DONN HANDICAP Funny Cide ready for return

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- When Funny Cide hears the crinkle of a peppermint candy wrapper two stalls away, his head whips around from the back of the barn.
At age 4, the grand gelding can still move pretty fast. Whether he remains quick enough to win a stakes race is the question heading into today's $500,000 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park.
The Grade 1 event is the first race for Funny Cide since he won the Eclipse Award last week as the top 3-year-old male horse in 2003. His most recent stakes victory came in last year's Preakness.
"He was a great 3-year-old," said Dave Mahan, part of the 10-member syndicate that owns Funny Cide. "Whether he's going to be a great 4-year-old and 5-year-old, we don't know."
A field of eight 3-year-olds and up will run 11/8 miles. Funny Cide is the second choice at 2-1 behind multiple Grade 1 winner Medaglia d'Oro, an 8-5 favorite.
Medaglia d'Oro has finished first or second in 13 of his 15 starts and took second in his most recent start, the Breeders' Cup Classic on Oct. 25.
Funny Cide finished ninth in that race, nearly 15 lengths back. He rebounded with a victory in a seven-furlong allowance Jan. 10 at Gulfstream, but his handlers wonder whether he can still compete with the best.
"We hope to run him the next three, four, five years maybe," trainer Barclay Tagg said. "If he can't handle these top-quality $500,000 races, we'll regroup and run him in some $100,000 races. If he can't do that, we'll look for claiming races. Whatever it takes."
Other threats in the Donn include Seattle Fitz (6-1), coming off a win in the Grade 3 Aqueduct Handicap on Jan. 17, and two Allen Jerkens-trained entries, Puzzlement (10-1) and Bowman's Band (6-1), who finished 1-2 in the Grade 3 Hal's Hope Handicap on Jan. 3.
Funny Cide captivated his sport last year by winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. He then finished third at the Belmont Stakes, failing to become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978, and raced only twice more in 2003.
His celebrity shows no signs of fading, however. He's owned by Sackatoga Stable, a group including six former high school buddies who were stunned to find themselves with a Derby winner.
Mahan and his friends opened a store in Saratoga, N.Y., that sells Funny Cide souvenirs. Memorabilia includes wine, beer, caps, T-shirts and bobblehead dolls, with sales raising more than $75,000 for charity.