LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Too small. Won't go the distance. No chance to win the Kentucky Derby.

That's the take on Came Home, the hardworking colt who just keeps winning despite such supposed shortcomings.

"I can't do anything about what people are saying," Came Home's trainer Paco Gonzalez said, probably for the umpteenth time. "He's been doing great. He's done everything he's been asked to. Everything has been perfect so far."

With six wins in seven starts, including the Santa Anita Derby on April 6, Came Home will be one of the favorites for Saturday's $1 million Derby, along with Harlan's Holiday. But the dark bay son of Gone West still has to prove he can win going long despite bloodlines that say he can't.

"Looking at his speed figures, his performance gets steadily worse with every additional furlong he runs," said Andrew Beyer, handicapper and racing columnist for The Washington Post.

Nonetheless, Came Home is still winning, even as the distance increases. He's 3-for-3 this year, taking the seven-furlong San Vicente by four lengths, the mile San Rafael by three lengths and the 1 1-8-mile Santa Anita Derby by 2 1/4 lengths.

"He's won every race by daylight," co-owner John Toffan said Monday after watching his colt work five furlongs at Churchill Downs in a sharp 1:00.60 under jockey Chris McCarron.

"First he couldn't run seven furlongs. Then he couldn't run a mile, then he couldn't run a mile and an eighth. Now he can't run a mile and a quarter."

Can he?

"The way he's training., I don't think he's going to stop," Toffan said.

His only loss -- in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile in October -- could be a blessing, too. Since the start of the Breeders' Cup in 1984, no BC Juvenile winner has won the Derby.

At 15.3 hands, Came Home is slightly on the short side, but Gonzalez said the horse looks even smaller because he's so muscular. His mother, Nice Assay, was a sprinter and thus the knock on Came Home's ability to win at longer distances.

"I'm confident he can get the distance," said McCarron, who has been with Came Home since the start.

Gonzalez, among the top California-based trainers, has heard all this before. The 57-year-old trainer had two other Derby starters, Mane Minister in 1991, and Free House in 1997.

"They said the same thing about Free House -- couldn't get the distance," Gonzalez said. "He did OK."

Free House was third in the Derby, second by a nose in the Preakness and third in the Belmont Stakes. Mane Minister was third in each of the '91 Triple Crown races.

Gonzalez's confidence builds when he talks about Came Home's victory in the Santa Anita Derby. Yes, the winning time of 1:50 1-5 was the slowest in the race since 1963, but Came Home missed several weeks of training with a back problem, then developed a fever and even lost his right front shoe three days before the race.

Still, he finished ahead of Easy Grades and Lusty Latin, with Proud Citizen seventh. All three take another shot at Came Home on Saturday at Churchill Downs.

"He had problems and he still ran big," said Gonzalez, training on his own for 11 years. "Nothing went right, but he still won, and that makes me feel very good about his next race."

Nick Zito, a two-time Derby-winning trainer, said people are always looking for a good horse to knock.

"This year, it's the Santa Anita Derby winner," Zito said. "It's a pedigree thing, they say. He ran the slowest Santa Anita Derby since ... but he won easily. I think it's an absurdity. I like the horse. And guess what? Paco can get it done."

He almost didn't get the chance with Came Home.

Three times, the horse was put on the auction block by Toffan and co-owner Trudy McCaffery, and three times the final bid failed to meet the reserve price. After the final no-sale, the colt was aptly named Came Home.

"People who had looked at the horse thought he was a little bit small," McCaffery said after the Santa Anita Derby.

Toffan added: "You wonder how much they really know. You can't measure how much heart a horse has got."

A half-interest in Came Home was sold to Will Farish's Lane's End Farm following the colt's win in the Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga last summer. John Goodman of Houston then bought a half share from Lane's End.

"He ran his first three races so phenomenally, blowing away the fields, we'd be crazy not to get involved," said Bill Farish, Will's son, who runs the sales division at Lane's End. "He's more than lived up to our expectations. We really got excited about his lack of limit expectations when he won at a mile (in the San Rafael). He opened up on those horses going farther then he'd ever gone before."

McCarron has been with Came Home nearly every step of his career, showing up for workouts whenever possible. He's in his 18th Derby and has two wins -- Go for Gin in 1994, and Alysheba in 1987.

"He's got everything you need to win the Kentucky Derby," the jockey said.

"He's got the talent, the class and the determination."