He has none of Bob Baffert's charisma, Wayne Lukas' intensity or Bobby Frankel's mystique. Barclay Tagg, the 65-year-old veteran out of New York by way of Maryland, crept into town late Wednesday, all but invisible. Those who did notice him must have thought he seemed badly out of place, this Kentucky Derby first timer with the quiet way of going and the pessimistic nature cast among the superstars and media darlings of his sport.

It might have been different had he come with a horse who had a little flare himself, but Funny Cide was much like his trainer. He was good, he was always hanging around, but, frankly, he just wasn't very exciting. He was, after all, a New York bred gelding. They don't get anymore colorless than that.

But when it was over, the ordinary guy with the ordinary horse had accomplished something extraordinary. He won the Kentucky Derby. And it didn't happen by luck. It happened because a good, solid trainer who never got much attention rose to the occasion and did everything right. On this day, Barclay Tagg was the best trainer, and not Bobby Frankel, Bob Baffert or anyone else.

"You've got to give credit to the horse that won," Frankel said. "That guy did a good job. He came here on a different path. Whatever. It worked for him yesterday."

Tagg can't stop telling people he's a pessimistic, but he showed tremendous confidence, even optimism, in a horse that a lot of people had written off. Funny Cide was 0-for-3 this year and had given Tagg plenty of chances to come to the conclusion that he didn't belong in the Kentucky Derby.

He was a poor fifth in the Holy Bull to start off the year and was a non-threatening third in the Louisiana Derby, finishing behind Peace Rules and Kafwain. His best race prior to the Derby had come in the Wood Memorial, where he finished second, just a half-length behind Empire Maker. But it was the nature of Empire Maker's victory that caused Funny Cide to be overshadowed. Empire Maker appeared to be so dominant that everyone concluded that the narrow margin of victory was a result of Empire Maker not being asked to put forth his best effort. Even Tagg had his worries.

"If you looked at it very objectively, my horse was getting the hell beat out of him and, on Empire Maker, Jerry Bailey was just trying to steer," he said of the Wood Memorial. "Empire Maker was trying to lug in and that's why Jerry was trying to steer. I talked myself into the fact that they were both riding as hard as they could under the circumstances, that it only looked like Jerry wasn't riding him that hard. I clung to that faithfully so I could keep on the trail."

Tagg figured Funny Cide had to improve a bit to beat Empire Maker and the rest. He didn't know what would happen in the Kentucky Derby, but he believed he was heading in the right direction.

"He proved it little by little to me," he said. "It was just enough to keep us on the Kentucky Derby trail. So we did it and it worked out. It's probably just plain luck."

So, Funny Cide was pointed toward the Kentucky Derby. It's at this point that Tagg is supposed to dismiss his own instincts and follow the example of those who have written the book on how to win the Kentucky Derby. You know, Baffert, Lukas, etc. The guys who know what they're doing all get their horses to Churchill Downs early and train over the track.

Not Tagg. Funny Cide stayed behind in New York, where he had a couple of monster works while no one was paying attention. He didn't get to Louisville until Wednesday night.

Big mistake? Hardly.

"He had had a very hard race in the Wood," Tagg explained. "I thought Jose Santos hadto ride him very hard. Under ordinary circumstances, I think three weeks between races is plenty, but this was different. Against the caliber of horses he would be facing in the Kentucky Derby, I knew he had to be at his very best and I didn't want to stick him on a van right away after a race like that. I kept him in his own stall at his own track."

In the moments leading up to the race, Doubting Barclay grew more and more confident. He knows horses and he had one that was about to run big. He grew so emboldened that he made a detour to the betting windows before the race, a rare move for him.

"I bet $200 on him," he said. "I probably haven't bet five times in 30 years. But I felt good about this horse. I must have if I bet that much. I'm a pretty cheap guy."

Whether it was staying behind in New York or something else that made Funny Cide run the race of his life, Tagg deserves the credit. And maybe he taught the star-worshippers a lesson: give a perfectly capable guy a good horse and a chance and look what can happen.

There are only a handful of guys like Baffert and Frankel. There are hundreds of Barclay Taggs out there in this sport, competent, hard-working trainers who do their best, win their fair share of races and never get noticed. It can be a bit deflating, but you never know what can happen. Do you?

"It makes me feel like the last 30 years was worth all the grind," Tagg said. "I'll tell you that. This is the biggest thing in the game, so how can you not like it?