LOUISVILLE – Yesterday morning, many were still struggling to make sense of Saturday’s Kentucky Derby. Not Bob Baffert, whose colt Sort It Out ran 17th.

Baffert, who believes fate determines the outcome, said it was jockey Mike Smith’s turn to win the roses after finishing second three times with 11 mounts, including 1994 favorite Holy Bull, the sire of Giacomo.

“If it’s meant to be, it was meant to be,” Baffert said. “That’s the way this game is played.”

Speaking of Giacomo, Baffert noted, “When he broke his maiden (last October by 10 lengths), he looked like the second coming. After that, he was always nibbling. The California tracks are speed biased, and that didn’t set up for him.

“John (Shirreffs, his trainer) is a conservative guy, but he really put the hammer down for the Derby. Maybe that colt is just waking up now and he’ll win the Preakness.”

Before the Derby, Baffert tabbed Bellamy Road as the “real deal,” a possible Triple Crown winner. But George Steinbrenner’s colt was cooked, he said, when he was sandwiched by Spanish Chestnut and Going Wild early in the race.

“The Derby is won and lost on the first turn,” said Baffert. “Bellamy Road (a speed horse) is one-dimensional. If (the jockey) sends him (into a hot pace) he loses; if he takes back, he loses. But you can’t keep him in the barn.”

In future races, trainer Nick Zito would be well-served by keeping Bellamy Road and his other fast horse, High Fly, separated. When those two hooked up around the far turn, they took the starch out of each other.

Some historical handicapping factors held up, others did not.

* Once again, horses 1) who had just two prep races as a 3-year-old, 2) with just four lifetime starts, and 3) whose final prep race wasn’t within four weeks of the Derby, all lost. That group included Bellamy Road, High Fly, Noble Causeway, High Limit and Greeley’s Galaxy, none of which hit the board.

On the other hand, Giacomo 1) was the first Derby winner since Proud Clarion in 1967 who’d never finished first in a stakes race; and 2) with a dosage index of 4.33, was just the fourth winner to have a DI over 4.00.

* Just how bizarre was this Run for the Roses? The bottom six finishers were trained by perhaps the finest collection of world-class horsemen in Derby history. In reverse order: Bobby Frankel, Todd Pletcher, D. Wayne Lukas, Baffert and Zito.

Meanwhile, four of the top six finishers, all of them longshots, came out of the Santa Anita Derby, whose field was dismissed as second-rate.

* A big bettor from New York called a Post reporter in Louisville before the Derby to make a case for Don’t Get Mad. He and his partner planned to key him in trifectas.

He called back after the race saying they bet a $25 trifecta wheel using 14 horses for first, including Giacomo, and 14 for second, including Closing Argument, with Don’t Get Mad third. He finished fourth, 1½ lengths behind Afleet Alex. The trifecta paid $133,134.