Derby winner can be anyone

Youngstown’s Bruce Zoldan and Visionaire are among the hopefuls this year.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — It was a few seconds after Big Truck won the Tampa Bay Derby, and Eric Fein didn’t have a clue how to get into the winner’s circle.

“We were all running there, hoping someone knew how to get in,” Fein said of the brief postrace confusion more than six weeks ago.

Fein, and the New York buddies he brought along to Florida, can be excused for their uncertainty. After all, his real line of work is running a title insurance business on Long Island. Five years ago, he decided to buy his first racehorse, and now he’s got himself a 3-year-old colt in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby.

He promises he’ll know where to go if Big Truck ends up in the winner’s circle at Churchill Downs, a walk that has been taken by some of the big names in the sport — such as Fred Hooper, who won the 1945 Derby with the first horse he bought, Hoop Jr.

“You have an opportunity in this business to get lucky,” says Fein, who purchased Big Truck for $90,000 last year. “I can’t own a football team, or a pro baseball team. I don’t own a country, and I don’t own a diamond mine.

“I got a couple of dollars and got lucky with a horse — and look at the ride he’s taken us on.”

Canonero II took his Venezuelan connections for a ride to remember with a stunning upset in the 1971 Derby, defeating two of the famed Calumet Farm’s 3-year-olds in the process. In 2005, it was 50-1 long shot Giacomo who came through for A M Records co-founder Jerry Moss.

The best 3-year-old thoroughbreds show up each year at the Kentucky Derby, and they usually have been matched with the best trainers and the best jockeys. But each Derby brings with it a new mix of owners, whether it cost them $32,000 or $3.2 million.

This year’s Derby features an NFL owner, a geologist who discovered diamonds in northern Canada and a Wall Street-savvy group intent on running its business like a hedge fund.

Also represented are several racing syndicates with multiple investors. And then there’s the one-horse Cubanacan Stable, which will send out Arkansas Derby winner Gayego.

Visionaire, a Derby entrant trained by Michael Matz, is co-owned by two syndicates — the newly formed Vision Racing and the more established Team Valor International, which includes Youngstown businessman Bruce Zoldan.

Vision bought the horse for $220,000, and Team Valor later purchased a 51 percent interest.

“That’s what makes this game so exciting, you never know where the Derby winner is going to come from,” says Jack Knowlton, a man who should know. He and his Sackatoga Stable high school buddies owned 2003 Derby and Preakness winner Funny Cide.