Funny Cide: How a Horse, a Trainer, a Jockey, and a Bunch of High School Buddies Took on the Sheiks and Blue Bloods...and Won

by Sally Jenkins, The Funny Cide Team, Funny Cide Team

Book Overview

In 2003, he became "the people's horse," the unheralded New York-bred gelding who-in a time of war and economic jitters-inspired a nation by knocking off the champions and their multimillionaire owners and sweeping to the brink of the Triple Crown. Trained by a journeyman who had been knocking around racing for more than thirty years, ridden by a hard-luck jockey, and owned by a tiny stable founded by a band of high school buddies from Sackets Harbor,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399151796
• ISBN13: 9780399151798
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons
• Length: 279 Pages
• Weight: 1.27 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.1" x 9.5"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Probably the most moving horse story ive read since Ruffian.....

This book is amazing! I learned so much about Funny!

What a ride

This is a GREAT read. Terrific....the most enjoyable story in a long while.

Charming Story About Horse Racing

I have never really been all that into horse racing except to make a point of watching the Kentucky Derby every year (it's a couple of minutes long after all! That's not exactly a Herculanean commitment) Nonetheless I picked up this book to see what the deal was behind Funny Cide, and I was very surprised with this great little story. There's a sort of All-American, virtuous underdog who beats the establishment through honesty and hard work charm to the story. The owners of Funny Cide were a group of friends from tiny Sacketts Harbor New York who wanted to do something different with their lives. So they pooled their comparatively meager savings (for the world of Horse Racing) and wanted to buy a race horse to just try to get into the Kentucky Derby (the concept of winning practically never crossed their minds. Even getting in was a sort of fictitious goal.) Instead of a race horse, all they could really afford was Funny Cide however. (After going through a few others first.) From the author's description of Funny Cide as a horse (I can't really say for myself, they all look the same to me) the concept of Funny Cide winning the Kentuck Derby must be comparable to, say, seeing Richard Simmons rocket past a Kenyan to win the Marathon at the next Summer Olympics. Funny was some sort of gangly looking runt, and a gelding at that. The crew from Sacketts Harbor were clearly not lusting for Empire in the horse racing world, they just wanted to have fun. But they picked their horse and stuck by him. Their trainer was a very old and sympathetic character who was quite good at what he did but apparently hadn't racked up any accolades just yet. He's the kind of guy you really wanted to see get just one real victory before he moves on. He saw something in Funny he could work with. Despite his awkward appearance, everything was basically there, especially an abnormally high level of motivation in a horse. Funny genuinely liked to go flat out and the trainer nurtured him into a truly great runner. There were some especially involving sections of the book centered around training race horses. The author's description of how a horse is basically designed by evolution to do little more than sprint short distances at tremendous speeds was one. The types of injuries they can endure, and the differences between speed and endurance tracks were others. Eventually Funny was winning races, and winning them by a LOT, and the impossible dream of actually reaching the Kentucky Derby began to dawn on the owners. Of course, if this were a Hollywood story, this is where our likable underdog hero would get some sort of ailment or into some situation that would cast the shadow of doubt on whether he could actually deliver in the film's finale. True to form Funny gets a mucus infection. Of course we all know that Funny goes on to actually win the Derby, and nearly the entire triple crown, but the author crafts the story so well that you share the suspense, surprise, an

Funny Cide, the best gelding of the 21st century

Funny Cide was an exceptional racehorse. The gelding came out of nowhere to win the Kentucky derby! that's worth writing about. His story was closely followed in a way that you cannot see on television or read in the newspapers everything that happened. A great book to read. Funny Cide outstandingly successes Seabiscuit as the underdog that triumphed in the sport of kings.

EVERYONE LOVES A WINNER, AND THIS READING IS ONE

Everyone loves a winner, especially when the winner is an underdog. That was certainly the case with Funny Cide, the never-heard-of gelding who won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness thus almost copping the fabled Triple Crown. Yep, America loved him. The resonant voice of Dan Cushman chronicles Funny Cide's amazing story from starting gate to finish. Of course, it's not just a horse's story but also the tale of friends, including a trainer and a jockey who were determined to win a race. No one in this All-American story is a blue blood, not the racehorse or the men behind Funny Cide. They were blue collar workers from Sackets Harbor, New York (little more than a village with 1,386 residents) who pooled their resources to fund a small stable. They had a dream and, by golly, they were going after it. All who loved "Seabiscuit" will root for Funny Cide and the men who believed they'd found a winner. - Gail Cooke