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Big Truck's Owners Hoping For Big Things At Derby

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By SCOTT CARTER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 3, 2008

Some are friends from the New York borough of Queens, where Eric Fein grew up and made regular trips out to Belmont Park to "hang out" with his buddies. Some are business partners Fein has developed over the years.

Seven weeks ago at Tampa Bay Downs, Fein and many of the 50 co-owners of the 3-year-old colt, Big Truck, got a thrill of a lifetime when Big Truck charged toward the front at the top of the stretch and edged the Todd Pletcher-trained Atonement by a neck, winning the Tampa Bay Derby.

Big Truck's surprise win - pundits had Nick Zito's War Pass, who finished last, running away from the field - set Fein and trainer Barclay Tagg on a most unexpected course: toward the 134th running of the Kentucky Derby today at Churchill Downs.

"You don't see something like this coming," said Fein, who purchased Big Truck for $90,000 at a 2-year-old-in-training sell last year. "You hope for it, but you don't expect it."

If Big Truck pulls off another shocker today running from the No. 7 post - he is the longest shot in the field at 50-1 - Fein and his friends will have another huge celebration in winner's circle the way they did in Tampa on March 15.

In some ways, Tagg is the perfect accomplice to Big Truck's surprise run toward the Derby. While Big Truck failed to recapture his Tampa glory in his final prep race for the Derby, finishing 11th in the Bluegrass Stakes at Keeneland on April 12, Tagg isn't ruling out anything once the gates open in today's Run for the Roses.

He's been here before in a similar situation.

In 2003, Tagg and a group of relatively unknown owners brought an awkward-looking colt named Funny Cide to Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May. By the end of the day, Funny Cide was a Kentucky Derby champion. By the end of the summer, he was nearly a Triple Crown winner, following up a victory in the Preakness Stakes by falling short at Belmont.

So, despite the oddsmakers not giving Big Truck much of a chance in a crowded field topped by 3-1 favorite Big Brown, and another strong contender in Colonel John, Tagg is tossing out Big Truck's disappointing showing at the Bluegrass on a synthetic surface.

"I think it's a wide-open race," Tagg said from Churchill Downs earlier this week. "Who knows? I don't think anyone really knows."

If Big Truck does reach the winner's circle, he'll become the second straight Tampa Bay Derby winner to win the Kentucky Derby. A year ago, Street Sense became the first Tampa winner to claim American horse racing's biggest prize.

The year Funny Cide nearly became the first horse to win the Triple Crown since Secretariat in 1973, he didn't win a prep race. Big Truck's only win came in Tampa. He finished fifth at the Hutcheson Stakes at Gulfstream in January and in his first run in Tampa, he was second in the Sam F. Davis Stakes in February.

While he's hopeful, Tagg isn't going to put Big Truck in Funny Cide's company unless he wins today.

"Funny Cide was a monster," Tagg said. "He was explosive. I had more confidence in that race and in that horse than probably any other race I've run in."

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

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