D' Funnybone: Router in disguise?

You have to hand it to a man who knows his limitations. Or his horse's.

But I can't help but wonder whether Paul Pompa Jr. and trainer Rick Dutrow haven't written off the Kentucky Derby chances of their brilliant charge D' Funnybone without really giving him a chance to prove whether or not he can handle the task. Pompa says the horse will eventually be pointed to the second jewel of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes, instead.

The Blood-Horse reported Friday that Pompa and Dutrow kept D' Funnybone -- four for six lifetime including three Grade 2 sprint wins -- entered in the 7-furlong Swale S.-G2 today at Gulfstream, rather than taking a crack at the Grade 1 Florida Derby at a mile and an eighth after the defection of likely favorite Eskenderyea, who will wait for the Wood Memorial-G1 before running again.

To be sure, the Florida Derby would be the bigger test for more reasons than distance. D' Funnybone is the 6/5 favorite for the Swale and will likely go off at a short price. Even with Eskendereya out of the Florida Derby and seven of 11 entrants in the race (including Barbaro's brother, Lentenor) having just one win each to their credit, the Grade 1 field still contains two top Kentucky Derby contenders. The 5/2 morning-line favorite is Rule, who has two G3 wins at route distances. The 3/1 second choice is Radiohead, a Group 2 winner in his native England (prior to a Breeders' Cup flop) who has come back in 2010 to win his 3-year-old debut in good fashion. And simply facing 11 opponents in the Florida Derby instead of seven others in the Swale suggests a more difficult task.

But Pompa says D' Funnybone isn't running in the Florida Derby because he "isn't a mile and a quarter horse."

Granted, he's Pompa's horse. And Rick Dutrow has plenty of experience as a trainer. They've seen the horse in the flesh, plenty. They've watched the horse work.

But they know that D' Funnybone "isn't a mile and a quarter horse" exactly ... how?

It isn't because they've worked him a mile and watched him collapse after seven furlongs. Of 11 published works for D' Funnybone available at DRF.com, none have been longer than six furlongs.

I presume some of their decision is based on pedigree, though if Pompa and Dutrow looked more closely, they might be at least still be toying with thoughts of the Derby.

Their colt is by D'Wildcat, a sprinter who won the Swale Stakes in 2001, a feat his son hopes to repeat today. But even D'Wildcat wasn't exactly bred solely to sprint.

His sire, Forest Wildcat (likewise a successful sprinter), nonetheless sired G1-winning miler Forest Secrets, a filly who also was a G3 winner at 9 furlongs. Forest Wildcat's daughter Snow Dance won five graded-stakes at more than a mile on turf, including the G2 New York Handicap at a mile and a quarter. Son Behindatthebar won the G2 Lexington Stakes at Keeneland going a mile and a sixteenth. Daughter Brownie Points was a dual-surface runner who spent most of her time in stakes company running a mile to nine furlongs, including a runner-up finish to Zenyatta in the 2008 Apple Blossom H.-G1 at a mile and a sixteenth and a win at a mile and an eighth on turf in the Edward P. DeBartolo Sr. Memorial Handicap.

D'Wildcat's dam, D'Enough, won five times at route distances and was third in the Montauk Handicap at a mile and an eighth. Her sire, Secretariat's son D'Accord, won the Grade 2 Breeders' Futurity at a mile and a sixteenth as a juvenile. And of course her grandsire was the 1973 Triple Crown winner: Derby (10f), Preakness (9.5f) and Belmont Stakes (12f).

D' Wildcat is a young stallion. His 2-year-olds of 2010 are just his fourth crop to race. But among his five stakes winners, daughter Authenicat has managed to score in stakes company at 8.5 furlongs at Woodbine (she also has multiple sprint-stakes wins), and ill-fated daughter The Golden Noodle (who died in a farm accident while on layup) was Grade 1 placed at a mile and a sixteenth as a 2-year-old in the Hollywood Starlet.

Granted, there isn't a ton of stamina on the top half of D'Funnybone's pedigree. And there's a big difference between a mile and a sixteenth or a mile and an eighth, and going 10 furlongs; a mile and a quarter. But not every horse you find oughta be running 400 yards against Quarter Horses, either. And on the bottom of his pedigree, there's plenty of evidence to suggest he can get a little bit of distance.

D' Funnybone's dam, Elbow (which resulted in her son receiving one of the truly creative names in racing today), was sired by Woodman, whose Grade 1 get included distinctly classic-distance horses in Preakness/Belmont winner Hansel, Breeders' Cup Juvenile and Preakness winner Timber Country, Whitney Handicap winner Mahogany Hall, Hawk Wing (English/Irish 3-year-old highweight from 9.5-11f), and Irish One Thousand Guineas winner Hula Angel.

Elbow doesn't just have stamina on the top side of her pedigree, either. She was out of the mare Elvia, who was by classic-distance sire Roberto and out of the 9-furlong G1-winning Lyphard mare, Chain Bracelet. And Elbow has produced runners at a distance; D' Funnybone's minor stakes-winning half-sister Dr. Kathy (Polish Numbers) was third behind champion Ashado in the 2003 Demoiselle S.-G2 at 9 furlongs, a marathon for 2-year-olds.

True, Pompa and Dutrow haven't ruled out running D' Funnybone at route distances. Pompa says that next up for his colt -- should D' Funnybone come out of the Swale in good shape -- could be the Grade 3 Withers Stakes going a mile at Aqueduct on April 24. If that goes well, the 9.5-furlong Preakness could await. Pompa believes the sixteenth-shorter distance of the Preakness vs. the Kentucky Derby could be the difference for D' Funnybone, and adds that the "tight turns" of Pimlico better suit the colt's running style. (On the subject of Pimlico's turns, this is worth a read.)

I'm not criticizing Paul Pompa and Rick Dutrow, per se. Second-guessing, maybe. Today and the Florida Derby would have been a great time to find out if their colt could get 9 furlongs as a stepping-stone toward getting 10 at Churchill.

But I have to credit Pompa with doing what he thinks is best for the horse, particularly at a time in a good colt's career where almost any owner of almost any horse with half a snowball's chance of making the starting gate at Churchill on the first Saturday in May is trying to beg, borrow or steal their way into the race.

Pompa notes that he got a chance to experience a Kentucky Derby win as a quarter-owner of Big Brown in 2008, after selling a majority interest to IEAH. So getting back there for him doesn't have such urgency. And he's concerned about ruining D' Funnybone, who is running well and building a decent stallion resume that would be cemented without classic-distance victories could he secure future wins in Grade 1 races like the Vosburgh Stakes, Breeders' Cup Sprint or particularly a one-turn mile like the Cigar Mile Handicap or the "Met Mile," which have often suited sprinter-types.

So I suspect D' Funnybone will run off with the Swale today and leave me wishing I could have seen him try to smash the Florida Derby field with equal aplomb.

I think the horse might be that good. And until proven otherwise, I'm reasonably convinced that he can run farther than his connections might think he can.

Dutrow suspension sends a bit of a message

Doubling the penalty recommended by Kentucky stewards and a hearing officer, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission on Tuesday slapped trainer Rick Dutrow with a 30-day ban for a Clenbuterol positive dating back more than a year ago at Churchill Downs.

Dutrow's horse Salute the Count had finished second in the $100,000 Aegon Turf Sprint-G3 at Churchill Downs on May 2, 2008, the day before his horse Big Brown romped home the easy winner of the Kentucky Derby. And the most maddening truth of the violation, the 30-day ban, and the 14 months in between is that Dutrow has admitted that the Clenbuterol positive was a fact.

Salute the Count tested positive for the bronchial dialator, which increases lung capacity and also has some "steroidal properties." Clenbuterol is an approved medication for racehorses, but its use is not permitted on race-day. Stewards hit Dutrow with a 15-day suspension, but in what has become a routine for any conditioner accused of a violation, Dutrow filed an appearl.

It was October 2008 before hearing officer James Robke recommended that the stewards' suspension not be upheld due to questions about procedures used during the testing. The KHRC postponed its action on the hearing officer's report and punted the case back to Robke. Then, on April 23 this year, Robke held a hearing in which Dutrow testified that the violation was true, saying he didn't realize an employee had administered the Clenbuterol too close to a race date, but admitting that the positive result was accurate and took responsibility for the actions of his barn.

This time, Robke recommended that the 15-day ban -- which Dutrow had stalled for nearly a year already -- be upheld.

It seems that stalling was what eventually got Dutrow slapped with an extra 15 days, and it's good to see a message finally being delivered by those who are charge of running a clean game. The KHRC emerged from what must've been a spirited closed-door meeting Tuesday -- more than 14 months after the violation -- with a 6-5 vote to suspend Dutrow for 30 days rather than the original 15.

"They considered that he had recognized that he had made a mistake but that he had delayed (the punishment)," said KHRC Executive Director Lisa Underwood. But, Underwood noted, the KHRC also took into account that Dutrow had "flagrantly worked the system."

Trainers have figured out that appealing a suspension will give them time not only to mount a challenge if they still believe in their innocence, but also to merely stave off the punishment until a time more convenient to them. Churchill's meet ended Sunday. Dutrow not only made it through the rest of the 2008 Churchill spring meet during which his barn's violation occurred, but he skated through the track's fall 2008 meet and the entire spring 2009 meeting before the KHRC finally caught up to him for an infraction that the trainer himself conceded was committed.

The 6-5 vote makes it apparent that not everyone was in agreement with the stiffer penalty, though Underwood said the maximum suspension for a Clenbuterol violation is twice that -- 60 days. It's worth a round of applause among racing fans and horseplayers that the hard-liners won out, albeit narrowly, sending a message to all trainers through the punishment of Dutrow that when you're guilty, it's better to serve the time than to play games with the regulators.

"They want to take their charge seriously," Underwood said of the KHRC. "I think a lot of what is going through the commissioner’s minds is to protect the integrity of racing. It’s offensive to the betting public to see trainers who have a violation and who have admitted to the violation, to still be out there.

"Steward" indeed is a powerful word. Whether it's the stewards at the track or the officials who serve on higher regulatory boards and state agencies, we as fans, breeders, owners, horsemen, horseplayers and anyone else associated with the industry entrust the very integrity of the game to their heads, hearts and hands. It's good to see the KHRC, even divided 6-5, step up and say to trainers that it's time to start following the both the letter and the spirit of the rules, and to stop gaming the system.

"We are stewards of the sport," Underwood said, "and we want to protect the integrity and perception and we want the betting public to have confidence in the sport."

Another step toward establishing that integrity nationwide would be a centralized clearinghouse for maintaining records of all violations and penalties. Anyone can visit the KHRC's Web site and read up on all the violations, and the sactions levied, in Kentucky during the past few years. For instance, Dutrow was fined $1,000 on April 11 for running a horse at Keenland on April 4 without holding a current training license. But this information is not as readily available from all states, and it certainly isn't accessible in a one-stop shop for all U.S. or North American violations.

I certainly don't see anyone volunteering for that job, but it would be quite a service to the racing community, most notably to its fans and horseplayers -- who deserve to see a clean race -- and to owners who wish to fully screen potential trainers, veterinarians, riders and other track employees before hiring them.

Five-horse Poker game cruel to Deville

When the five players at the table showed their cards at the end of Sunday's Poker Stakes-G3 at Belmont Park, it was Sailor's Cap and not Kip Deville who found himself raking all the chips into his connections' corner.

The 6-year-old Kip Deville -- truth be told, one of my favorite horses of all time -- was trying to bounce back from a 10th-place finish in the distant Dubai Duty Free on World Cup night March 28. He tried to bluff the field into submission by raising the ante early, leading from the gate, but the game set up for 4-year-old Sailor's Cap, who relished the soft going of Belmont's Widener turf course Sunday.

Sailor's Cap, some might recall, won what had to be one of the soggiest American turf races in recent memory, last year's Colonial Turf Cup-G3. (Pictured above.) The Distant View colt is 2-for-3 over extremely soft ground, with his lone defeat being by a neck in the Crown Royal American Turf S.-G3.

Kip Deville was pressured Sunday by Yield Bogey, who managed to hang on for third while Kip faded to fourth. Tam Lin got up for second as he did (behind Kip) in 2008, while Operation Red Dawn, last year's show-horse in this race, was never really a factor.

As a native Kansan with Oklahoma ties, I've long followed the Okie-bred Kip Deville. I'll never forget his ridiculous early lead in the 2006 Colonial Turf Cup, when he bolted to a nearly 20-length margin down the backstretch. Then-one-dimensional (all-speed), Kip ultimately gave the whole advantage way to Showing Up, who beat him by 3 1/4 lengths. But nobody else caught the gray gamer before the wire, and he finished a tired, but brave second in the mile and three-sixteenths contest.

Kip found his way into IEAH Stables colors soon after and has gone on to far outrun his fairly modest pedigree. His signature win, of course, was his upset in the 2007 Breeders' Cup Mile, but he came back to win a Grade 1 at 5 (the Maker's Mark Mile) and early this year collected the trophy for the shortened Gulfstream Park Turf S.-G1, now at 9 furlongs.

But I do wonder what he has left in the tank. He's 6 years old; not over the hill but no youngster, either. And those springtime trips to Dubai can take a lot out of a horse. Sometimes everything. Some horses never regain their full form upon return to the States.

Kip hadn't run since March and probably needed the race. But Sailor's Cap was making his 2009 debut, so the layoff can't be the whole excuse.

It will be interesting to see how Kip comes out of the race, and where trainer Rick Dutrow points him next. Certainly the Breeders' Cup Mile at Santa Anita was again the ultimate target -- his win in 2007 was followed by a second-place in that race in 2008 -- but there's a lot of work to be done between now and then to get the horse ready.

Meanwhile, I look forward to seeing where Kip lands at stud. His success on the track earned an upgrade from Oklahoma to Kentucky for his sire, Kipling (Gulch-Weekend Storm, by Storm Bird). But I have to think if folks were dying to breed to Kip Deville, he'd have been retired at 5.

Still, he's just the kind of horse I'd like for one of my mares to see: Talented, sound and game, which go a long way toward overcoming mediocre pedigree. Kip Deville's pedigree might not be entirely fashionable, but his dam, Klondike Kaytie (Encino-Charming Dawn, by Vigors) raced 63 times and won 20, including a minor stakes victory, for $173,802. Kip's half-brother, Gotthard (by Ghazi) raced 78 times and won 22 for $286,645 (including the 2001 Claiming Crown Iron Horse Stakes). So when a member of this family does make it to races, they just might keep going back to the post for years.

Durability is something we should all be looking for in our racehorses.

Kip Deville pictured winning 2008 Poker Stakes (Photo/NYRA, Adam Coglianese)