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CNN Live Saturday
Will Funny Cide Win Triple Crown?
Aired June 07, 2003 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Just call it the mutter of all -- I've got to say that again -- the mother of all horse races, that's mud for those who say mudder, as in the heavy slop at the New York's Belmont racetrack. In less than three hours, the horse named Funny Cide will try to nail down the first Triple Crown in 20 years. But the gelding will have to run through a mile and a half of mud created by several days of relentless rain there. So is he a mudder of a horse, a horse who races well on muddy tracks, that is? Our own Josie Karp is dodging the raindrops at Elmont, New York right now. Josie, what is up, besides the rain?
JOSIE KARP, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: We're going to find out, Fredricka, if Funny Cide is a mudder, because it's been raining here since 10:00 this morning with varying degrees of intensity. Now is probably as bad as it's been all day long.
One thing we're going to find out how it affects the horses, we already know that it's affected the crowd. They set a record last year with 103,000 people out here at Belmont Park. They were hoping to break that record this year. They even put in some new bleachers. There's no way that's going to happen.
So the crowd has been dampened a little bit, but the spirits of Funny Cide's 10 biggest fans have not been dampened, and those are the 10 owners of this horse that's trying to make history. They got here a couple of hours ago in what has become a familiar fashion for them. They arrived in an entourage, a convoy of yellow school buses carrying all of the owners and everyone they're bringing with them to try to watch history made here at Belmont Park.
The drink of choice on the bus, Coors Lite and bloody Marys. They're going to try to see if their gelding that they think is out of this world will make history.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the things that I like saying, which I haven't said too often is that mares are from Venus, stallions are from Mars, and geldings are from heaven.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where do you come up with this stuff?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't sleep at night. I have to think about this stuff. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you've got eight kids.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, yes, what else have we got to do at night? We're thinking about horses.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KARP: The track here at Belmont has been downgraded all the way to sloppy. And Funny Cide does not have any experience on a sloppy track. He has run on a muddy track at the Wood Memorial, he went up against Empire Maker in that race. Empire Maker ended winning on that muddy track, Funny Cide came in second. And Empire Maker is the horse that everyone expects will give Funny Cide the biggest challenge today.
On a day like today, you have to believe that really anything can happen because of the off conditions here at the Belmont -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Well, Josie, you talk about mud, in fact it looks like quicksand back there, because it really looks pretty deep. And I know you said earlier they will not cancel a race, rain or shine, but doesn't it also prove to be fairly dangerous for these horses at a certain point?
KARP: Well, at a concern point there's probably going to have to be a level of caution exercised by the jockeys as they go out here on this track that will make it a really slow race because you don't know exactly what you're going to get when you're looking at a track like this, Barkley Tagg (ph) was talking about, he's the trainer of Funny Cide, earlier in the week, what kind of puddle is it, is it a puddle you can get through, is it a sinkhole, for all intents and purposes. So certainly there's a level of caution that these jockeys are going to have to exercise -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right, Josie Karp, thanks very much. How you look dry in that rain I still haven't figured out.
KARP: Well, I've got two helpers, I promise you, holding umbrellas, that's my secret, I'm very lucky.
WHITFIELD: Thanks very much, Josie.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired June 7, 2003 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Just call it the mutter of all -- I've got to say that again -- the mother of all horse races, that's mud for those who say mudder, as in the heavy slop at the New York's Belmont racetrack. In less than three hours, the horse named Funny Cide will try to nail down the first Triple Crown in 20 years. But the gelding will have to run through a mile and a half of mud created by several days of relentless rain there. So is he a mudder of a horse, a horse who races well on muddy tracks, that is? Our own Josie Karp is dodging the raindrops at Elmont, New York right now. Josie, what is up, besides the rain?
JOSIE KARP, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: We're going to find out, Fredricka, if Funny Cide is a mudder, because it's been raining here since 10:00 this morning with varying degrees of intensity. Now is probably as bad as it's been all day long.
One thing we're going to find out how it affects the horses, we already know that it's affected the crowd. They set a record last year with 103,000 people out here at Belmont Park. They were hoping to break that record this year. They even put in some new bleachers. There's no way that's going to happen.
So the crowd has been dampened a little bit, but the spirits of Funny Cide's 10 biggest fans have not been dampened, and those are the 10 owners of this horse that's trying to make history. They got here a couple of hours ago in what has become a familiar fashion for them. They arrived in an entourage, a convoy of yellow school buses carrying all of the owners and everyone they're bringing with them to try to watch history made here at Belmont Park.
The drink of choice on the bus, Coors Lite and bloody Marys. They're going to try to see if their gelding that they think is out of this world will make history.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the things that I like saying, which I haven't said too often is that mares are from Venus, stallions are from Mars, and geldings are from heaven.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where do you come up with this stuff?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't sleep at night. I have to think about this stuff. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you've got eight kids.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, yes, what else have we got to do at night? We're thinking about horses.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KARP: The track here at Belmont has been downgraded all the way to sloppy. And Funny Cide does not have any experience on a sloppy track. He has run on a muddy track at the Wood Memorial, he went up against Empire Maker in that race. Empire Maker ended winning on that muddy track, Funny Cide came in second. And Empire Maker is the horse that everyone expects will give Funny Cide the biggest challenge today.
On a day like today, you have to believe that really anything can happen because of the off conditions here at the Belmont -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Well, Josie, you talk about mud, in fact it looks like quicksand back there, because it really looks pretty deep. And I know you said earlier they will not cancel a race, rain or shine, but doesn't it also prove to be fairly dangerous for these horses at a certain point?
KARP: Well, at a concern point there's probably going to have to be a level of caution exercised by the jockeys as they go out here on this track that will make it a really slow race because you don't know exactly what you're going to get when you're looking at a track like this, Barkley Tagg (ph) was talking about, he's the trainer of Funny Cide, earlier in the week, what kind of puddle is it, is it a puddle you can get through, is it a sinkhole, for all intents and purposes. So certainly there's a level of caution that these jockeys are going to have to exercise -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right, Josie Karp, thanks very much. How you look dry in that rain I still haven't figured out.
KARP: Well, I've got two helpers, I promise you, holding umbrellas, that's my secret, I'm very lucky.
WHITFIELD: Thanks very much, Josie.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
