Blue-Collar Horse Is Derby Darling

Philadelphia’s Smarty Jones Runs For The Roses On Saturday

(CBS)  Galloping his way toward the most famous horse race in the world is a horse from wrong side of the tracks.

Smarty Jones is no Kentucky blue blood. He's a rebel from northeast Philly -- ridden by, owned by, and trained by people who have never been to the Kentucky Derby -- not even to watch, reports CBS News Correspondent Lee Cowan.

"I guess we're the expansion team of horse racing. We're the Cinderella story that everyone likes to hear about," said trainer John Servis.

Servis almost didn't get to be Smarty's trainer.

Pat and Roy Chapman -- owners of "Someday Farm" had decided the day had come to get out of the business. They sold nearly all their horses -- but not the little one born on the same day as Pat's mother.

"Everyone who looked at Smarty thought he was put together right, said Pat Chapman. "There was just something about him."

"He's a small horse, he's not too big in stature, but he's got a heart of a million. He can run," said Roy Chapman.

Smarty seemed blessed with both good genes -- and good luck -- until one day last summer.

He was entering the gate at his home track at Philadelphia Park, when Smarty Jones almost killed himself. He reared up and hit his head so hard he knocked himself unconscious -- fractured his skull. A career ender? Hardly.

He came back to win his first race. Then he won again and again -- in fact, he's never lost.

Which is why the whole team is sticking together -- including their jockey -- a big name at his small-time track, but an unknown at Churchill Downs. To him, that doesn't matter.

"I've been doing this all my life you know since I was a kid of 16 so when the gates open, you do what you gotta do, and that's it," said jockey Elliott Stewart.

"Who would have given this Philadelphia horse a chance? Nobody would," added Pat Chapman.

Some say he's lucky. Indeed he is -- how else do you beat nearly every odd in the horse racing world -- and have a chance at smelling like roses?