Gentlemen:
Interesting opportunity may exist in tomorrow\'s 10th race @GP.
FUNNY CIDE preps for the DONN in his return going 7f. Other name horses such as NY HERO< JUSTIFICATION< AMERICAN STYLE may get overplayed due to their notoriety, connections, etc.
I doubt very much that Tagg winds up FUNNY CIDE to give his best in a 7f optional claimer. The other name horses have Thoro #\'s that leave them as question marks, especially sprinting.
Interesting entry on the rail in WACKY FOR LOVE. Obviously not prepping for longer and has a nice pattern. Second race improvement as expected for this newly turned 4yo could land him in the winners circle at double digit odds.
Hey, it\'s better than laying 7 with the RAMS.
Any opinions out there???
Good Luck,
Joe B.
Interesting what you say about Funny Cide Joe B. I\'m not saying the horse needs to be played by any stretch, however it may be time to get this horse winning again.
The race in the Haskel was not good because Funny was not at his best. The race in the BC was a COMPLETE FIASCO and one can only wonder how the media would have handled the scenario had he been trained by, ooooh lets say D. Wayne Lukas.
Tagg, the Owners, whoever got a total free pass on that one.
Losing can become habitual, the sudden move to throw him back to the races can be viewed conspicuously or as a green light.
As someone who WAS a Funny fan lets hope it is the later.
Silver Charm---
For the FUNNY CIDE fans, I hope you are right. I\'m just not sure he\'ll ever be the same and I don\'t want to start finding out at 3-5.
When right, FC is certainly the fastest horse in this race, however we\'ll know soon what the deal is. Sometimes these type of situations yield some nice payoffs on some other horse that may not be as well known but is improving, is at a preferred distance, and meets others in the race with bigger fish to fry.
Good Luck,
Joe B.
Joe B you wrote,
>I\'m just not sure he\'ll ever be the same
then you wrote,
>some other horse... meets others in the race with bigger fish to fry.
My feelings are is if he is not the same there are no bigger fish to fry for him. This is not a field a quality, healthy Ky Derby winner should have a problem with.
Lets hope for racing and the fans this horse is right because it is a very long year and it only seems like about 60 days ago I read where this horse was going to receive a rest.
Owners have a tendency to let there own EGO and SELF-INTEREST get in the way of the horses best interest. This gang needs to realize we will be watching Funny not them and their obnoxious suits.
I hope he wins by the length of the stretch.
Silver Charm---
I agree. I have several letters that Thoroughbred Times and The Blood Horse published last year where I specifically spoke about what you mentioned--the Sackatoga crew. It\'s \"funny\" what some fame and fortune can do to certain folks.
Perhaps they have learned their lesson and will now let Barclay Tagg call the shots.
I also hope he wins by the lenghth of the stretch....and that WACKY FOR LOVE holds second!!!
Good Luck,
Joe B.
I don\'t purport to have been a great figure maker and I\'ll surely acquiesce to T-Graphs number for the race, but to my rough estimate Funny Cide just turned in a race horse prep. I just wish he\'d been right on Belmont Day. The mutuals wouldn\'t have paid squat but he was a dang good three year old and shoulda won the triple. He just got on edge and over the top . I still think he\'s the three year old champion with honorable mention to Ten Most Wanted. As a caveat I really would have preferred to see him rate off a couple lengths and win by one. He sure likes to scoot but he looked absolutely marvelous. I think he\'s back.
CtC
Chuckles/Silver Charm---
It certainly does. He toyed with allowance horses, so it\'s still tough to say but I\'m sure his Thoro # was solid.
It will be an interesting year if he\'s back.
TGJB--
Friedman was quoted as saying that HALFBRIDLED should get Horse of the Year since she was relatively the fastest horse in 2003(\"for a two-year-old filly, HALFBRIDLED is about as good as it gets\").
(Thoroughbred Times---January 10, Pg.32).
He also touts DYNEVER to \"be the best older horse in 2004.\" I tout DYNEVER to continue to be the money burning sucker bet that he was in 2003.
Good Luck,
Joe B.
For the life of me I cannot understand awarding \"Horse of the Year\" honors to two year olds. I\'m still smarting from Favorite Trick winning the honor in a year where it obviously belonged to \"Skippy\" and the ex post facto action of those same voters the next year to give it to Skip Away when it just as clearly belonged to Awesome Again. I just don\'t think you can trust the voters regardless of whether its the Eclipse Awards, Baseball\'s Hall of Fame, boxing, or a presidential election.
As Favorite Trick amply demonstrated two year olds are petulant children and with due respect to Native Dancer and Secretariat, they are not deserving of the Horse of the Year award. What are you gonna do allow the masses to vote and decide? We don\'t allow the masses to decide presidencies why should they decide Horse of the Year?
Zeig Heil...Zeig Heil...Zeig Heil
CtC
CtC is the Heeeeeeee\'s Baaaaaaaack for you or for Funny.
Interesting what you said about wanting to see him rate because those were my feelings too. However considering how slow they were going in the opening quarter and he was on the rail I can\'t blame Santos at all for letting him \"scoot on\" as you put it.
Hey Joe B, Tagg said the following.
\"Both the Haskell and BC Classic were run in stifling heat, and Tagg has said repeatedly he would never subject Funny Cide to those conditions again. The temperature was in the mid-60\'s at post time on Saturday.\"
If he has a fresh horse this summer lets say Suburban Day or at Saratoga will he be saying the same thing.
You know they have been know to have some HOT MUGGY DAYS in both of those places before. And with FUNNY being the big draw Tagg will be under a lot of pressure to run the horse.
Oh by the way, the Breeders Cup this year is down in Texas, can\'t imagine them going down there this August for a RACE OVER THE TRACK.
Silver Charm--
I take Tagg\'s comments as another sign that he is the one that is going to call the shots this year, not TEAM SACKATOGA.
The Wood, Derby, and Preakness (FC\'s best races) were all run in comfortable temperatures. If they stick to their plan, it looks like they will have a lot of fun with him. It will be interesting to see how Tagg handles the summer season. Perhaps FC shuts it down for several months after the Met Mile and returns in the Fall at Belmont.
He better watch out.....DYNEVER will be waiting....LOL....
Good Luck,
Joe B.
I\'m not sure why there is so much anti-Dynever sentiment. He was wildly overrated in the spring going into the Belmont, but he made steady progress throughout the season and ran an impressive race in the Breeders Cup. As a still lightly raced colt, I think he has an excellent chance to be a force this year.
why rate FC?? a few of his nice wins last year were from just off the pace, but if they are looking for some big grade 1 wins in \'04, i say just let the horse run..... as for horse of the year... come on.... mineshaft hands down....... bailey on MdO for the Don.... i bet BB gives JR one shot on Con, and it will be one hell of a race.
i\'m guessing at least one grade 1 win out of Dyn this year..... Bel in the fall possibly? i have lost my share of money on this guy, but i still think he has the class to compete with the big boys.
What a spectacular line this one has. If he develops like a typical Dynaformer offspring, he\'ll pick up another 1.3 and be in the -3.5 range that will win more than one GI imo. I\'m praying Clement resists temptation to put him on the grass.
The $6 million dollar question: who\'ll pass the spring/winter handicaps for Dubai gold? Baffy has walked away with plenty of it. Will he resist temptation with Congaree this time, doubt it. Murray Johnson had Perfect D. headed this direction, where will he put in a tune-up?