Funny Duck finds his niche in slop

Easily the most stunning result in the seven Derby Day stakes was the 4 3/4-length romp on the sloppy track by Funny Duck, a 39-1 shot, in the Grade 3 Pat Day Mile. The Distorted Humor colt was racing on dirt for the second time and recording just his second win from seven overall starts.

“We blew up a lot of tickets, didn’t we?” said Rusty Arnold, who trains Funny Duck for the Calumet Farm of Brad Kelley. “We’d intended to run him on the grass [in the American Turf], but Mr. Kelley called and said, ‘You know, we’ve only tried him the one time on the dirt, maybe we can try it again.’ I said, ‘You want to run him on dirt, we’ll run on the dirt.’ I don’t know if it was the slop or he’s matured or what, but he sure ran a big one and beat a really tough field doing it.”

Arnold said he is inclined to stretch out Funny Duck for his next start, as opposed to turning him back in the seven-furlong Woody Stephens. He said the June 16 Matt Winn at Churchill or June 23 Ohio Derby at Thistledown are logical targets.