It’s hard to believe Derby 133 is over. For months we worry and we plan, we theorize and we calculate, we hope and we gamble, and then: “Riders up!” The bugler blows his call to the post. Twenty horses are walking the post-parade to the Kentucky Derby. The bets are in, and the training is over. Conjecture is on a collision course with reality, and it transpires in front of the queen of England, under the blue Kentucky sky.

The race was beautiful.

Street Sense came from well off the pace to take command and win. He is the first winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to win the roses and the first champion 2-year-old to do so since Spectacular Bid in 1979, which is pretty good company to be in.

In winning, Street Sense and jockey Calvin Borel might as well have been running last Tuesday’s workout, for not only was the style of the ride the same — smooth and on the rail — but that’s how cool they were. Calm, and collected throughout, as if the Derby were nothing, as if 18 horses in front of you were just a walk in the park, as if some 150,000 screaming fans were just a little background noise. Borel has said he felt like he was sitting on a bomb. It’s clear that Street Sense was set to run an incredible race, that he was full of potential. It’s also clear that the potential was realized.

It’s strange how quickly talk turns to the future, and perhaps “What’s next?” should wait a little longer than it did, with Borel answering while still being congratulated by his fellow jockeys. It’s unavoidable, but after all these months of looking forward to the Derby, you’d think we’d linger in it just a bit. At least until all the cigar butts are swept off the floor, all the julep syrup is scrubbed off the ceiling, and everyone has recovered from the monster sports day that was a double header Race Day/Fight Night.

Now, it’s time to ask, what’s next? It’s time to peer once again into the mists of conjecture. We don’t have months of foreplay this time. We’ve got two weeks until they load the gate at Baltimore for the Preakness Stakes.

We’ve got a very different set of horses.

We know that Street Sense is the 3-year-old to beat. The lessons didn’t stop with the winner, however.

All the horses in the superfecta, the top four, ran excellent races. Hard Spun’s race was very impressive. He popped to the front of that field and muscled his way into control, setting a blazing first quarter fraction of 22 seconds: very fast. Clearly, his way-too-fast workout of earlier in the week didn’t take anything out of him or blunt his edge. To the contrary, he was all edge. There was a shot of him in the paddock before they went off, I swear he looked like he was vibrating. He opened strong, bolted out front, and got loose on the lead, but he didn’t get rank, he didn’t freak out, and he held on. In fact, he had a lot left, considering what he’d done. When Street Sense, who’d run a much slower race, after all, having been as much as 14 lengths off the lead, came up, Hard Spun dug in. He opened up 5 3/4 lengths on the field in the stretch trying to chase down the winner. He was no match for Street Sense, it was clear, but he also didn’t have any company as he cruised under the wire a gallant second.

Curlin seemed to figure out too late that he wasn’t winning the race, which doesn’t surprise me — in the past, even when he’s seen the rear end of another horse it was clear that he was in control of the race. He moved well on the turn, and shook it up in the final steps. It was too little, too late, and it seemed like a green run. I expect him to run much better next time. He stepped into deep water for the first time, and while he didn’t live up to superfreak predictions, third place in the Derby is nothing to sneeze at.

Imawildandcrazy guy might have turned in the biggest surprise of all. He came on from dead last, and while a lot of the horses he passed were getting tired, he made up some good ground on the stretch. Next out, I’d expect an improvement.

With that, the field breaks and the disappointing runs begin. One cannot be too surprised that fifth place finisher Sedgefield came up empty. The $60,000 worth of hay he earned for fifth on Saturday was more than the total purse of the last race he won. But what of the well-thought-of Circular Quay? Was it just the layoff? What of Scat Daddy? Completely out of gas. And Nobiz Like Shobiz? Not an excuse in the world. He had a perfect trip, from those wonderful blimp shots you can see him sitting just behind the leaders, perfectly set up. Where was he when the time came? Nowhere.

The Kentucky Derby is the show of shows, the big time. In two minutes it skims the cream off the top and gives us our field of Grade 1 3-year-olds, while sending the poseurs packing. We’ll see Any Given Saturday and Tiago again, I’m sure, but we’ll never think of them quite the same.

The question now, looking forward, is whether there’s a Bernardini in the wings. I haven’t seen one. I think Street Sense will face some serious competition from the few horses who ran well Saturday. But of course, he’s already beaten them.

mwatman@nysun.com