- Distorted Humor
-
Distorted Humor Sire Forty Niner Grandsire Mr. Prospector Dam Danzig's Beauty Damsire Danzig Sex Stallion Foaled 1993 Country United States Colour Chestnut Breeder Nuckols Farm, Inc. Owner Russell L. Reineman Stable & Prestonwood Farm Trainer Phil Gleaves
W. Elliott WaldenRecord 23: 8-5-3 Earnings $769,964 Major wins Amsterdam Stakes (1996)
Salvator Mile Handicap (1997)
Commonwealth Breeders' Cup Stakes (1998)
Churchill Downs Stakes (1998)
Ack Ack Handicap (1998)Horse (Equus ferus caballus) Distorted Humor (foaled 1993 in Kentucky) is an American Thoroughbred racehorse and a successful sire.
Contents
Bloodline
Distorted Humor's sire is Forty Niner, 1987's Eclipse Award winning Outstanding Two-Year-Old Male Horse by the champion sire, Mr. Prospector. Distorted Humor's dam was Danzig's Beauty by Danzig. Distorted Humor was her second foal. (Danzig's Beauty died June 17, 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.)
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, Elliott Walden took over the training in the spring of 1996 after Prestonwood Farm purchased a half-interest in Distorted Humor. Distorted Humor's eventual race 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 Stakes 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 Stakes, and the Grade III Ack Ack Handicap before he was retired.
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 2006, his third jumps win in his past four outings.
Back in the United States, Distorted Humor's 2000 fee remained low and his mares average, yet he also quickly made his mark, 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, as well as the Grade I runner, Awesome Humor.
For three years now his mares have become classier and classier (in 2007 he serviced the mare Quendom (ARG), the dam of Invasor); 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 had 255 winners, including 18 graded stakes winners, from 340 starters, siring 46 stakes winners. From five crops, his progeny have earned $30,265,433. In 2006, as a 14-year-old sire, he had 20 different horses win a combined 31 stakes races, 10 of which were graded.
Now 15 (2008), Distorted Humor has produced at least 20 stakes winners for the second year in a row. For the third straight year, he ranks among the top six stallions by progeny earnings. For the year 2007, he ranks third behind Smart Strike (sire of Curlin and English Channel) and A.P. Indy.
"Distorted Humor's progeny inherit the will to win, the desire; a lot like Storm Cat," said WinStar Farm President and CEO Doug Cauthen. "They're always battling. They battle and win or try to win, and that desire tends to get them in the winner's circle."
Distorted Humor's record
Currently standing at WinStar Farm in Versailles, Kentucky, his progeny include:
- Funny Cide, 2003 Kentucky Derby, 2003 Preakness, 2004 Jockey Club Gold Cup.
- Hystericalady, 2006 Hollywood Breeders' Cup Oaks, 2007 Humana Distaff Handicap, 2007 & 2008 Molly Pitcher Breeders' Cup Handicap. 2008 Azeri Stakes, Fleur de Lis Handicap 2008, Delaware Handicap 2008.
- Commentator, 2005/2008 Whitney Handicap, 2008 Richter Scale Breeders' Cup Sprint Championship Handicap, 2008 Massachusetts Handicap.
- Drosselmeyer, winner of the 2010 Belmont Stakes and the 2011 Breeders' Cup Classic.
- Flower Alley, 2005 Travers Stakes, 2005 Lane's End Stakes, 2005 Jim Dandy Stakes.
- Original Spin, 2005 Arlington-Washington Breeders' Cup Lassie Stakes Grade III.
- Go Rockin' Robin, 2003 Peter Pan Stakes.
- Any Given Saturday, 2007 Dwyer Stakes, 2007 Haskell Invitational Handicap, 2007 Brooklyn Handicap.
- Cowtown Cat, 2007 Illinois Derby, 2007 Gotham Stakes.
- Da Stoops, 2005 California Breeders' Champion Stakes, 2006 California Cup Sprint, 2006 Sunshine Millions Dash.
- Forty Grams, 2007 Alysheba Breeders' Cup Stakes.
- Sensibly Chic, 2005 Vagrancy Handicap
- Sharp Humor, 2006 Swale Stakes.
- Awesome Humor, 2002 Spinaway Stakes.
- Forty Niners Son, 2007 San Luis Rey Handicap.
- Rinky Dink, 2004 Australasian Oaks.
- Gaudeamus, 2006 Woodpark & Ballysheehan Studs Stakes at Curragh, Ireland
- It's No Joke, 2006 Bet on Sunshine Handicap at Churchill Downs, 2006 Grade II Hawthorne Gold Cup Handicap, 2006 Grade III Ack Ack Handicap.
- Dash of Humor, 2006 Kentucky Cup Ladies Turf Stakes, 2006 HBPA Handicap, 2006 Furl Sail HHBPA Stakes.
- Distorted Halo
- Change Up, 2006 Pocahontas Stakes
- Bit of Whimsy, 2007 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes, 2007 Mrs. Revere Stakes
- Helsinki
- Like It Is (AUS)
- Twisted Wit
- Z Humor, finished first in a dead heat with Turf War in the 2007 running of the Delta Jackpot Stakes.
- Regal Ransom, 2009 United Arab Emirate Derby, Super Derby (2009)
- Justenuffhumor, 2009 Bernard Baruch Handicap
- Endorsement, 2010 Sunland Derby
- Alternation, 2011 Peter Pan Stakes
- Machen, 2011 Derby Trial Stakes
- Brethren, 2011 Sam F. Davis Stakes
Fees
Distorted Humor's fee for 2008 was $300,000—the same fee commanded by A.P. Indy and Storm Cat, both now pensioned. But due to the uncertain financial climate beginning in 2008, his fee was reduced to $225,000 for 2009 and $100,000 for 2011.
References
Categories:- 1993 racehorse births
- Thoroughbred racehorses
- Northern Dancer bloodline
- Racehorses bred in Kentucky
- Racehorses trained in the United States
- American racehorses
- United States Champion Thoroughbred Sires
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
