By: Boya Hu

On July 16, 2023, Funny Cide, a New York state-bred horse, passed away at the age of 23. This champion horse had won the Preakness Stakes and the Kentucky Derby, but he lost at the Third Crown.

Funny Cide had faced 12-1 odds at the Kentucky Derby at 2003. The horse ran fast, strong and straight when the gates at Churchill Downs opened for the race. Harold Cring, one of his Co-owners, said this about how he felt when the race started: “I could not believe it with my eyes. That’s our horse out front. I kept waiting for something to fall apart.”

According to NPR, it was a life-altering moment for Funny Cide’s owners. “We were just sitting around having a couple of cocktails as we were often doing, and suddenly the idea came up to buy a horse.” said Jon Constance, who is Funny Cide’s Co-owner and Sacketts Harbor’s former mayor. “From that day our life changed forever.” Funny Cide became a popular horse after they bought him. Jose Santos, a veteran jockey, also used Funny Cide to win the Kentucky Derby. “I came all the way from Chile chasing a dream and I got the dream, you know, and I did it all with Funny Cide.”

Two weeks after Funny Cide had won the Kentucky Derby, he was going to enter the Preakness Stakes. Funny Cide succeeded at the Preakness Stakes too. He had defeated the field by almost ten lengths. However, while he had achieved at the Preakness Stakes, he did not win the Third Crown at the Belmont Stakes. Empire Maker, a heavier and more pureblooded thoroughbred, won on May 2003.

In 2007, when Funny Cide retired from horse racing, he had won more than 3.50 million for his Co-owners. “Funny Cide just loved to run.” Santos recalls. “He just loved to get out there and loved to show the rest of them. He might have been small, but that did not mean that he was not powerful.”