Trainer Barclay Tagg watches his Kentucky Derby hopeful Tale of Ekati held by assistant trainer Joe Rogalez at Churchill Downs on Friday in Louisville, Ky. (Charlie Riedel/Associated Press)

Thoroughbred trainer and author Cot Campbell once wrote that he liked to have enough breeding in a horse that when it got to the eighth pole and called back to Mom and Pop, it didn't get a deafening silence.

Barclay Tagg loves to repeat that story, because it represents what he envies in a horse, and most especially his current big mount, Tale of Ekati.

That three-year-old colt has a chance this Saturday at Churchill Downs to become only the third Canadian-owned horse ever to win the Kentucky Derby.

More often than not, breeding wins, veteran trainer Tagg believes — especially with younger horses — and the line that trails back from Ekati is not only outstanding, it's almost eerily perfect.

Trainer Barclay Tagg holds Kentucky Derby hopeful Tale of Ekati as exercise rider Kristen Troxell gets ready to take him for a workout. (Garry Jones/Associated Press)

Winner of the Wood Memorial earlier this month, Tale of Ekati is owned by diamond mine magnate Chuck Fipke, and the animal is strongly related to both previous Canadian victors.

First, there's Canada's Northern Dancer, undisputedly the greatest North American sire ever and a winner in the Run for the Roses back in 1964 for his owner, the late E.P. Taylor.

After that, the horse went off to sire more stakes winners than any other in history.

The Dancer is actually on both sides of Ekati's family — through sire Tale of the Cat and dam Silence Beauty.

And back there in Silence Beauty, we have her sire, Sunday Silence (winner of the Derby in 1989) and Halo, who happens to be the sire of Sunny's Halo, the other Canadian-owned winner, for Pud Foster back in 1983.

Sounds like the stars might be lining up here, especially when you add in the blood of Nijinsky (Canadian bred and one of European racing's greatest, having won both the Epsom and Irish derbies), and some red colt named Secretariat.

Known as Big Red, he not only won the Triple Crown in 1973 (setting the still-standing track record at Churchill of 1:59 2/5 — as famous a number in horse racing as Hank Aaron's 755 homers once was in pre-steroid baseball), he also finished his career in the Canadian International at Toronto's Woodbine race track.

There's more, but you get the point.

It's all about family

Does breeding matter?

"In something like the Derby, in a young horse? Absolutely," Tagg, 70, said in a phone interview from Louisville, Ky., where he was preparing for Saturday's race.

And Tagg knows his mounts, having won the first leg of American racing's Triple Crown, and the second-leg Preakness, five years ago with Funny Cide.

"I definitely think he can do it; otherwise I wouldn't have brought him here."

Watching Tale of Ekati run down War Pass, everyone's early season pick for the Kentucky Derby, at the Wood Memorial in Aqueduct early in April, two things became apparent: this horse has talent, and he has a great big heart.

Tale of Ekati, right, with Edgar Prado up, leads War Pass, with Cornelio Velasquez up, to win the Wood Memorial horse race, at Aqueduct Race Track in New York on April 5. (Ed Betz/Associated Press)

"I like his determination, he just digs and digs and digs and digs, and he doesn't want to get beaten," Tagg says. "That's almost as valuable as raw speed is, you know.

"I feel really good about the horse. I wouldn't trade him with anybody."

Horse is a fighter

Though not a large animal (nor was his great-great grandfather Northern Dancer), Ekati doesn't mind mixing it up when the going gets crowded. And it's always crowded at the Derby, where 20-horse fields are a regular occurrence.

Including this Saturday, where a full field will be chasing 3-1 favourite Big Brown (with a rotten post position of 20, and only one horse in 133 years has won from there), 4-1 second favourite Colonel John, out of the nine hole, and 6-1 Visionaire, in the eight.

Ekati goes out of the two hole with veteran jockey Eibar Coa up, and was listed on Wednesday night at 15-1 with four other horses in the next group back from the top three.

"I imagine if [Ekati] got into a real mix-max, he might lose, but he's not afraid of anything," Tagg says. "He'll slam another horse and think nothing of it. He's a savage little thing.

"He's a happy little horse, but he's tough, too. We'll have him out grazing, and he'll rip, slap at you, but not in a real mean way, you know? He's just feeling good."

And he likes the rail, though being that far on the inside means he'll have to blast out quickly to get position by the first turn of the mile-and-a-quarter epic, because, the trainer points out, you can get crowded out down there.

Fipke has always been lucky

Ekati is named for the diamond mine his geologist owner and a partner discovered in the Northwest Territories in 1991, basically by hard work and endless determination.

In horse racing since 1981, Fipke, as the tale was told to the Globe and Mail, bought the mare Silence Beauty in late 2004 with the intention of mating her with another horse.

Beauty happened to already have a foal in utero at the time, but that wasn't a problem. Once the foal dropped, they could get on with the mating.

Except, that first foal turned out to be an outstanding runner and the story of Tale of Ekati was literally born.

A typical two-year-old

After a typically inconsistent juvenile season that included two wins, a place and a fourth in the Breeder's Cup Juvenile, Tale of Ekati opened his three-year-old year with a disappointing sixth in the Louisiana Derby back in March.

Jockey Edgar Prado celebrates aboard Tale of Ekati, as they are led to the winner's circle by owner Charles Fipke after winning the Wood Memorial. (Ed Betz/Associated Press)

Tagg blamed that on a sloppy track, and when Ekati turned on the jets at the head of the stretch in the Wood, surging past War Pass in the final strides, people began to take notice.

"The whole plan was to develop him into a Kentucky Derby horse, and [Mr. Fipke] was kind enough to send him to me [for training] ... and so far we've had a couple of missteps, but he hasn't really missed a big step yet," says Tagg, who has a reputation for keeping his opinions close to the vest.

"He's come a long way. I feel pretty confident he's going to run his best race, anyway."

How confident?

Well, first there has to be a dry track — in the Louisiana Derby, "it was a river," and the horse was sixth. There is a call for off-and-on rain later this week in Kentucky.

But consider this:

When Funny Cide came to Churchill Downs in 2003, nobody but Tagg thought he had a winner. The trainer, however, had such belief he put $200 of his own money down to win.

And will he bet on Tale of Ekati?

"I don't know, I didn't bet on the last two [horses he entered in the Derby], and I got beaten, so maybe I will bet on him.

"I guess if I don't have any faith in him, why should he?"

With files from the Associated Press