Champion, Kentucky Derby winner Funny Cide dies at 23

HRN Staff
Photo: Matt Shifman

Funny Cide, winner of the 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness, died Sunday morning at age 23.

Owner Sackatoga Stable said in a Twitter post that he died at Kentucky Horse Park, where he lived in his retirement.

Bought for $22,000 as a yearling, Funny Cide is the only New York-bred horse to win the Kentucky Derby. The gelding's bid for a Triple Crown ended with a third-place finish in a rainy Belmont Stakes for trainer Barclay Tagg, but he went on to win the Eclipse Award as top 3-year-old colt of 2003.

A son of Distorted Humor, he compiled a record of 38: 11-6-8 and earnings of $3,529,412. Other graded-stakes wins came in the Grade 3 Breeders' Cup Handicap at Aqueduct and the Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1) in 2004, plus the Dominion Day (G3) at Woodbine in 2006. His final start was a win in a listed stakes at Finger Lakes in 2007. 

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