Titterton a Vestige of 'Funny' Times for Sackatoga

The Triple Crown has produced some extremely colorful and unforgettable moments in the last 20 years.

There was the exhilaration of not one, but two Triple Crown sweeps, courtesy of American Pharoah  and Justify , and before that, Rags to Riches and Rachel Alexandra used classic wins to show that the girls could beat the boys at their own game.

In the space of two years, there were the rags-to-riches saga of Smarty Jones that left a record 120,139 fans in stunned silence when he was beaten in the 2004 Belmont Stakes (G1) and the heartbreak and tears when Barbaro broke down in the 2006 Preakness Stakes (G1).

In 2003, the Triple Crown gave us the uplifting, feel-good tale of Sackatoga Stable's Funny Cide. A Distorted Humor  gelding bred in New York, he was conditioned by veteran trainer Barclay Tagg, who savored his only taste of classic success through victories in the Kentucky Derby (G1) and Preakness. He was owned by a syndicate that featured managing partner Jack Knowlton and five of his high school buddies from Sackets Harbor, N.Y., plus four other major investors who merrily traveled to Triple Crown races in a school bus.

Funny Cide's Triple Crown dreams ended on a dark, stormy June afternoon at Belmont Park when a monsoon turned "Big Sandy" into a quagmire and the gallant gelding could do no better than finish third behind Empire Maker.

"That Belmont Stakes 17 years ago was a nightmare," recalled Lew Titterton, a retired health care executive who was one of the four non-Sackets Harbor partners in the Funny Cide group. "It was so dark that when I saw (New York Senator Charles Schumer) and talked to him that day, I could barely see his face. It was pouring so much, it was like being at Niagara Falls. On a sunny day, he might have won, but it never stopped raining."

After winning the opening two legs of the Triple Crown with a charismatic horse purchased for $75,000, and savoring four more years of top-level racing with a gelding who re-wrote the record book for New York-breds and earned $3.5 million, Titterton never entertained a single thought of reliving that experience.

"In my wildest dreams, I never expected us to have another Funny Cide," Titterton said.

Come June 20 in the $1 million Belmont Stakes, after 17 long years, those dreams just might come true. 

Thanks to the multiple grade 1-winning Tiz the Law, tiny Sackatoga Stable is once again occupying center stage during a Triple Crown season with, fittingly enough, another New York-bred. In a year when the COVID-19 pandemic forced a shuffling of the Triple Crown deck and a shortened 1 1/8-mile Belmont Stakes will usher in the series for the first time, Tiz the Law figures to be a heavy favorite in a classic race known as "The Test of the Champion."

The Curlin Florida Derby (G1) winner might even go off at lower odds than Funny Cide's even-money price in the 2003 Belmont Stakes.

"It's a bizarre feeling to be back in this position," Titterton said.

As similar as it may sound, with Knowlton still at the head of the Sackatoga group with a New York-bred Triple Crown hopeful trained by Tagg, this is not your daddy's Sackatoga Stables.

Of the 10 individuals who formed the Sackatoga partnership that owned Funny Cide, the only ones who own a share of Tiz the Law are Knowlton and Titterton, whose rock-solid friendship has spanned four decades.

"Lew is the perfect partner," Knowlton said. "We both love the game and we're great friends. Lew and his wife, Pat, and my wife, Dorothy, and I have been close, social friends for a long time. We go out to dinner frequently. Lew lived in Saratoga for a long time. He has relocated to Florida, but he has a condo in South Beach and I have one a mile from Gulfstream Park. So we'll see them in Florida. He also comes to Saratoga for the summer and we'll share a box at the racetrack. It's been great to enjoy all of this with him."

While Knowlton has been the managing partner and face of Sackatoga Stable since its inception in 1995, Titterton has been quite content to remain in the background as the only other link to the Funny Cide days. In business, the 75-year-old Titterton has been highly successful, founding and serving as chairman of NYMED. Yet in horse racing, he's been happy to hand the reins over to Knowlton, dating all the way back to when their work in the health care sector and mutual passion for horse racing first brought them together to race a few harness horses some 35 years ago.

"It all comes down to enjoyment for me," Titterton said. "I want to have a good time."

After teaming with Knowlton in harness racing, around 2000, Titterton jumped on board with Sackatoga.

"We had some slow trotters together," Titterton said. "Then I joined Sackatoga and we had some slow Thoroughbreds together."

Things were going so poorly for Sackatoga in 2000 that all involved seemed ready to abandon the ship. That's when Knowlton switched trainers and gave a couple of horses to Tagg, setting in motion an incredulous chain of events.

"We were about to give up when we found Barclay," Titterton said. "We had two horses at the time and he said they were the worst horses he had ever seen, but he actually got one of them to win and finish second at odds of more than 100-1."

That success led to Sackatoga buying a filly named Bail Money from one of Tagg's other owners. She was ultimately claimed away in March 2002 for $62,500, and that gave the partnership the capital it needed to buy an unraced 2-year-old from Tony Everard for $75,000. The gelding's name was Funny Cide. He won his career debut by 14 3/4 lengths at Belmont Park and …

"The rest is history," Titterton said. 

History that could indeed be repeated Saturday when Sackatoga and Tagg attempt to once again win the opening leg of the Triple Crown while making amends for their loss in the 2003 Belmont Stakes—all in one fell swoop.

"Hopefully fate will be kind to us this time in the Belmont Stakes," Knowlton said. "It would be great to go into Churchill Downs on Sept. 5 for the Kentucky Derby as the only horse with a chance of winning the Triple Crown."

Like Knowlton, Titterton already knows that feeling, courtesy of the 2003 Preakness and Belmont Stakes. 

"Is this payback for 2003? I don't know," he said. "The Belmont Stakes is the first race in the series now, not the third, but he won his last two races easily. We'll see what happens Saturday."

The Sackatoga group chasing the 2020 Triple Crown is not only considerably different in membership from the Funny Cide partnership but much larger. Since Funny Cide's retirement in 2007, Knowlton's high school friends dropped out. From the four other investors, Gus Williams died in 2007 and Dave Mahan passed away in 2009, while Eric Dattner pursued other options in the sport.

Knowlton now has a core group of about 50 people involved in his Sackatoga offerings, with each horse sold as a separate LLC. There's a total of 35 owners with a share of Tiz the Law, who was bought for $110,000 from the Sequel New York consignment at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Preferred New York-Bred Yearling Sale, and let's just say there's a deep feeling of regrets among the regular Sackatoga investors who elected to sit out the deal for the Constitution  colt.

"There's a lot of tears out there among our people who didn't buy a share,"" Knowlton said.

For Titterton, staying involved with Knowlton has been a no-brainer.

"I do this for the fun," Titterton said. "Jack and I share a box at Saratoga and it's a lot of fun to go to the races him. I just wanted to have a good time. That's why it's so wild to have a horse as good as Tiz the Law."

The fun surely started with Funny Cide as a close-knit group reveled in the kind of success that seemed out of their reach only a year earlier with a small, modest stable.

"We had an absolute blast," Titterton said. "The group was pretty relaxed. Dave Mahan was a fun guy and knew more about horses than anyone you'll meet. There was a lot stuff we did with lots of great stories."

One story Titterton remembers quite vividly took place at the Preakness. Mahan asked Titterton how he planned to bet on Funny Cide. Not being much of a gambler or handicapper, Titterton responded he would most likely place a win bet on the gelding. Mahan told him to scrap that plan in favor of an exotic wager.

"When I told him I was going to bet Funny Cide to win, Dave looked at me as if I was demented. He said, 'Sure, Funny Cide will win but what will you get?' He told me (trainer) Neil Howard was going to try to steal the race from us with Midway Road but he'll come in second. So I bet a couple of hundred on the exacta with Funny Cide and Midway Road."

Thanks to that tip, Titterton placed an exacta bet with Funny Cide, the 9-5 favorite, and Midway Road, who went off at 20-1. Funny Cide did his part with gusto, winning by a lopsided 9 3/4-length margin, while Midway Road had to work harder but managed to take second over Scrimshaw by three-quarters-of-a length.

The exacta paid $120.60, and, yes, the party after the Preakness was a festive time.

"We were having a great party, but I didn't see Dave there," Titterton said. "Finally, he walks in and normally, he's an elegant guy. But he looks like the Pillsbury Doughboy. I asked him what was the matter and he opened his jacket and showed me. His pockets were stuffed with wads of $100 bills. He made $130,000 betting on the race."

Even in defeat, Team Funny Cide had a grand 'ol time on the Triple Crown circuit.

"We lost the Belmont Stakes," Titterton said, "but I read in the New York Post afterwards that we put on a better party than the winning owners did. We were singing the Funny Cide song and having a fabulous time, even though he lost. It was such an incredible experience. How could we not celebrate?"

While Sackatoga Stable is larger now, the social element has been eliminated because of the pandemic. While staying in California during the crisis, Titterton was unable to be on hand for ether of Tiz the Law's two wins at 3 in the Holy Bull Stakes (G3) and the Florida Derby.

With no fans, and no owners the New York Racing Association announced June 15, allowed at Belmont Park Saturday, he'll watch the race on the West Coast with some family members. They will practice social distancing, but, true to his nature and Sackatoga tradition, Titterton intends to have a good time, win or lose. 

"This has been a nightmare with the pandemic," said Titterton, whose last trip to the racetrack to see Tiz the Law took place last year when the 2-year-old won the Champagne Stakes (G1) at Belmont Park. "It changes things a lot. Half the fun of owning a horse is sharing the experience with other people. My wife and I will have something here with our kids and grandkids. We'll socially distance but we're going to have lobsters flown in from Maine and have a great time."

While the differences between the 2003 Belmont Stakes and 2020 Belmont Stakes are as stark as night and day, there is at least an endearing constant between then and now. Jack Knowlton and Lew Titterton may not be sharing a bus ride together, but they are once again enjoying a fabulous ride together—and after all these years that's surely something to treasure as much as a victory in one of America's classic races.