SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- When Milwaukee Brew jogged past the grandstand Sunday morning, Mary Ryan, the host of the popular "Breakfast at Saratoga" program, inadvertently announced that the 3-year-old colt was trained by Joe Orseno, owner Frank Stronach's East Coast trainer.

	Milwaukee Brew was one of 12 horses Attard trained for Stronach this winter at Gulfstream.

Tino Attard, the actual trainer, never flinched. As one of 26 children growing up in B'Kara, Malta - a tiny country across from Italy - Attard became used to being overlooked. The 53-year-old Attard could become a more familiar name on Saturday when he sends out Milwaukee Brew in the $1 million Travers Stakes at Saratoga.

Milwaukee Brew, third to Dixie Union in the $1 million Haskell Invitational on Aug. 6, figures to go off as one of the top three choices in the nine-horse Travers field. The Travers will be shown live on ESPN beginning at 4 p.m. Eastern.Post time for the Travers is 5:12.

Post positions for the Travers will be drawn Thursday morning, and the field is expected to include Albert the Great, Commendable, Country Coast, Curule, Dixie Union, Impeachment, Postponed, and Unshaded.

The Attard name is well-known throughout Canada. Tino Attard has a 45-horse stable at Woodbine, where he was leading trainer in 1986 and 1989. Brothers Sid and Joe are trainers, and another brother, Larry, just retired as a jockey to become a trainer. Tino's son Kevin serves as an assistant to his dad, while Tino's niece, Josie DePaulo, and nephew, Steven Attard, are also in the game.

Attard was first introduced to horses in Malta, where he worked with Standardbreds for pleasure and worked at a fruit stand for money.

He immigrated to North America in 1964 and began working at a steel factory with his brother Joe. The factory was right behind Woodbine, and soon both went to work at the track. Tino worked for trainer Jimmy Roberts as a hotwalker and then a groom for eight years before taking out his trainer's license in 1974.

According to statistics provided by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, Attard has saddled 982 winners from 7,865 runners since 1976.

Attard's best year came in 1986, when he saddled a then-record 66 winners at Woodbine and finished runner-up for the Sovereign Award as Canada's top trainer. Attard has trained three Canadian champions - Bucky's Solution, Cozzene's Prince, and Kirby's Song. Attard has averaged 48 wins the last three years, finishing in the top five of the Woodbine standings.

Attard operates a public stable, and only in the last two years has he trained horses for the powerful Stronach Stable. Stronach, one of the most powerful owners in the sport, uses Orseno as his private trainer in the East and Patrick Biancone as his private trainer out West.

Danny Vella, Stronach's Ocala farm manager, brought Attard into the fold after Attard lent Vella a stall for a horse who was running in the 1996 Queen's Plate. After that favor, Vella told Attard, "I'll look after you," Attard said.

Vella sent Attard a filly named Touch Dial, who won the 1998 Canadian Oaks and another stakes race. Attard now has 25 horses for Stronach, including Skipping Lass, who won Sunday's $60,000 Imp Stakes at Thistledown, and Foxy Red, who runs this weekend in a 2-year-old stakes at Thistledown.

Of course, Milwaukee Brew looks like the best horse Attard trains. Unraced at 2, Milwaukee Brew has won four of seven starts this year, including the Grade 2 Ohio Derby and the Canadian Grade 3 Marine Stakes.

Milwaukee Brew was one of 12 horses Attard trained for Stronach this winter at Gulfstream. After failing to win his maiden in two sprints, Milwaukee Brew won a 1 1/16-mile maiden event on March 25. He shipped back to Canada, where he won an allowance and then the Grade 3 Marine.

With an eye toward the summer 3-year-old races in the U.S., the Stronachs could have moved the horse to Orseno. But, they showed confidence in Attard by leaving the horse with him. That confidence was rewarded with a head victory in the Ohio Derby.

Most recently, Milwaukee Brew finished a fast-closing third, beaten one length, to Dixie Union in the $1 million Haskell Invitational.

"I thought he'd win it," Attard said of the Haskell. "Three more jumps he was ahead of that horse. He was flying."

Injuries to Preakness winner Red Bullet and Jim Dandy winner Graeme Hall left Jerry Bailey open to ride Milwaukee Brew in the Travers. He replaces Mike McCarthy, who had ridden him to two of the colt's four wins. Attard had no problem with McCarthy's rides, but Stronach couldn't pass when Bailey became available.

"I think if you got the best horse, you got to get the best rider," Attard said. "Even McCarthy told me this horse will win. He said, 'This horse has a hell of a shot; at a mile and a quarter this horse will win.'"

And then Tino Attard will no longer be mistaken for somebody else.