Funny Cide Joins Field for Breeders’ Cup Classic

Some life was breathed back into the $4-million Breeders’ Cup Classic when trainer Barclay Tagg announced Sunday morning from Belmont Park that Funny Cide would be running in the race.

Funny Cide, winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness and still trying to win the Eclipse Award for best 3-year-old male, had dropped off the radar this summer after he sat out the Travers at Saratoga because of a respiratory problem. Since the gelding returned to training, Tagg had mentioned several possible races, none of them the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita on Oct. 25, and as recently as last week said the horse would run against New York-breds in a $250,000 race at Belmont on Saturday.

But after Funny Cide worked a mile in 1:38 3/5 Sunday over Belmont’s training track, Tagg said that his horse would run in the Classic instead of in New York.

“If he’s going to face older horses [for the first time], we might as well run for $4 million. I’d hate for him to maybe stumble out of the gate next Saturday and possibly get beaten by New York-breds.”

The Classic picked up another contender last week when trainer Murray Johnson said that he would be running Perfect Drift. The defections of Mineshaft, perhaps the best older horse this year, along with Candy Ride and Empire Maker, had considerably weakened the Classic field. Funny Cide will be joined in the Classic by Ten Most Wanted, a late-developing 3-year-old colt who won the Travers with Tagg’s horse and Empire Maker on the sidelines.

“My horse has been training great and it’s worth the risk,” Tagg said. “He’s a free-running horse, and I’d rather have him going two turns at Santa Anita than running just one turn at Belmont. He might get rank [hard to handle] just going one turn. We’re conservative by nature, but I’d say anyone in our position would have considered the Breeders’ Cup.”

Tagg plans two more workouts at Belmont for Funny Cide, who probably won’t arrive at Santa Anita until two or three days before the race. Funny Cide will need a new rider, now that Jose Santos, who had lost the mount, has been rehired to ride Volponi in the Classic. Volponi won the race last year, at Arlington Park, but is winless this year and will again be a longshot.

After winning the Derby and the Preakness, Funny Cide ran third in the Belmont, costing his owners the Triple Crown and a $5-million bonus. Empire Maker, who has been retired, won the Belmont.

Funny Cide’s only start since then was Aug. 3, when he ran third, behind Peace Rules and Sky Mesa, in the Haskell Handicap at Monmouth Park.

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Jerry Bailey, who has ridden a record 13 Breeders’ Cup races, will ride in at least six of the eight stakes at Santa Anita. His mounts include Medaglia d’Oro in the Classic, Cuvee in the Juvenile, Victory U.S.A. in the Juvenile Fillies, Sightseek in the Distaff, Six Perfections in the Mile and Heat Haze in the Filly & Mare Turf. Trainer Bobby Frankel was unhappy with Jose Valdivia Jr.’s ride on Heat Haze when she finished third in the Flower Bowl Handicap....Irish Warrior, winner of the Del Mar Handicap, will run in the Breeders’ Cup Mile....Trainer Patrick Biancone said that two of his 2-year-olds, the colt Pomeroy and the filly Whoopi Cat, will sit out the Breeders’ Cup....Valentine Dancer won the Harold C. Ramser Sr. Handicap at Santa Anita in stakes-record time. Her 1:32 4/5 mile on grass was three-fifths of a second faster than Flawlessly’s clocking in 1991.