Sometimes, you just know. My only concern about California Chrome was the same one Art Sherman had – the first 200 yards. Once the colt made that a non-issue, I started looking around for my superfecta horses.

Two hours after California Chrome had dominated the Kentucky Derby, I asked Sherman when he thought the horse had the race won. He said, “The eighth pole.”

And he was not talking about the second time past the eighth pole, when California Chrome was up by five lengths. He was talking about the first time, when the colt had gotten forward position.

Post-race tests on samples pulled from horses running in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday and the Kentucky Oaks on Friday at Churchill Downs were all negative for prohibited substances, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission said Tuesday.

The samples were tested by the commission’s laboratory, LGC Science Group in Lexington, for 1,500 substances under the so-called supertesting protocols. The laboratory expedited the testing, the KHRC said.

How the 140th Kentucky Derby unfolded Saturday, May 3, at Churchill Downs:

California Chrome breaks alertly alongside Danza, while both Wicked Strong and Commanding Curve are forced to take back from their outside posts. [Photo by John Bambury]

ELMONT, N.Y. – With two more races and glorious weather, Belmont Park posted increases in attendance and handle on Saturday, Kentucky Derby Day, compared with 2013.

All-sources handle on Belmont’s 12-race card was $14,918,258, a 7.7 percent increase from $13,854,360 last year when Belmont had only 10 races. On-track handle of $2,314,803, was up 18.2 percent from last year’s figure of $1,958,871.

Attendance was 9,609, up 5 percent from last year’s crowd of 9,151.

NYRA’s handle on Churchill’s card was $4,046,707, up 2.3 percent from last year’s total of $3,957,352.

In almost every respect but one, California Chrome’s victory in the Kentucky Derby was satisfying and heartwarming, a triumph for the little guy that fans and the media always relish.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Dance With Fate, who finished a creditable sixth in the Kentucky Derby, was to head back to California on Monday, possibly for a break before his next start.

Dance With Fate emerged from a roughly run Derby in good order, with groom Francisco Tabuyo only pointing to a small nick on one of the colt’s hind legs as evidence of the trip. Dance With Fate was shuffled around on the first turn, and then bumped later in the race.

With near-perfect weather, 164,906 packed Churchill Downs for the 140th Kentucky Derby, the second-highest attendance in Derby history. And the large throng was treated to a decisive victory from California Chrome, who spurted away from the field to score by 1 3/4 lengths as the 5-2 favorite.

Betting on the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on Saturday was down slightly from last year, while overall betting on the 13-race card rose slightly, according to a side-by-side comparison of charts of the races.

Betting on the Derby was $124.66 million, according to the chart of the race, compared with betting of $125.66 million last year, down 0.8 percent. Both races had 19-horse fields. The totals do not include the money bet in the future wagers offered by Churchill in the months leading up to the race.

LOUISVILLE, Ky.- Jockey Victor Espinoza said that when he was a youngster growing up in Mexico, he was afraid of horses.

“Look at me now, I’ve won two Kentucky Derbies,” Espinoza said after winning the Derby on Saturday aboard the 5-2 favorite California Chrome, a horse he’s ridden to five consecutive victories for 77-year-old trainer Art Sherman.

Espinoza, who turns 42 later this month, won his first Kentucky Derby aboard longshot War Emblem for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert in 2002. 

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Jose Espinoza just couldn’t stay away.

So confident that his brother, Victor, was going to win Saturday’s 140th Kentucky Derby aboard California Chrome, Jose made plans late Friday night to attend the Derby, a race he rode in for the first – and last – time last year.