Smarty Jones and jockey Stewart Elliott cross the wire first in the Kentucky Derby.

That was when the horses were coming on to the track in front of some 140,000 people to race for the most coveted prize in the sport of horse racing. That's when Stewart Elliott ("Stew Who?" one local newspaper called him this week) was supposed to melt like a snow man in July. Wasn't he the journeyman from Podunk Downs who was supposed to be intimidated, out of his element? Didn't he know that no first-time Kentucky Derby rider had won the race since Ronnie Franklin aboard the great Spectacular Bid in 1979? Did he really belong on the same racetrack as Pat Day, Mike Smith, Kent Desormeaux, Jose Santos, Shane Sellers and Edgar Prado?

But Stew Who never flinched. His display of emotion came and went in a second. Then, he went out and rode the perfect race, guiding Smarty Jones to a 2¾-length victory over Lion Heart.

"A masterful ride," winning trainer John Servis called it.

Masterful, flawless, perfect ... call it what you want. Breaking from post 13, Elliott made every right move. He didn't get caught up in a speed duel with the fleet Lion Heart, but neither did he let him get away from him. He could have panicked when Lion Heart opened up a bit down the backstretch, but he didn't. He timed his move perfectly.

"We kind of jammed up a little bit, but no big deal," he said. "Things worked out fine. We got clear sailing down the backside. When he did get out, he moved outside of Lion Heart and was kind of on the bit. I knew we were going to be very dangerous from there."

A year after Funny Cide, we have another warm and fuzzy Kentucky Derby victory, one for the little guys. There was Servis, a regular at a betting factory called Philly Park, where the claimer is king. There were owners Roy and Pat Chapman, a couple from outside Philly who never so much as dreamt they'd get a horse to the Kentucky Derby. Roy Chapman has been battling all sorts of illnesses and he was the first to tell you that Smarty Jones was the best reason he had for getting out of bed in the morning. Smarty Jones was bred in Pennsylvania, not exactly where equine royalty is supposed to come from.

But the littlest guy of them all was Stewart Elliott.

He's 39, has been riding since he was 16. All he does is show up at work every day and do his job and win races, more than 3,000 of them in his career. Some guys ride for glory and riches. He rides because it's a job, a way to put groceries on the table. His very next mount is Monday, back at Philly Park in a $4,000 claiming race aboard some poor nag named The Fat Man.

Servis and the Chapmans had about a dozen chances to get rid of the guy, and a lot of people would have done just that. Why ride Stewart Elliott when you can pick up the phone and get Jerry Bailey or Pat Day or any one of a dozen Hall of Famers or guys headed in that direction? Who among them wouldn't want to ride the favorite in the Kentucky Derby?

They stuck with Elliott out of loyalty and because he had been perfect aboard the horse, winning all six races prior to the Derby. But there was something more to it than that. They, better than anybody else, understood that the guy was a pro.

"Mr. Cool," Roy Chapman called him earlier in the week.

About the only person who didn't think it was such a big deal that Stewart Elliott won the Kentucky Derby was Stewart Elliott himself.

"Sir, I've been doing this a long time," he said when the inevitable question ("How did you hold up so well?") was posed to him. "A horse race is a horse race. Yes, this is the Kentucky Derby. But a horse race is a horse race. You do what you think is right at the time. You know, I've done this thousands of times."

Servis insists this is going to be a launching pad to stardom for Elliott, but, sorry, that's not going to happen. He's a little too old and has been around a little too long. A 39-year-old guy who rides at Philly Park, even if he is the best jockey there, has firmly established his place in the sport, even if he did have two minutes of wonderful fortune on the first Saturday in May.

But he will always have Smarty Jones and May 1, 2004. He's Stew Who no more.