Funny Cide: How a Horse, a Trainer, a Jockey, and a Bunch of High School Buddies Took on the Sheiks and Bluebloods - and Won » (Abridged)

Sackatoga Stable is owned by ten people, led by managing partner Jackson Knowlton, whose jobs range from catering to construction to health care. Unlike with Funny Cide's million-dollar brethren, who make a quick killing and then get retired to stud, they plan to race their horse for all his fans to see as long as he is healthy and happy-conceivably for years to come.

Sally Jenkins is an award-winning journalist for The Washington Post, and is the coauthor of the bestselling It's Not About the Bike and Every Second Counts, written with Lance Armstrong.

"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, NY (pop: 1,386), who tossed in a few thousand dollars each and decided to follow their dream, Funny Cide became a blue-collar hero with a bit, his story crammed with colorful characters-only one of which happened to be a horse.

Written with Sally Jenkins, coauthor of Lance Armstrong's number-one bestseller It's Not About the Bike, Funny Cide tells the whole story-the parts we know and the parts we never suspected-as it follows the group's emotional ups and downs against overwhelming odds...

Publishers Weekly

Although the story of Funny Cide's against-the-odds gallop into first place in the Kentucky Derby and then again in the Triple Crown's second leg is familiar to most people, this audiobook provides an inside look at an endeavor that started out as merely "kicks for hicks." The hicks in this case-a group of middle-aged, high school cronies-were tired of being "habitually careful," so they took a chance on a horse with an undistinguished pedigree. With the help of a down-on-his-luck trainer and a jockey who'd seen better days, Funny Cide left all the predictable favorites in the dust. This is a grand story full of endearing, oddball characters. Reader Sheridan, who's best known for his performance on Law and Order: Criminal Intent, sounds more like the Marlboro Man than a police captain here. His voice is gruff, almost bashful, as he emphasizes not only the workaday victory of the story, but the emotion that lies close to the surface. Although Sheridan has a tough time taking on some of the team members' accents, this doesn't detract much from the overall quality of the production. Simultaneous release with the Putnam hardcover (Forecasts, Mar. 22). (May) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.