Monarchos, second from left, with Jorge Chavez up, makes his way around the fourth turn in a jumbled field, but no foul was called afterward.

In fact, only Secretariat has run the testing 1¼ miles of America's race faster than the gray Monarchos.

He carried Jorge Chavez across the finish in 1:59 4/5, only two-fifths of a second off the track record set by Secretariat in 1973.

Secretariat went on to win the Triple Crown and Monarchos will try to follow that road May 19 when he runs in the Preakness at Pimlico.

"Today I had more horse than I did at the Florida Derby," Chavez said.

It was after Monarchos won that race March 10 at Gulfstream Park that Chavez said: "He has everything he needs to win the Kentucky Derby. I've never been on this kind of horse."

Ron Turcotte, who rode Secretariat, was the only jockey who's been on a horse like Monarchos was in the Derby.

While Monarchos was earning the roars and plaudits of a crowd of 154,210, second largest ever to watch a Derby, favored Point Given was struggling home fifth in a field of 17 3-year-olds.

Monarchos' victory was a dominating 4¾ lengths. But Chavez, trainer John Ward and owner John C. Oxley had to sweat out a foul claim by John Velazquez, who finished second on Invisible Ink. Velazquez claimed Monarchos interfered with him just passing the quarter pole.

"We interviewed both riders and did a critical review of the videos, both head on and pan, for any foul," chief steward Bernard Hettel said. "We could find no evidence of interference and we made the race official."

No winner of any Derby, Preakness or Belmont Stakes has ever been disqualified for a race infraction. Dancer's Image was disqualified after finishing first in the 1968 Derby when he tested positive for butazolidin, which is now legal in Kentucky.

Ward, a native of Lexington, Ky., is proud to call himself "a hardboot."

"I just try to train the old-fashioned way," said the 55-year-old Ward, who shares training duties with his wife, Donna. "And I have to say this is one for tradition."

Monarchos was outside by himself and ahead of just four horses on the first turn. On the far turn he began moving past tired horses to position himself for his winning drive.

"He isn't that fast on the first turn, but once he hits his stride he explodes," said Ward, who won his first Derby in his second try.

It also was the first Derby victory in the second try for Oxley and the first victory in five Derbys for the 39-year-old Chavez, a native of Peru.

After Songandaprayer led the field through the fastest first half-mile in Derby history (44.4/5 seconds), Chavez stayed cool.

"He dropped inside and I just whipped him and he started rolling," the jockey said of Monarchos' run down the backside. "I didn't ask for a lot, just a little."

Chavez guided Monarchos to the outside on the final turn and the gray started passing horses as he moved into contention at the quarter-pole.

"I touched nobody," Chavez said of the foul claim. "I was clear. My horse was exploding. I didn't even see Invisible Ink."

Like any owner of a Kentucky Derby winner, the 64-year-old Oxley was exultant.

"It's the fulfillment of a lifetime dream, actually several lifetimes," said Oxley, who owns a horse farm near Midway, Ky., and a Tulsa, Okla.-based oil and gas exploration company. "Nothing in any life experience is like winning the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs."

Oxley said he first listened to the Derby on the radio as a 9-year-old in 1946 when Calumet Farms' Assault won.

"It did something, and thereafter I followed the Derby," he said.

Monarchos went into the Derby as a 10-1 shot off a second-place finish to Congaree in the Wood Memorial. That performance did not bother Ward at all.

Instead, the trainer said it was the perfect prep to get a horse ready for the Derby. The victory was the fourth in five starts as a 3-year-old for Monarchos, who paid $23, $11.80 and $8.80 and earned $812,000 from a purse of $1,112,000. That boosted his career earning to $1,605,630 on a record of four victories, a second and a third in seven starts.

He was winless in two starts last year.

Invisible Ink, looking for his first stakes victory, paid $46.60 and $21.20. Congaree returned $7.20 after he finished four lengths in front of Thunder Blitz.

Point Given was 2¾ lengths behind Thunder Blitz and was followed by Jamaican Rum, A P Valentine, Express Tour, Fifty Stars, Startac, Millennium Wind, Arctic Boy, Songandaprayer, Balto Star, Dollar Bill and Keats. Talk Is Money did not finish.

The finishes of Point Given, the Santa Anita Derby winner, and Congaree had to be bitter disappointments for trainer Bob Baffert, who was trying to win his third Derby in six years.

"I didn't like the way he looked at the three-eighths pole, Baffert said of Point Given.

He added that jockey Gary Stevens said the horse "wasn't handling the surface the way he normally does."

It also was a bad day for 54-year-old Laffit Pincay Jr., who rode Millennium Wind in a bid for his second Derby victory. It was the 20th Derby and first since 1994 for the winningest jockey in history.

It was too long ago to be considered an omen, but when Oxley went to his first Derby in 1954, the race was won by Determine, who just happened to be a gray colt.

On Saturday morning, Oxley asked his wife: "Do you think another gray will win?"