Funny Guy takes rail trip to upset Mr. Buff in Commentator

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Though Funny Guy hadn’t run in 257 days, trainer John Terranova was feeling good about the preparation his horse had coming up to Friday’s $125,000 Commentator Stakes for New York breds at Belmont Park.

Then he saw the entries.

“When I saw the field, I said, ‘Wow, this is a pretty deep field of New York-breds. These are runners,’ ” Terranova said. “But, here we are, everybody’s having to do different things this year, having to reschedule, whatever, and he’s doing so well we got to stay in here.”

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Just wanting to get a start that he could build off for the remainder of the year, Terranova got more than that as Funny Guy rallied along the inside under Joel Rosario to win the Commentator by 1 1/4 lengths at odds of 11-1. Mr. Buff, the eight-time stakes winner and millionaire earner, could only manage second, holding off Bankit by a neck.

The pacesetting Blewitt was fourth followed by Build to Suit, Pat On the Back -- last year’s Commentator winner -- Honor Up, and My Boy Tate. Longshot Whistling Birds was pulled up a furlong into the race and vanned off.

Funny Guy, a 4-year-old son of Big Brown, won for the fourth time in 11 starts. This was his third stakes victory. At 3, he won a division of the New York Stallion Stakes at Aqueduct and the Albany Stakes at Saratoga. Friday, he was making his first start since he finished sixth in the Grade 3 Oklahoma Derby at Remington Park last Sept. 29.

“We’ve been ready for a while,” Terranova said. “We were just waiting.”

Jockey Joel Rosario, who had Funny Guy in reserve in seventh, was waiting to make his run. He kept the horse inside throughout while Blewitt set a solid pace, stalked by Mr. Buff, the 127-pound highweight and 4-5 favorite.

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Approaching the five-sixteenths pole, Rosario had to steady Funny Guy slightly as Build to Suit was beginning to tire. When Manny Franco got Build to Suit off the rail, Rosario pounced and had open space in front of him. Funny Guy, carrying 119 pounds, rallied inside of Blewitt at the eighth pole and was going better of the rest in the final furlong.

“I had to be on the inside. I kind of had no choice where I was,” Rosario said. “He was fine in there, he had no problem with that. Between the three-furlong and the quarter-pole I had to use him a little bit because the horse in front of me was slowing down at that point. I got through there and the farther we were going he was getting better. Good performance.”

Funny Guy ran a mile in 1:34.35 and returned $24.40 to win. The victory was the third from 10 starts at the meet for Terranova. Funny Guy is owned by Mike Gatsas, Randy Hill, and Swick Stable. Gatsas and Hill won the Grade 1 Carter last Saturday with Vekoma, trained by George Weaver.

Junior Alvarado, the rider of Mr. Buff, said his horse might have been compromised by having more time between starts than is typical.

“I would have wished he would have one or two more workouts in him to make sure he was tight enough for the race,” Alvarado said. “His first two workouts he was very laid back. Normally, I like him a little sharper than that, but still he ran a great race. He dug in there and never gave up the second position and tried hard to the wire.”