Distorted Humor connection extends to Tiz the Law's Belmont Stakes win

In 2003, Sackatoga Stable and trainer Barclay Tagg made an unlikely run at the Triple Crown with Funny Cide, a New York-bred gelding from the first crop of his sire, Distorted Humor. Funny Cide won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes before finishing third in the Belmont Stakes on a sloppy track.

Seventeen years later, Sackatoga and Tagg completed their personal Triple Crown with 2020 Belmont Stakes winner Tiz the Law, also a New York-bred and also from the first crop of his sire, Constitution. Distorted Humor, now 27, fittingly played a part in the story as well. The stallion is the broodmare sire of Constitution, who stands alongside him at WinStar Farm.

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Distorted Humor, a multiple Grade 2-winning son of Forty Niner, is one of the perennial leading sires in the country. In addition to Eclipse Award champion Funny Cide – who eventually retired with 10 stakes victories and more than $3.5 million in earnings – Distorted Humor is the sire of another classic winner in 2010 Belmont Stakes victor Drosselmeyer, who went on to add the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Classic. Distorted Humor’s other top progeny in North America include Canadian champion Hillaby, 2005 Travers Stakes winner and classic sire Flower Alley, two-time Whitney Handicap winner Commentator, and Grade 1 winners Any Given Saturday, Awesome Humor, Bit of Whimsy, Boisterous, Fourty Niners Son, Hystericalady, Jimmy Creed, Joking, and Restless Rider. In total, he is the sire of 165 stakes winners for more than $143 million in earnings.

As good as Distorted Humor is as a sire, he is emerging strongly as a broodmare sire. His Group 3-placed daughter Baffled has produced three stakes horses to date, led by Constitution. Constitution won a pair of Grade 1 races at Gulfstream Park, the 2014 Florida Derby and 2015 Donn Handicap, and his first crop is led by multiple Grade 1 winner Tiz the Law. Constitution also is the sire of graded stakes winners Amalfi Sunrise, By Your Side, Independence Hall, and Laura’s Light from his first crop, as well as Grade 1-placed Gouverneur Morris, another Kentucky Derby hopeful.

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Baffled also is the dam of Grade 3 winner Jacaranda and English Group 2 winner Boynton. The mare has an unnamed full brother to Constitution who is a juvenile this season. She produced a filly by Medaglia d’Oro last year and a colt by that same sire in May.

Distorted Humor also is the broodmare sire of Eclipse Award champion Arrogate, North America’s leading money-winning racehorse after winning, in succession, the 2016 Travers Stakes, 2016 Breeders’ Cup Classic, 2017 Pegasus World Cup Invitational, and 2017 Dubai World Cup. Distorted Humor’s daughters have produced 112 stakes winners, including New Money Honey, winner of the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and 2017 Belmont Oaks, and Grade 1 winners Book Review, Carrick, Elate, Guarana, Molly Morgan, Practical Joke, and Takaful.