OCEANPORT — Sackatoga Stable’s Funny Cide, winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes this season, will carry highweight of 123 pounds in the $1 million Haskell Invitational, Monmouth Park’s signature event for 3-year-olds, on Sunday, Aug. 3.
Mike Dempsey, Monmouth Park’s racing secretary and handicapper, weighted 25 invited horses for the Grade 1 Haskell. If there are any further invitations, Dempsey will assign weights when the horses are named.
Funny Cide, trained by Barclay Tagg, is expected to be the starting highweight in the 36th running of the mile-and-an-eighth Haskell, which is the richest invitational race run in North America.
Juddmonte Farms’ Empire Maker, trained by Bobby Frankel, drew co-highweight of 123 pounds, but that colt is expected to run in Saratoga’s Jim Dandy Stakes the same day as the Haskell.
Edmund A. Gann’s Peace Rules, another Frankel charge, is expected to pick up his Haskell assignment of 121 pounds. The colt won the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes and Grade 2 Louisiana Derby in the spring.
John C. Oxley’s Sky Mesa, one of the top 2-year-olds of 2002 who was injured before the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, was assigned 118 pounds for the Haskell. John Ward trains Sky Mesa, who returned to action on July 6 when he ran third in the Dwyer Stakes at Belmont. Also at 118 is Mr. and Mrs. David Randal’s Wild and Wicked.
The Wild Again colt is unbeaten in three career starts and last out won the Ohio Derby at Thistledown.
In addition to Funny Cide, Peace Rules, Sky Mesa and Wild and Wicked, the Haskell is expected to attract several other 3-year-olds, including Ty and Leroy Leatherman’s Excessivepleasure, 117; Gustav Schickedanz’s Mobil, 117; Tom Durant’s Kool Humor, and Bee Bee Stables & Jacqueline Tortora’s Supah Blitz, 115.
Funny Cide owners looking
forward to Haskell
The weights for the $1 million Haskell Invitational were announced Friday, and Funny Cide drew highweight of 123 pounds, a package he’ll be happy to pick up according to Jack Knowlton, founder and managing partner of Sackatoga Stable.
"The weight sounds good to us," Knowlton said. "I know the last two years the topweight was 124 (Haskell winners Point Given and War Emblem). So 123 will be just fine with us."
Funny Cide put in another strong work on Monday morning as the gelding by Distorted Humor continues on his path to the $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on Sun., Aug. 3.
The Barclay Tagg-trainee was clocked in 1:12 4/5 for six furlongs over a fast Belmont Park main track. His connections have indicated that the dual classic winner will ship to Monmouth the morning of the Haskell.
The Sackatoga partners, who all hail from Sacketts Harbor, New York, became highly visible on the Triple Crown trail, and a big part of that was their mode of transportation. The big yellow school bus will be making its way to Oceanport on Aug. 3, and Knowlton says he can’t wait.
"The Haskell looks like a great race," Knowlton said. "God willing, we’ll be there. Funny Cide worked great the other day, and we’re really looking forward to the race."
Knowlton and partners paid $22,000 for Funny Cide as a yearling, and the New York-bred gelding has won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes and has earned just $615 shy of $2 million.
"The horse will probably ship in on race day," Knowlton said. "It’s up to Barclay [trainer Barclay Tagg], but that’s what I expect him to do."
Tagg has indicated Funny Cide will be on a van leaving Saratoga early (1 or 2 a.m.) on Sunday morning, Aug. 3. After traveling through the cool of the night, the horse will arrive at the Monmouth stable area around 6 a.m.
Kool Humor coming home to Haskell
Tom Durant’s New Jersey-bred Kool Humor will be returning to the Garden State next week when the native son looks to annex the $1 million Haskell Invitational on Aug. 3 at Monmouth Park.
Bred by Barbara B. Wolfe, Kool Humor will become the first Jersey-bred to contest the mile-and-an-eighth Haskell since Thistyranthasclass, who finished fifth in the 2000 running after stumbling badly at the start.
"I’ve had the horse for his last two starts," said Jack Bruner, who was the assistant for Ronny Werner, the gelding’s previous trainer. "He keeps getting better and better, and his last was a real nice race. He’s stretching out for the Haskell. The last 1/8th will be the test for him, that’s where it will be won or lost. I know we’re stepping up, but he’s ready for the assignment."
Kool Humor kicked off his career as a 2-year-old at Monmouth finishing second, at odds of 3-5, to Trueamericanspirit on July 5, 2002.
He did not return to the races until March of this year, running third at the Fair Grounds. That was followed by a maiden score at Keeneland and a runner-up allowance performance at Churchill Downs.
His next start came on turf in the $200,000 USA Stakes at Lone Star Park,
"I got him right after that turf race," Bruner said. "We just shipped from Lone Star to Retama. We’ll head for New Jersey a week from Tuesday, flying on the 29th. He’ll gallop up to the race at Monmouth."
Since his turf try, Kool Humor has reeled off two in a row at Lone Star, including the $100,000 Alysheba Breeders’ Cup Stakes, going seven furlongs in 1:21 4/5 over a muddy track.
Durant’s Touch Tone finished second by a half-length in the 2001 Haskell to Horse of the Year Point Given.
Kool Humor does have a few things in common with the expected favorite in the Haskell, Funny Cide. Both horses are geldings and both are by Distorted Humor, who won the 1997 Salvator Mile at Monmouth Park.
Hambletonian-Haskell
double wager on tap
New Jersey’s great weekend of racing on Aug. 2 and 3 introduces a new wrinkle for 2003 with the Hambletonian-Haskell Double.
The dual-breed wager requires picking the winner of the $1 million Hambletonian, the premier trotting event for 3-year-olds at the Meadowlands on Saturday, Aug. 2, and the $1 million Haskell Invitational, showcasing the best 3-year-old thoroughbreds on Sunday, Aug. 3, at Monmouth Park.
"This is New Jersey’s championship horse racing weekend," said Bruce Garland, senior vice president–racing of the New Sports and Exposition Authority. "It has always been a great weekend for the two tracks owned and operated by the Sports Authority. Now we have a way to link the two races with this unique wagering opportunity."
Wagering on the H-H Double will be accepted from Friday, Aug. 1, through post time for the Hambletonian, approximately 2:45 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 2.
Will-pays for the possible combinations will be posted on Aug. 2 after the Hambletonian.
The takeout for the Hambletonian-Haskell Double will be 12 percent, or 7 percent less than the traditional daily double takeout rate of 19 percent.
Jersey Giant expected to top
Salvator Mile field tomorrow
The $100,000 Salvator Mile Handicap (G3) has belonged to the local horses the past few years, and it looks like this year’s 56th running on Saturday, July 26, will follow the pattern.
Expected to top the event are Joel Kligman’s Jersey Giant, who has won three straight, including the Skip Away Stakes last out, and Triple M. Farm’s Sea of Tranquility, who has won the last two runnings of the Salvator Mile.
Both horses are New Jersey-breds stabled at Monmouth. In the Skip Away, the Jim Ryerson-trained Jersey Giant beat the David Paulus-conditioned Sea of Tranquility by a half-length.
In last year’s Salvator Mile, Monmouth-based First Lieutenant finished in front, but was disqualified for interference in the stretch, and Sea of Tranquility was placed first. Sea of Tranquility won the 2001 edition of the Salvator Mile by a length and a half.