Distorted Humor

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Distorted Humor, born in 1993, is an American thoroughbred racehorse, although he is much better known for his stud career.

1 His bloodline
2 His racing career
3 A winning Stud
4 Trivia
5 References

[edit] His bloodline

Distorted Humor's sire is Forty Niner, 1987's Eclipse Award winning Outstanding Two-Year-Old Male Horse by the legendary Mr. Prospector. Distorted Humor's dam was Danzig's Beauty by Danzig. Distorted Humor was her second foal. (Danzig's Beauty died June 17th, 2006, at the age of 19 due to colic. She'd given birth in April, 2006, to her last foal, a filly by Empire Maker. Of her eight starters, six were winners.)

[edit] His racing career

Distorted Humor himself had a career running middle-distance stakes races. He impressively broke his maiden at Florida's Gulfstream Park. Trained by Phil Gleaves as a sprinter/miler, his eventual record was 8 wins, 5 places and 3 shows in 23 starts, earning a total of $769,964. As a three-year-old, he won the Screen King Stakes, was second in the Grade III Fayette Stakes and the Grade II Jerome Handicap, and 3rd in the Grade III King's Bishop Stakes. At four, he took the Grade III Salvator Mile Handicap, was second in the Grade III Kentucky Cup Classic and the Grade III Philip H. Iselin Handicap. At five, he took the Grade II Commonwealth Breeders' Cup Stakes (setting the record for the distance that still holds), the Grade II Churchill Downs Handicap, and the Grade III Ack Ack Handicap before he was retired.

[edit] A winning Stud

Beginning in 1999, Distorted Humor stood twice in Victoria, Australia (at Grand Lodge Stud in Avenel) for $12,000. He sired two Australian crops. In only these two crops, 93 were runners, 74 winners, 12 placed, and two others have come in the money. His get include Rinky Dink: winner of the South Australian Oaks and the Tasmanian Oaks, Distorted Halo: winner of the Moonee Valley and Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Derby Trial, and Tirade: winner of the Caulfield Guineas Prelude and third in VRC Ascot Vale Stakes. Among his Australian winners are not only flat runners, but jumpers. The jumper, four-year-old, Some Are Bent, took the Moonee Valley Hurdle in July of 2006, his third jumps win in his past four outings.

Back in the States, Distorted Humor's fee remained low and his mares average, yet he also quickly made his mark, unexpectedly becoming America's leading freshman sire of 2002. And then in 2003, his stud career expanded a hundredfold with the arrival of his most famous son, the dual classic winner Funny Cide.

For three years now, his American off-spring have earned over five million dollars a year. In 2005, when his oldest were five-year-olds, and over the course of 140 races, 88 of his get (13 of which were two-year-olds) earned 8 million six hundred thousand dollars. He finished the year as the second top sire in America, beaten only by the now deceased Saint Ballado. By late 2006 he has 255 winners, including 18 graded stakes winners, from 340 starters, siring 46 stakes winners. From five crops, his progeny have earned $30,265,433.

He currently stands at the elegant WinStar Farm in Versailles, Kentucky. Across the aisle in the stallion barn is the 2000 Horse of the Year, the 2005 leading freshman sire and the two-time Breeders' Cup Classic winner (2000 and 2001), Tiznow. Next to Tiznow is the winner of the 2004 Breeder's Cup Sprint, Speightstown. Down the row is the 1998 Belmont Stakes winner and the 1999 Eclipse Champion Older Horse, Victory Gallop. Joining them in 2006 is the homebred Bluegrass Cat, winner of Remsen Stakes as a two-year-old and the Haskell Invitational Handicap at three.

Ken Troutt and Bill Casner, both with long-standing interests in horses, and both making their money in different fields, came together to purchase Prestonwood Farm in 2000, adding to its acreage, and renaming it WinStar Farm. One of the ironies (not to mention great good luck) with their purchase were two horses who "came with the Prestonwood Farm." "There's two stallions in the barns if you want 'em," said the sellers, the Preston brothers. Those two stallions were Kris S. and Distorted Humor. (Kris S. died in 2002 at the age of 25 after siring Breeder's Cup winners and Eclipse Award winners whose income was in excess of $50,000,000. He's buried at WinStar just outside the entrance to the stallion barn.)

His progeny include, as said, Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Jockey Club Gold Cup winner Funny Cide, Grade I Travers Stakes winner Flower Alley, Grade I Whitney Handicap winner Commentator, (beating the sadly deceased Saint Liam, winner of the 2005 Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year), Grade II Peter Pan winner Go Rockin Robin, and a growing band of other promising stakes winners such as Da Stoops, Sensibly Chic, Sharp Humor (which Winstar has just purchased a share in), Awesome Humor, winner of the Grade I Spinaway Stakes, Histericalady, winner of the Grade II Hollywood Oaks, Forty Niner's Son who placed in the G2 American International Handicap at Hollywood Park, Rinky Dink, winner of Australia's G1 Australasian Oaks, the two-year-old Gaudeamus who won the Woodpark & Ballysheehan Studs Stakes at Curragh, Ireland, and It's No Joke (a $675,000 yearling) who won the Bet on Sunshine Stakes at Churchill Downs on July 6th, 2006. Three days later Commentator won the Mugatea Stakes at Belmont Park by six and a half lengths. On July 22nd, Dash of Humor won the HBPA Stakes going a mile on the turf at Ellis Park; two-year-old Gaudeamus won again, a G2 at Leopardstown Racecourse on the 29th; and another two-year-old, Change Up, won for the second time in three starts at Mountaineer.

In October of 2006, he is already the number #1 sire of stakes winners with a total of 19 individual runners, 24 stakes wins, and a co-leading sire of graded stakes winners with eight. In 2005, the number was 17 winners of 24 black type events (a stakes winner or stakes-placed horse in sales catalogues, their names printed in blacker ink), which made him that year's most successful sire by stakes winners. Beginning at $12,000, then dropping for a year to $10,000 (the year of Funny's conception), he then rose by 2006 to command US $150,000 for a live cover breeding. He does not yet have a record as a broodmare sire, but the progeny of mares he has sired should begin racing next year.

The latest (Oct. 2006) stats on Distorted Humor's racing progency in North America, Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, UAE, and all other available foreign data are: 2 champions, 18 graded stakes winners, 46 stakes winners, and 20 stakes placers.

In late October, WinStar Farm president Doug Cauthen, has announced the 13-year-old stallion's fee for 2007 will be $225,000. "He can get you a serious runner at any distance, on any surface, and at any age," Cauthen added. "He's the real deal. We decided to set his fee at $225,000 in an effort to provide breeders with good value, and to keep the momentum going with the ever increasing mare quality of each book. Last year's book was outstanding, and this one will exceed that. WinStar is breeding our top mare, She's a Winner, the dam of Bluegrass Cat, to Distorted Humor in 2007. We're really excited about the future."

This is the third-highest 2007 fee so far announced for a North American stallion, trailing only Storm Cat's $500,000 fee and the $300,000 fee for A.P. Indy. Another stallion whose 2006 fee was higher, Giant's Causeway ($300,000), will stand for a private fee in 2007, making it impossible to determine where he stands on this list.

[edit] Trivia

The Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (TRF) raised in excess of $500,000 in August of 2006 at its annual gala at the Saratoga Golf and Polo Club. The TRF is America's oldest and largest horse rescue operation. The money raised is earmarked for the care of at least 1,300 racehorses that might otherwise go to slaughter. The celebrity chef, Bobby Flay, won his bid for the right to breed to Distorted Humor for $47,000.

The owner of Melnyk Racing Stables, Eugene Melnyk, said of Distorted Humor as he announced that Flower Alley would be standing at stud at Three Chimneys Farm in 2007, "Distorted Humor is the best stallion by his sire, Forty Niner. Plus he's one of the two or three hottest stallions in the business right now."