Funny Cide Wins Preakness

Funny Cide showed a serious side Saturday, barreling down the stretch for a runaway victory in the Preakness and setting the stage for a Triple Crown try in the Belmont Stakes in three weeks.

It was the second remarkable win in a row for the New York-bred chestnut gelding, journeyman trainer Barclay Tagg and an ownership group of high school pals who kicked in $5,000 apiece to start Sackatoga Stable.

The win may have been sweetest of all for jockey Jose Santos. It came just five days after he was cleared by Churchill Downs stewards investigating a photograph and a news report that raised the question of whether he carried something other than his whip as he crossed the finish line at the Kentucky Derby.

Instead of two days, Santos had to wait less than two minutes for the verdict this time. Funny Cide pulled away from the field turning for home and steadily increased his margin through the stretch before the cheering crowd at Pimlico Race Course.

His powerful finish was something to behold: He won by 9 3/4 lengths 1/4 length shy of Survivor's 10-length victory in the first Preakness, in 1873.

The win moved Funny Cide to the brink of racing immortality on June 7, when he will attempt to become the 12th Triple Crown champion and first since Affirmed in 1978.

Funny Cide will be the fifth horse in the last seven years with a Triple chance, and ninth since Affirmed swept the Derby, Preakness and Belmont a quarter century ago.

A gelding has never won the Triple Crown.

At the finish, Santos stood in the stirrups, put his fingers to his lips, blew a kiss and then held up his hand as if he wanted to make sure all the world could see there was nothing in it.

The 9-5 favorite in the field of 10 3-year-olds, Funny Cide covered the 1 3/16th-mile Preakness in 1:55.61, well off the record of 1:53.4 last accomplished by Louis Quatorze in 1996.

Midway Road, a 20-1 shot, was second, with Scrimshaw third and Peace Rules fourth. Senor Swinger was fifth, followed by New York Hero, Foufa's Warrior, Cherokee's Boy, Ten Cents a Shine and Kissin Saint.

Funny Cide won for the fifth time in seven starts and earned $650,000 for Sackatoga, boosting his career money totals to $1,889,385. Tagg, a self-described eternal pessimist, bought Funny Cide for $75,000 late last year.

The winner returned $5.80, $4.60 and $3.40. Midway Road, with Robby Albarado aboard, returned $15.40 and $9 and Scrimshaw paid $4 to show.