SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (NEWS10) — The champion thoroughbred racehorse Funny Cide, winner of the 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, has passed away. He was 23 years old.

Nicknamed “The Gutsy Gelding”, Funny Cide was the first horse bred in New York to win the Kentucky Derby. He also was only the 30th horse in history to win the first two legs of the Triple Crown.

Funny Cide retired in 2008 to Kentucky Horse Park, where he is enshrined in their Hall of Champions. The park announced that he passed away on July 16 from complications with colic.

He is remembered fondly by Sackatoga Stable, where the champion horse used to run. The stable said in a statement this morning that “From putting NY-Breds on the map to yellow school buses, the Funny Cide story is one we will long remember. We are beyond grateful to Kentucky Horse Park for giving our guy 15 wonderful years of retirement. To say we will miss him, is an understatement. Rest well, old boy.”