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Funny Cide, ridden by Jose Santos, becomes the first New York-bred ever to win the Kentucky Derby. He paid $27.60 to win after outlasting the favored Empire Maker (center).

Funny Cide, second to Empire Maker in the Wood Memorial three weeks earlier, turned the tables on the highly regarded favorite and struck a great blow for his home state by becoming the first New York-bred to ever win the Kentucky Derby on Saturday at Churchill Downs.

In addition to becoming the first New York-bred to win the race, Funny Cide also became the first gelding to win the Derby since Clyde Van Dusen in 1929. There had been 74 losing geldings since then.

Funny Cide gave both jockey Jose Santos and trainer Barclay Tagg their first Derby victories. Santos, 42, had ridden in six previous Derbies. His best finish was a fourth with Cryptoclearance in 1987. This was the first Derby starter for Tagg, 65, who gave considerable credit to his assistant, Robin Smullen, the exercise rider for Funny Cide.

Funny Cide, who won by 1 3/4 lengths, outlasted a tag team from trainer Bobby Frankel, with Empire Maker finishing second and Peace Rules third. Atswhatimtalknbout, who broke poorly, was finishing fastest of all in the final yards and was fourth, beaten two lengths.

"I think he was finishing best," said David Flores, who rode Atswhatimtalknbout. "I got into trouble and I couldn't get out. I was in behind a wall looking for any little spot."

Eye of the Tiger was fifth and was followed, in order, by Buddy Gil, Outta Here, Ten Cents a Shine, Ten Most Wanted, Domestic Dispute, Scrimshaw, Offlee Wild, Supah Blitz, Indian Express, Lone Star Sky, and Brancusi. Sir Cherokee was scratched Friday with a hairline fracture to his right hind leg.

Funny Cide completed 1 1/4 miles on the fast main track in 2:01.19.

A crowd of 148,530, the fifth-largest in Derby history, attended the 129th Derby, which was run on a sunny, spring-like afternoon. Funny Cide was the seventh choice in the field of 16 and paid $27.60 to win.

Empire Maker floated up to the 5-2 favorite, with the public backing off him from his 6-5 morning line in light of his highly publicized foot bruise the middle of the week, which caused his training schedule to be interrupted. Frankel conceded that the lack of activity might have caught up to Empire Maker in the final yards.

"It might be that a little missed training might have cost him the race," Frankel said.

Funny Cide, by Distorted Humor out of the Slewacide mare Belle's Good Cide, was sold as a yearling for a mere $22,000. He is owned by the Sackatoga Stable, a group of friends from Sacketts Harbor, N.Y., whose partnership is managed by Jackson Knowlton. Sackatoga purchased Funny Cide privately for $75,000 last year.

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This was the fourth victory in seven starts for Funny Cide. He finished second to Empire Maker in the Wood, and third in the Louisiana Derby to Peace Rules in his two most recent starts.

Funny Cide received a perfect trip from the veteran Santos, who scored a major upset just six months ago with Volponi in the Breeders' Cup Classic. In the Derby, Santos was able to get Funny Cide to settle just behind the early pacesetters, Brancusi and Peace Rules, before moving to the lead near the top of the stretch.

"I was in perfect position," Santos said. "At the three-eighths pole, he felt very strong. Going a mile and quarter, he kept digging and digging."

The race was relatively clean, with the exception of a poor start and traffic for Atswhatimtalknbout, and some bumping near the start and again on the first turn that compromised the chances of the speed horse Indian Express.

As the field neared the far turn, Brancusi began to stop badly, leaving Peace Rules on the lead. But Funny Cide was up to engage him quickly, and he and Peace Rules passed the mile mark in 1:35.75.

Empire Maker got to the flank of Funny Cide near the top of the stretch, but Funny Cide never let him past.

"I was parked a little bit wide on the first turn," said Jerry Bailey, who rode Empire Maker. "When he went to the leaders, he didn't do it with authority."

Bailey said he did not think Empire Maker was compromised by the foot bruise that forced him to miss a day of training at mid-week, and to merely jog another day.

- additional reporting by Steve Andersen and David Grening

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Funny Cide romps in the 128th Preakness Stakes Saturday at Pimlico and will shoot for 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 of his mount, 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.

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"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 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

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Empire Maker, with Jerry Bailey up, beats Ten Most Wanted by three-quarters of a length to win the Belmont Stakes. For trainer Bobby Frankel, it was his first Triple Crown victory.

As far as Frankel is concerned, it should have been "Empire Strikes Back."

"They had theirs," Frankel said, referring to the Funny Cide team. "It was time for someone else."

Empire Maker's victory in Saturday's 135th Belmont Stakes brought to a conclusion one of the most fascinating, emotionally gripping Triple Crown series in years. But it also set the stage for a rivalry that will be played out over the remainder of the year, with Empire Maker and Funny Cide battling for the 3-year-old championship. Empire Maker now holds a 2-1 advantage. He beat Funny Cide in the Wood Memorial and the Belmont. Funny Cide beat Empire Maker in the Kentucky Derby.

Both Empire Maker and Funny Cide came out of the Belmont in good condition, will get a much-deserved vacation while remaining at Belmont Park, and then will reappear in August. Empire Maker is scheduled to run next in the 1 1/8-mile Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 3. Funny Cide most likely will run in the 1 1/8-mile Haskell Invitational at Monmouth the same day, where his rivals could include another Frankel-trained runner, Peace Rules.

The Haskell, at $1 million, is worth twice as much as the Jim Dandy. It also offers a bonus that would be worth $50,000 to Funny Cide's owners, the Sackatoga Stable, and another $50,000 to trainer Barclay Tagg for simply running in the race.

If both Empire Maker and Funny Cide win those races, that would set the stage for a summer blockbuster in the $1 million, 1 1/4-mile Travers Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 23, which also is expected to lure Ten Most Wanted, the Belmont runner-up.

"They've had three races, and they've been three very competitive races," said Jack Knowlton, the head of the Sackatoga Stable partnership. "They've won two, but we won the big one. We're not ready to concede that we're not going to beat him again. A mile and an eighth, a mile and a quarter, those are better distances for our horse than a mile and a half."

Empire Maker, a son of Unbridled, might have had the advantage going 1 1/2 miles in the Belmont. He also had the advantage of training straight into the race following the Derby, whereas Funny Cide had continued on the Triple Crown trail and won powerfully in the Preakness Stakes.

"Funny Cide had had two tough races," Frankel said.

Before the Derby, the focus of this 3-year-old crop was on Empire Maker. His victory in the Wood made him the overwhelming favorite for the Derby. In fact, it was he, not Funny Cide, who was considered a potential Triple Crown threat. But in the five weeks between the finish of the Derby and the start of the Belmont, it was Funny Cide who took on the aura of a folk hero. He had an underdog trainer in Tagg, regular-guy ownership group, plebian pedigree, and a jockey, Jose Santos, who was the subject of a quickly discredited Miami Herald story insinuating he had cheated in the Derby

When Funny Cide came on the track for the Belmont, he received a thunderous ovation, and he received a heartfelt round of applause after failing in the Belmont.

"I've never seen a horse get beat and get cheered," said Santos, who was eagerly anticipating a rematch with Empire Maker. "He beat me in the Wood. I beat him in the Kentucky Derby. He beat me in the Belmont. Maybe they will meet again in the Haskell, or Travers, like two good boxers. There will be a lot of talk between the next race between Empire Maker and Funny Cide. We'll see what's going to happen. I think it will be very interesting."

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For Frankel, the remainder of the year offers a chance to prove his belief that Empire Maker is a special colt. Frankel thought Empire Maker was capable of winning the Triple Crown, and admits that he did not train Empire Maker as aggressively before the Derby as he did for the Belmont because, at the time, he wanted to keep Empire Maker fresh for the entire Triple Crown. Frankel refused, though, to wonder what might have been.

"You look back to see what goes wrong, then you take the positive from it and go on," he said. "The positive is that he missed the Preakness and I'll have him for the rest of the year. He looks great and he's healthy instead of going through the grind of the Triple Crown.

"I like giving my horses time between races. I like the seven weeks going into the Jim Dandy. It's perfect for my style. He's thriving. Hopefully he does what I think he can and you'll see a great horse by the end of the year."

Frankel said he might have been overconfident before the Derby, even with the foot bruise Empire Maker suffered the week of the race.

"There was no room for error when he had the foot problem," Frankel said. "Sometimes you get away with it. We didn't that time."

Funny Cide's connections were as graceful after the loss in the Belmont as they were following victories in the Derby and Preakness. Tagg took the loss hardest, saying he "felt terrible for all those people behind the horse," but he was proud Funny Cide performed well in all three Triple Crown races. "At least we got to all three. Not many did," Tagg said.

Robin Smullen, who is Tagg's assistant trainer and girlfriend, and Funny Cide's exercise rider, said she was disappointed Funny Cide lost, but was "so proud of the horse for accomplishing what he's accomplished."

"Empire Maker is going to do major, major things, and maybe be a top sire," Smullen said. "But we beat him in the Kentucky Derby. Empire Maker is bred to be a champion. But Funny Cide was the best horse the first week in May."

Ten Most Wanted returned to California on Monday, and will train at Hollywood Park for his next start. Wally Dollase, Ten Most Wanted's trainer and co-owner, said Ten Most Wanted most likely will use Hollywood Park's Swaps Stakes on July 13 as a prep for the Travers. Dollase is desirous of returning to the Travers with Ten Most Wanted, a son of Deputy Commander, whom Dollase trained to a Travers victory in 1997.

"That's the biggest thrill I've ever had, winning that race by one inch," Dollase said.