Big Truck
Trainer: Barclay Tagg Jockey: Eibar Coa Owner: Robert S. Evans Age/Sex 3-year-old Colt
2008 Stats: 4 1st-2nd-3rd 1-1-0 Earnings (Rank) $219,500 (22) Win % (In-The-Money %) 33% (66%) In The News: No 7 in the 2008 Kentucky Derby  Racing Career: Date Purse Race Track Grade Finish 05/03/08 $2,200K Kentucky Derby Churchill Downs 1 17 04/12/08 $750K Toyota Blue Grass S. Keeneland 1 11 03/15/08 $300K Tampa Bay Derby Tampa Bay Downs 3 1 02/16/08 $200K Sam F. Davis S. Tampa Bay Downs   2 01/05/08 $150K Hutcheson S. Gulfstream Park 2 5 11/24/07 $200K Remsen S. Aqueduct 2 4 10/20/07 $100K Sleepy Hollow S. Belmont Park   3 09/23/07 $100K Bertram F. Bongard S. Belmont Park   1 08/23/07 $56K Maiden Special Weight Saratoga   1   Big Truck..Barclay 5-24-08 photo: nancy rokos     Big Truck May 18th 2008 at Belmont Park

Big Truck motors over Churchill track

Ron Mitchell, The Blood-Horse 4/28/2008

In what trainer Barclay Tagg described as a “perfect” work, Big Truck zipped five furlongs in :59 2/5 at Churchill Downs on Monday, April 28, in preparation for the May 3 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I). The move by the son of Hook and Ladder was the fastest of the day among 22 horses working the distance.

“It was just what I wanted,” said a relaxed Tagg, who won the 2003 Derby with Funny Cide. “He went the half-mile in :48 and went to the wire in :59 2/5. Big Truck is a gorgeous mover. Anybody who has ever gotten on him said it’s like floating on a cloud.”

Tagg, who is also pointing Tale of Ekati toward the 1 ¼-mile Derby, said his two contenders are different in how they move but they have similarities in they “both have good, strong finishes. They keep digging. I like that quality in a racehorse. Both are pretty nice horses.”

With three wins in eight starts, Big Truck won the Tampa Bay Derby (gr. III) before finishing 11th of 12 in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (gr. I), contested over the artificial Polytrack surface at Keeneland. Although he did not want to criticize the track, Tagg said it was obvious Big Truck did not like it and he is throwing out the race as an indicator of Big Truck’s readiness for the Derby.

“Big Truck seemed to work well over that track, but in the afternoon it just got to him,” Tagg said.

When post positions are drawn Wednesday, Tagg said he would prefer a position between four and eight. “I am not like everybody else who wants the outside. I hope I don’t get it. I don’t want the rail either.”

Tagg said he just wanted his horses to stay sound and healthy the remainder of the week.

Big Truck on track, but for which race?

Although he would have preferred a little faster time, trainer Barclay Tagg said the work was a maintenance breeze, coming 10 days after the Hook and Ladder colt finished 11th in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (gr. I).

Tagg said he is continuing to point Big Truck, who has won or placed in five of eight career starts, for the May 3 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I). With $194,500 in earnings in graded stakes, Big Truck ranks 19th on that list, which is used to determine the starting field should more than 20 horses be entered in the Derby. If he does not get into the Derby, the colt will be entered in the May 17 Preakness (gr. I).

The trainer who saddled Funny Cide to win the 2003 Derby said he is drawing a line through Big Truck’s Blue Grass effort. “What else can I do?” the trainer asked rhetorically. He, like many other trainers whose horses did not fare well in the Blue Grass, is willing to dismiss the race’s outcome to the fact the race was run over a synthetic surface. While the colt had trained well over Polytrack leading up to the Blue Grass, Tagg said the track surface is different in the afternoon than during morning training hours. He attributed that to the difference in track maintenance in the mornings and afternoons, with the track being harrowed periodically between races.

Meanwhile, Tagg plans to work his other Derby contender, Wood Memorial (gr. I) winner Tale of Ekati, at Keeneland April 23. A homebred son of Tale of the Cat racing for Charles Fipke, Tale of Ekati has three wins and a second to his credit in six career starts. His $738,000 in graded earnings places him third on that list, behind Pyro and the filly Proud Spell, who will be entered in the Kentucky Oaks (gr. I) and possibly the Derby.

Big Truck wins Tampa Derby

Claire Novak, The Blood-Horse 3/15/2008

Trainer Barclay Tagg had prophetic words of wisdom for jockey Eibar Coa before he sent Eric Fein’s Big Truck to the $300,000 Tampa Bay Derby (gr. III).

“I said, ‘Ride to be second, and if something happens to War Pass, we win,’” Tagg told reporters just moments after the Hook and Ladder colt wore down Todd Pletcher trainee Atoned in a neck-and-neck battle Saturday. “I thought we were the second-best horse.”

Tagg, of course, was deferring to Robert LaPenta’s unbeaten War Pass, sent off at odds of 1-9 in a field of seven and clearly expected by the on-track crowd of 12,746 to score his seventh consecutive victory in the 1 1/6-mile event. But twisted circumstances put the Nick Zito trainee in a situation he’d never tried before; when a bad break caused the previously unbeaten frontrunner to get pinched back at the start, he never recovered and finished last.

“We hoped to get into position by the first turn, and when he didn’t break well it seemed like he wasn’t himself today,” LaPenta said following the race. “Hopefully he’s okay.”

"You saw what happened (at the break)," Zito said. "But he got moving and I thought he was in a good position going down the back, but when (Velasquez) asked him, nothing happened. I don't know what happened. I just don't know."

War Pass was restless in the gate and, after breaking fourth, was bumped as Gentleman James and Make Me Zach dueled for the early lead. Behind and between those two, he was unable to find running room and was hustled to maintain a position five-wide off the pace through early fractions of :23.73 and :47.44. Cigar Man raced fourth.

Big Truck rated fifth under Coa and Atoned was sixth, but began a move six wide while going three-quarters in 1:11.50. The field hit the head of the stretch with Atoned flying past Make Me Zach to claim the lead through a mile in 1:37.62. Big Truck was in close pursuit, and those two battled it down to the wire while longshot Dynamic Wayne got up for third and Make Me Zach faded to fourth.

“He trains like the best horse in the world, he just hasn’t proved it on the racetrack," Fein said. "Barclay (Tagg) has taken horses to the (Kentucky) Derby before, has won the Derby before, and has told us how good he is, but come race day he hasn’t proved it. So, thank God today he did. I actually started getting nervous at about the half-mile pole when I saw War Pass wasn’t on the lead. I though maybe today might be our day, and we were at the turn when we finally got out of the trouble we were in. We got clear, and I thought, ‘I know this horse can come.’”

Sure enough, Big Truck passed Atoned in the final 40 yards under strong handling to claim the victory by a neck. The final time was 1:44.25. Cigar Man, Gentleman James, and War Pass completed the order of finish.

Of War Pass, Velasquez said, "He just didn’t go today like he always has. At the half-mile he wanted to go to the lead but he just couldn’t go. Today he just didn’t try like he has in the past. I don’t know. He just stayed back and couldn’t take the lead. He did not run today; he’s a nice horse, but I don't think he liked the track."

Big Truck returned $16.40, $5.80, and $25.20. Atoned and jockey John Velazquez paid $6.60 and $27.80, while Dynamic Wayne and jockey Pablo Morales brought $76.40. The winning trifecta paid $439.20.

Bred in New York by A. Lakin & Sons out of the Go for Gin mare Just a Ginny, Big Truck came off a half-length loss to Fierce Wind in the Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Feb. 16. Dynamic Wayne was fourth in that event, while Bill Mott trainee Z Humor finished fifth. His lone stakes win came as a 2-year-old in the Bertram F. Bongard Stakes, a restricted event at Belmont. The colt’s record now stands at 3-1-1 from seven starts. His earnings total $336,880.

Of a potential trip to the Kentucky Derby (gr. I), Fein was enthusiastic.

"We hope this truck stops in Louisville," he said.

Giant Moon defeats Big Truck at Belmont David
Grening, Daily Racing Form   10/20/2007

ELMONT, N.Y. - Big Truck ran into a Giant roadblock on the road to immortality.

Giant Moon, coming off a maiden win going five furlongs, turned aside heavily favored Big Truck and longshot Coastal Drive to win Saturday's $100,000 Sleepy Hollow Stakes by a head at Belmont Park. Coastal Drive rallied to get second by a neck over Big Truck. It was 19 lengths back to the rest of the field.

The loss was the first for Big Truck, a son of Hook and Ladder who had won his first two starts, including the Bertram F. Bongard despite not being 100 percent healthy. In the Sleepy Hollow, Big Truck appeared to be cruising under Ramon Dominguez while racing three-wide down the backside off of Giant Moon and Be Bullish. Big Truck battled head and head outside of Giant Moon around the turn and into the stretch, but could not match strides with Giant Moon late. Giant Moon, a son of Giant's Causeway ridden by Kent Desormeaux, owned and bred by Albert Fried and trained by Richard Schosberg, covered the one-mile in 1:38.46 and returned $9.80.

"Turning for home he didn't quicken as much as I was hoping he would," Dominguez said. "I still thought I had more horse than I actually ended up having."

Barclay Tagg, the trainer of Big Truck, said he was surprised his horse got beat, but didn't immediately see an excuse.

"I was surprised about the whole thing, but you never know," Tagg said. "He got beat. I didn't think it would be this soon."

Big Truck Finally Gets In Gear To Take Bongard

Trainer Barclay Tagg said that Big Truck got into gear a little sooner than he thought he would in Sunday’s 30th running of $106,300 Bertram F. Bongard for two-year-old New York-breds at seven furlongs.

If you were one of the bettors who made him the 1-5 favorite in this field of five, however, you wondered what took him so long.

Big Truck, a Hook and Ladder colt owned by Eric Fein, pressed Spanky Fischbein, who broke from the rail and set a pace of :23.03; :46.04 and 1:10.53. In the stretch, Spanky Fischbein began to pull away, but two sharp strikes with his right hand by jockey Ramon Dominguez roused Big Truck, and two more got him home in 1:23.64, two length ahead of the Todd Pletcher-trained Spany Fischbein.

He returned $2.40 to win and is undefeated in two starts.

“I thought he had to work a little harder, but Todd (Pletcher) has good horses all the time, so you never know,” Tagg said. “I thought it would be a little bit easier than that. He got into gear a little sooner than I thought he would. I thought they would run away from him earlier; at least, he pulled this one off.”

Tagg now plans to run Big Truck in the $100,000 Sleepy Hollow at a mile on New York Showcase Day, Saturday, October 20. Tagg won the Sleepy Hollow in 2002 with Funny Cide, who would go on to win the 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness and 2004 Jockey Club Gold Cup.

“I really didn’t know how the race was going to play out,” Dominguez said. “I thought he would win pretty easy. Having said that, it looked like the 1-horse (Spanky Fischbein) really moved forward. My horse ran a good race; he galloped out good. Time was pretty fast, and I’m pleased with him. I think he’ll do whatever you want with him.”