Anthony Dutrow is approaching his milestone 2000th victory (Coady Photography)
NYRA Press Office
OZONE PARK, N.Y.— Trainer Tony Dutrow, who has been slowly but surely edging closer to 2,000 career wins, will saddle Fabulously Funny as he looks to secure the milestone in Saturday’s $100,000 Cicada for sophomore fillies going six furlongs at Aqueduct Racetrack.
“It could go down that way,” Dutrow said, with a laugh. “It’s taken me a long time to get there, but it looks like we’re going to get it done.”
Owned by Harold Lerner, AWC Stables, Nehoc Stables, Scott K. Akman, and Paul Braverman, Fabulously Funny enters off a frontrunning second-out graduation on February 17 in a local six-furlong maiden special weight that provided Dutrow with his 1,999th career win.
The Practical Joke filly stumbled at the start of her January 7 career debut, where she finished third beaten a length, but turned things around at second asking. She raced a close second to the outside of pacesetting Wonder Girl down the backstretch before coming under urging around the far turn and held off a late charge from familiar foe Spelterini to win by one length.
Fabulously Funny has worked back twice since her maiden conquest, including a bullet three-eighths Wednesday in 36.80 seconds over the Belmont Park training track.
“I’m very happy with her,” said Dutrow. “She’s been forward the way we would like since she broke her maiden and we thought that with a short field, it looked like an opportunity for her to show us what she’s capable of.”
Dutrow expressed no discouragement with her first effort, adding that his horses generally improve exponentially in their second start.
“My horses learn a great deal in their first start. I don’t anticipate any of my first time starters being impressive, I’m hopeful that they learn,” Dutrow said. “If they’re any good, they do learn and they become a lot better in their second start. I don’t try to accomplish a great deal other than providing them with an experience in their first start. You could tell that in her second start, she broke very well and was in control of herself the entire race. She just did it with confidence and the way you’d like to see a second time starter run.”
Fabulously Funny, bred in Kentucky by International Equities Holding, is out of the Include mare Just Fabulous, who also produced graded stakes placed Midnight On Oconee. She was bought for $210,000 from the 2021 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
Fabulously Funny will break from post 4 under Kendrick Carmouche.
Despite approaching a milestone, Dutrow said he has not been reflective on his overall career, adding that his main focus is not the quantity of races he wins. Some of his career highlights include winning Grade 1 races with horses such as Grace Hall, Embellish the Lace, Mo Town, The Big Beast, Seattle Smooth, Rightly So and Burning Roma.
“The only goal I had in racing was what I’ve practiced my whole career. I go out there every day and try to do as good a job as I possibly can with the help of the people in the barn,” Dutrow said. “I think we go out there and do our best to accomplish the best we can with the horse. I’m just worried about the horse in front of me and trying to do the best with that horse in their best interest. Keeping them safe and sound and helping them become what they can. That’s the only goal I’ve had in racing.”
