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

I haven't done a book list book in a while and I don't think I have ever put a strictly horsey book up. So here you go. I bought this book, Funny Cide: How a Horse, a Trainer, a Jockey, and a Bunch of High School Buddies Took On the Sheiks and the Bluebloods... and Won, about a year ago at a discount bookstore in an outlet mall. I actually bought all 3 copies they had and gave 2 as gifts. It was written by the Funny Cide Team and Sally Jenkins. It is a story of the underdog, who wins your heart and keeps you cheering until the end. I remember watching Funny Cide race. My mom, brother and I sat in front of the TV and we each chose a horse. My mom chose Funny Cide because she liked his name. Read it- you will love it, everyone love a good fairy tale- this one just happens to be true.


"They had no business being there. They were up against million-dollar horses owned by patricians and oilmen and Arab sheiks and Hollywood producers. They were 10 working class men, and all they wanted was to win a race. Instead, they won the hearts of America."

From the inside flap:

In 2003, a three-year-old with an irrepressible personality and the unlikely name of Funny Cide 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 kicking around racing for more than thirty years looking for "the one," but refusing to compromise his standards; ridden by a tough-luck jockey fighting to regain his position after years of injuries and hard knocks; and owned by a tiny stable founded by a band of high school buddies from Sackets Harbor, N.Y. (pop. 1,386), who tossed in a few thousand dollars each to follow their dream, Funny Cide became a blue-collar hero with a bit, his story crammed with colorful characters- only one of whom happened to be a horse.