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Big Beginnings In Ocala For Big Brown

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By SCOTT CARTER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 6, 2008

Updated: 06/06/2008 10:32 am

OCALA - The late-morning sun is beginning to cook the 1-mile oval, and Eddie Woods is close to calling this part of his day done. Before he drives back up the hill toward the barns, though, the veteran horseman locks his eyes on a pair of fillies working out on the track.

He watches closely as exercise riders breeze Jazz Rags and Daffodil Princess around the training track located on the backside of Woods' 250-acre spread here, simply known as Eddie Woods Stables. As they trot by, thumping feet and snorting sounds fill the humid air.

Woods listens, studies and makes mental notes as the fillies rush past on an otherwise lazy morning.

"They need to learn their job," Woods says in his thick Irish accent. "They are creatures of habit."

Woods, 50, has performed the same routine countless times in his career, but one special horse that galloped around the same track for six months from late 2006 through April 2007 has Woods boarding an airplane this afternoon for a weekend trip to New York.

He, like the more than 120,000 others expected at Belmont Park for the 140th running of the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, wants to see if Big Brown can become the first Triple Crown winner in 30 years.

This isn't just any weekend getaway for Woods, though. Woods once owned the unbeaten 3-year-old colt, horse racing's newest superstar, who will try to do something that hasn't been done since Affirmed did it in 1978.

"He was always very classy, quiet, professional," Woods said. "You almost didn't even know he was here. There was no drama to that horse at all. He did everything the right way. He was always a beautiful mover, like a natural. Everything just came easy for him."

Doing A Job

In the thoroughbred racing industry, Woods is what is known as a pinhooker, someone who buys a horse at an auction with the purpose of reselling him later. A former jockey in his native Ireland, Woods moved to Ocala in 1986 to learn the business side of the sport.

He opened his own training center in 1993, and for the past eight years has operated a successful stable 11 miles west of Interstate 75 that has 146 stalls and soon could be the former home of a Triple Crown winner.

Business, and life, is good these days for Woods.

"To be at this level, this is like the Super Bowl for us," Woods said. "There are 35,000 foals every year, and we've got the one. This is as good as it gets."

Woods paid $60,000 for Big Brown as a yearling in October 2006 at an auction in Lexington, Ky. He immediately had the Kentucky-bred colt shipped to Ocala to teach him to be ridden and to begin training him for a racing career.

After six months, Woods was ready to sell, and took Big Brown to the annual April auction at historic Keeneland Racetrack outside Lexington. He sold him to New York trucking magnate Paul Pompa Jr., for $190,000, a transaction that launched Big Brown on the path toward the national stage he'll occupy early Saturday evening. Pompa named him Big Brown because of UPS, his trucking company's largest client.

"We bought the horse to do a job, and he did the job for us really well," Woods said. "I wish I could do that with them all. It would be easy. We've bought horses for less and made more, and we've bought horses for more and made more.

"Some of them have turned into nice horses, but none of them have turned into this horse."

Recognizing Greatness

Since Sir Barton became the first horse to win the Triple Crown in 1919 - winning the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont in the same year - only 10 others have accomplished the sport's most celebrated feat. Affirmed, the only Florida-bred horse to win the Triple Crown, was born and raised in Ocala.

Big Brown's run toward history has the heart of Florida horse country back in the national spotlight because of his six-month stop on Woods' farm.

"To have a horse going for the Triple Crown that trained here, it's huge for Ocala and the horse racing industry," said Michael Compton, editor of The Florida Horse magazine. "Whether or not he wins the Triple Crown, Big Brown has already meant so much to horse racing."

When Big Brown was in Ocala, he was just one of thousands of other racing hopefuls in training, falling under the radar.

"It's like trying to pick out the next Michael Jordan in junior high," Compton said of recognizing greatness at such an early age.

By the time the Florida Derby rolled around March 29 at Gulfstream Park, however, Compton noticed Big Brown right away in the paddock, moments before the emerging colt ran away with a five-length victory to qualify for the Kentucky Derby.

"He was the last horse to come into the saddling ring," Compton said. "He truly looked like a man among boys. He is just a tremendous-looking horse. You really know when you are in his presence. He has that something extra that others don't have."

Five months after Woods sold Big Brown to Pompa, the horse won his racing debut at Saratoga on Sept. 3, 2007. A few days later, Pompa sold a 75 percent stake in Big Brown to IEAH Stables for a reported $3 million. Once Big Brown won the Kentucky Derby last month, IEAH Stables sold his stud rights to Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky for a reported $50 million, making Woods' original purchase seem like a dime-store bargain.

Woods is just thankful to be forever connected to his most famous student.

"This is the best horse I've ever owned," he said. "You can't spot it. You can't name it, and you can't manufacture it.

"It's just something that shows up."

Reporter Scott Carter can be reached at (850) 294-3088 or scarter@tampatrib.com.

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