Jack Knowlton

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - While most of the racing world was focused on the 150th GI Kentucky Derby run last Saturday at Churchill Downs, the final stop on the Triple Crown series--the 156th GI Belmont S., some six weeks hence on June 8--is already at the top of the charts for plenty of people in this horse-centric upstate city. In order to accommodate the massive makeover of Belmont Park, New York Racing Association officials decided last year to stage the 2024 and 2025 runnings of the Belmont S. at Saratoga...

A memorial service for the late dual Classic winner Funny Cide (Distorted Humor) was held at the Kentucky Horse Park Oct. 8, where the 'gutsy gelding' lived out his retirement at the Hall of Champions on the grounds. During the event, attended by fans of the New York-bred as well as Sackatoga Stable's Jack Knowlton, officials at the Horse Park announced that a statue of Funny Cide would be added to the Memorial Walk of Champions. "Funny Cide was a true champion," said Lee Carter, Kentucky Horse Park President. "Adding...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - During a ceremony Sunday morning prior to the annual upstate New York Showcase Day, some of the ashes of the late GI Kentucky Derby and GI Preakness winner Funny Cide (Distorted Humor) were interred at Saratoga Race Course. The popular New York-bred foaled at the nearby McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds, and owned by the New York-based Sackatoga Stable, died at the age of 23 on July 16 from complications of colic at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY. He won the 2003 Derby and Preakness...

Champion and dual classic winner Funny Cide (Distorted Humor), who passed away July 16 at age 23, will have his life and racing achievements celebrated with a Saratoga Send-Off party Aug. 16 at Siro's in Saratoga Springs. The event will be a tribute to "The Gutsy Gelding" who captured the hearts of racing fans and continued to be a fan favorite during his 15-year retirement at Kentucky Horse Park. Presented by Sackatoga Stable, the evening will feature a tribute video and a panel discussion emceed by Retired Race Caller Tom...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Funny Cide (Distorted Humor), the popular New York-bred gelding, who flirted with the 2003 Triple Crown and was the 3-year-old champion, died Sunday from complications of colic. Owned by Sackatoga Stable, formed by Jack Knowlton and based in upstate New York, Funny Cide won the GI Kentucky Derby and the GI Preakness S. His bid to become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978 ended in the GI Belmont S., when he finished third behind Empire Maker (Unbridled) over the sloppy course. Funny Cide's...

Roger Sofer, a partner in the Sackatoga Stable syndicate that owned GI Belmont S. winner Tiz the Law (Constitution), passed away Wednesday after a bout with leukemia. He was 71. Sofer, a Houston resident, received the diagnosis that he had leukemia in March 0f 2020, right about the time that Tiz the Law was emerging as one of the leading contenders for the GI Kentucky Derby. He began treatment immediately, undergoing chemotherapy seven days a week. He was let out of the hospital just in time to watch Tiz the...

Confirming a report from Bill Finley in the Nov. 11 edition of the TDN, Sackatoga Stable's Tiz the Law (Constitution) will train on in 2021 as a 4-year-old, with the $3-million GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational at Gulfstream Park Jan. 23 as his target. In a release pushed across its social media channels Thursday afternoon, Sackatoga announced that Manny Franco, who had ridden Tiz the Law to victories in the GI Curlin Florida Derby, GI Belmont S. and GI Runhappy Travers S. and to a runner-up effort to Authentic (Into...

A rarity in the modern era for a top-class 3-year-old, Tiz the Law (Constitution) will race again next year and is being pointed for the GI Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 23 at Gulfstream Park. But who will be aboard him that day? It appears the answer is not Manny Franco. After trainer Barclay Tagg criticized Franco's ride in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic, Jack Knowlton, the managing partner of Sackatoga Stable, echoed those sentiments Tuesday. When asked if there would be a jockey change, Knowlton said it is under...

Sackatoga Stables' Tiz the Law (Constitution) returned to the worktab for the first time since finishing second to Authentic (Into Mischief) as the favorite in the Sept. 5 GI Kentucky Derby, breezing a half-mile in an easy :50.07 with regular exercise rider Heather Smullen in the irons. "It was a nice, easy work," trainer Barclay Tagg said. "I wasn't looking for much. I just wanted him to go out there and stretch his legs. He hadn't done anything in three weeks." Prior to his hard-trying runner-up effort in the Derby,...

Sackatoga Stable's Tiz the Law (Constitution), runner-up in the GI Kentucky Derby, will bypass a run in the Oct. 3 GI Preakness S. and instead train up to the Nov. 7 GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic, according to a statement from Sackatoga principal Jack Knowlton. "Tiz the Law [is] officially skipping [the] Preakness," Knowlton said on the Sackatoga Twitter account. "Disappointing that Tiz will not be able to run in the Preakness, [but] our primary interest is doing what's right for the horse and in this case he's not ready....

Sackatoga Stable's four-time Grade I winner and recent GI Kentucky Derby runner-up Tiz the Law (Constitution) has returned to trainer Barclay Tagg's Belmont home base as his connections consider a start in the Oct. 3 GI Preakness S. "He'll be doing his regular gallops and as long as everything continues along well, then we'll have a work next weekend to assess where we are," said Sackatoga Operating Manager Jack Knowlton. "We want to make sure he comes out of the race well and acts like he did after the [Aug....

GI Kentucky Derby favorite and Quadruple Crown hopeful Tiz the Law (Constitution) would no doubt be almost any owner's horse of a lifetime--unless you're Jack Knowlton or Lew Titterton. Of Sackatoga Stable's 35 co-owners in on Tiz the Law, they're the only two who were around for the group's first horse of a lifetime, 2003 Derby and GI Preakness S. winner Funny Cide (Distorted Humor). For some of the others, Tiz the Law is the payoff after many years of horse ownership. For several, the six-for-seven, $2-million earning sophomore was,...