great race if everybody shows up, and I want everybody to show up," said Empire Maker's trainer, Bobby Frankel. "I just want to see who's better. If he's better than me, I'll take my hat off to him."

Frankel believes that bypassing the Preakness gives Empire Maker an advantage in the Belmont.

Frankel said Funny Cide "has had two hard races. I think I have an edge on him."

Dynever, who has won the Aventura Stakes at Gulfstream Park and the Lone Star Derby in his last two starts, is scheduled for a work at the end of the week at Belmont Park.

"I was a lot more confident before the Preakness than after," Christophe Clement, the trainer of Dynever, said Monday. "I will take him on. I will try my best. We'll see what happens."

Ten Most Wanted, the Illinois Derby winner, who ran poorly as the second choice in the Derby, has been treated by an equine chiropractor since that race and is "doing great," his trainer, Wally Dollase, said Monday from Hollywood Park, where Ten Most Wanted has been training since the Derby.

"I feel the Belmont is a good distance for this horse, and he's been tearing the barn down," Dollase said.

Ronny Werner, the trainer of Lone Star Derby runner-up Most Feared, said he was "leaning toward giving him a shot in the Belmont."

Neil Howard, the trainer of Preakness runner-up Midway Road, said it was possible his horse would run, but he said the June 21 Ohio Derby at Thistledown was also possible. "We'll wait a few days and see," Howard said.

Bill Currin, who trains and co-owns Outta Here, the seventh-place finisher in the Derby, also said the Belmont is possible. "Right now, I'm kind of straddling," he said.

- additional reporting by David Grening

Belmont Stakes contenders

The following horses are being considered for the 135th Belmont Stakes June 7:

	Horse		Jockey		Trainer		Last start
	Atswhatimtalknbout		D. Flores		R. Ellis		4th, Ky. Derby
	Dynever		E. Prado		C. Clement		1st, L.S. Derby
	Empire Maker		J. Bailey		R. Frankel		2nd, Ky. Derby
	Funny Cide		J. Santos		B. Tagg		1st, Preakness
	Most Feared		S. Sellers		R. Werner		2nd, L.S. Derby
	Scrimshaw		G. Stevens		D.W. Lukas		3rd, Preakness
	Ten Most Wanted		P. Day		W. Dollase		9th, Ky. Derby

Possible: Alysweep, Christine's Outlaw, Midway Road, Outta Here, Ten Cents a Shine

Horsephotos

Jose Santos savors his Preakness win.

Monday morning, Robin Smullen, the assistant trainer for Barclay Tagg, fielded a phone call from a psychic named Maxine, who wanted to plan a meeting with Tagg and Funny Cide, winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, prior to the Belmont Stakes on June 7 at Belmont Park.

A roll of Smullen's eyes was all anyone needed to see to know whether that meeting would happen.

Besides, Smullen said no psychics will be needed to understand how well Funny Cide is doing leading into the Belmont, where Funny Cide will attempt to become Thoroughbred racing's 12th Triple Crown winner, and first in 25 years. Smullen said all anyone need do is pay attention to her and Tagg.

"Barclay and I have been very confident," Smullen said. "We don't brag about it because that's not our nature, either one of us. But we're both optimistically confident. He's a pessimist, but he's very optimistic about this horse and always has been.

"So when someone says how is he doing and Barclay and I both say good or excellent or perfect, if you know Barclay at all it doesn't get any better than that," Smullen continued.

Monday morning, Funny Cide appeared to be doing excellent. Following his 9 3/4-length demolition of nine rivals in the Preakness, Funny Cide arrived back in New York at 1:15 Sunday morning and thirty minutes later he was fed his breakfast. When Smullen came back to the barn at 4:45 a.m. and looked at his feed tub, it was clean.

"It's pretty amazing how he's handled all this," she said, noting that Funny Cide had continued to eat up well. "You wait for him to eat half or nothing, but that doesn't happen. He's doing great."

Funny Cide grazed outside his barn Sunday afternoon and while walking the shed row Monday, Smullen said, Funny Cide "was rearing up and playing." That's a good sign that his energy level remains high.

Smullen said the tentative plan was for Funny Cide to return to the track Wednesday morning. However, it was possible he could go to the track Tuesday if Tagg deemed it necessary. Tagg was due back from Maryland late Monday afternoon.

Smullen said she and Tagg were both confident in Funny Cide's chances in the Preakness, but even she never expected he'd win by 9 3/4 lengths, the second largest margin in the 128-year history of the Preakness.

"I know the horse, I know what he's capable of, but I was in awe watching the Preakness," said Smullen, who is Funny Cide's exercise rider.

Smullen said the magnitude of going for the Triple Crown had not hit her by Monday morning. But, Smullen said, "it doesn't matter" if Funny Cide doesn't win the Triple Crown, he's already established as the sport's newest star.

"People are going to laugh and say 'yeah it matters,' but it doesn't matter," she said. "He's run eight times, he's won almost $2 million in eight starts. Sure, you hope he does it. Sure, you hope you have a Triple Crown winner, but if you don't he's still an unbelievably talented horse that's changed a lot of people's lives.

"Are you going to be hugely disappointed [if he loses]?" Smullen continued. "That depends on what you consider 'hugely disappointed.' Anyone's going to be disappointed. Hugely disappointed with a horse that's earned $2 million in eight starts and runs his heart out every time he runs? No."

Smullen pointed out that as a gelding Funny Cide will be around for fans to enjoy for several years.

"His life is just starting now," Smullen said. "If he wins the Triple Crown, that's great. Provided he stays sound, he's got years and years of racing and a lot of fans that are going to fall in love with him if they haven't already."

Smullen noted that the 11 previous Triple Crown winners all had at least one race over Belmont's main track before the Belmont Stakes. Of the eight horses to have gone for the Triple Crown and failed, only Spectacular Bid (1979) and Pleasant Colony (1981) raced at Belmont as a 2-year-old.

Funny Cide went 3 for 3 at Belmont last year.

Horsephotos

Funny Cide romps in the 128th Preakness Stakes Saturday at Pimlico and will shoot for the Triple Crown.

Funny Cide took command of Saturday's $1 million Preakness Stakes with a powerful rush with a quarter-mile remaining, then drew away in a thoroughly dominating performance, winning by 9 3/4 lengths in the 128th Preakness before an announced crowd of 100,268 at Pimlico Race Course.

The margin was the second-largest in Preakness history. Survivor, who won the first Preakness in 1873, was a 10-length winner.

The victory was an emotional one for Santos and his family, who endured baseless charges in the Miami Herald that he may have ridden with an illegal electrical device in the Derby.

The story was quickly discredited, but the pent-up emotion came pouring out after the race, with Santos's wife, Rita, and 8-year-old son, Jose Jr., crying tears of joy. Midway Road, a 20-1 shot, rallied for second, three-quarters of a length in front of Scrimshaw, who beat Peace Rules by a nose for third.

"I thought he ran big," said Robby Albarado, the jockey on Midway Road, "but all I could see was Funny Cide getting smaller and smaller."

Funny Cide won the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago, and now heads to the June 7 Belmont Stakes with a chance to become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978. The 25-year gap equals the longest drought of Triple Crown winners; there was 25 years between Triple Crown sweeps by Citation in 1948 and Secretariat in 1973.

Funny Cide, a gelding, is a son of Distorted Humor. He was bred in New York and will return to his home state seeking the elusive Triple Crown.

The owners of Funny Cide, the Sackatoga Stable that is headed by Jack Knowlton, earned $650,000 for the victory, but they are in line for a far richer day. If Funny Cide can win the Belmont, he will earn a $5 million bonus from Visa, the Triple Crown sponsor.

Funny Cide went off the 9-5 favorite and paid $5.80 after covering 1 3/16 miles in 1:55.61. A daily double bet combining Mineshaft in Friday's Pimlico Special with Funny Cide returned $18.80.

The Preakness was run over a track rated good. The surface was deluged with water on Friday, but the track was sealed before the races that day. Because of that, the water was unable to seep into the packed-down surface. The track was rated sloppy for Saturday's first race, was upgraded to muddy before the second race, and was upgraded to good midway through the card.

The track was not fast, but Funny Cide was. This was far and away the best performance of his career, proving that the 3-year-old gelding is thriving at just the right time. He was brought into the race in peak condition by trainer Barclay Tagg and assistant Robin Smullen.

"He's just done everything well," Tagg said. "Robin's done a super, super job. Everything's gone well."

As he did in the Derby, Funny Cide used his adaptable, tactical speed to carve out a perfect trip. Funny Cide, starting from post 9 in the 10-horse field, bumped with New York Hero leaving the gate, and was floated out to the middle of the track during the first eighth of a mile because Peace Rules and his jockey, Edgar Prado, waited, in an appropriate tactical move, until late in the stretch to drop in.

When Peace Rules finally moved toward the rail, he found Scrimshaw already occupying that spot. Scrimshaw led by a head, with Peace Rules right outside him, after a quarter-mile in 23.37 seconds. Funny Cide tucked in third, just behind and to the outside of those horses.

As the field moved into the backstretch, Scrimshaw dropped back, leaving Peace Rules on the lead after a half-mile in 47.14 seconds. But Santos did not dawdle. He immediately let Funny Cide move up to challenge Peace Rules, and the top two choices began to pull away from the field.

Peace Rules led Funny Cide by only a half-length after six furlongs in 1:11.62, but Funny Cide appeared to be going the better of the two, because Prado already was urging Peace Rules. Midway Road was gaining along the rail, and Scrimshaw was beginning to re-rally after being taken to the outside by jockey Gary Stevens.

Peace Rules and Funny Cide had their own private match race for three furlongs, but then Funny Cide blew the race open. He came off the turn with a powerful turn of foot, led by five lengths with a furlong remaining, and coasted to the wire. "I thought he had it in him to do that," Tagg said. "I thought he was going along in that direction. I was hesitant to say that."

Said Smullen, "I was very proud of him. I didn't think he would win with the authority that he did. I didn't expect that. That was wonderful."

- additional reporting by Matt Hegarty