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Big Truck Drives Off With Derby Win

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By BART O'CONNELL

Tribune correspondent

Published: March 16, 2008

Updated: 03/16/2008 12:14 am

OLDSMAR - Twenty feet from the hoopla in the Tampa Bay Downs winner's circle stood Nick Zito, right hand in his pocket, glazed look on his face, trying to find out what happened.

It was a look that perfectly summed up Saturday's Grade III Tampa Bay Derby, a race that will be remembered more for who finished last - Zito's previously unbeaten 2-year-old champion War Pass, a 1-20 betting favorite - than the winner, Big Truck.

As War Pass faltered, eased by jockey Cornelio Velasquez at the top of the stretch, the Barclay Tagg trainee and Sam F. Davis Stakes runner-up, ridden by Eibar Coa, held off Todd Pletcher's Atoned by a neck in 1 minute, 44.25 seconds. Dynamic Wayne, a local horse trained by Dale Bennett, was third.

Much of the Tampa Bay Downs record crowd of 12,746 was still stunned by the outcome, and so were Tagg and Coa, who weren't looking to make history. They just wanted to finish second, with one caveat.

"I told Coa if something happens to War Pass, if you ride for second he'll win the race," Tagg said. "He felt the same way, and it kind of worked out that way. I mean, you just never know. Theoretically, you're not going to beat War Pass going a mile-and-a-16th here."

Big Truck owner Eric Fein and his sizeable group pranced into the winner's circle, high-fiving and hugging each other, already making plans for the Kentucky Derby after the $180,000 win. Meanwhile, War Pass's somber connections - Zito, Velasquez and owner Robert LaPenta - searched for answers as the colt was being sponged down, clearly gassed.

The awe-inspiring speed War Pass had shown in winning his first five races never arrived Saturday. Breaking from the No. 3 post, he bumped Make Me Zach on the right and brushed off Gentleman James on the left, squeezed back sharply. It was probably the worst thing, short of injury, that could have happened to the front-runner.

Zito wanted Velasquez to take him to the front for the first turn, but traffic problems forced him to settle for fifth early. He moved up to third on the backstretch, but still was unable to find any running room. Velasquez used the whip only once, at the top of the stretch, but gave up soon after.

"He got moving and I thought was in a good position going down the back, but when Velasquez asked him nothing happened," Zito said. "I don't know what happened, I just don't know."

"He's a nice horse, he try all the time," Velasquez said, "but today, he didn't try."

LaPenta said War Pass "wasn't himself" and earlier in the week had a fever, a revelation that was not released to the public before the race. LaPenta didn't immediately know if War Pass suffered an injury. He added that plans to run in next month's Wood Memorial at Aqueduct would need to be evaluated.

Tagg also is unsure of where Big Truck will race next.

The result sent many home angry. The show pool was the most heavily bet part of the race, with 93.6 percent ($717,212.39) wagered on War Pass. The result was huge show payouts for the three horses in the money, $25.20 for Big Truck, $27.80 for Atoned and $76.40 for Dynamic Wayne.

"Unbelievable. Unbelievable," Fein said. "You hope for this, you root for it. I've had a lot of them that haven't panned out, but this is absolutely amazing."

Bart O'Connell can be

reached at boconnell

@pop.tampatrib.com.

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