Total commingled handle on the Kentucky Derby and its supporting undercard Saturday at Churchill Downs in Louisville set records for the fourth year in a row, according to charts of the races, despite negative attention focused on racing in the months leading up to the sport’s most important race. Total commingled handle on the Derby, which had 19 betting interests, was $159.6 million, a 7.8 percent increase over the $148 million bet on the race last year, when there were 20 runners. Commingled handle on all 14 races on the card was $244.1 million, a 9.1 percent increase over the $223.7 million record set last year, according to the charts. (Betting totals include all non-future pools that paid out on the Derby or the other races on the card, including those bets, like a new pick six, that stretched over both the Friday and Saturday cards at Churchill.) The Derby field itself had a relatively high-priced favorite and no clear stand-out or predictable pace scenario, especially given the sloppy conditions of the race. Bettors poured $65.7 million into the win, place, and show pools, up 5 percent over last year, and bet $26.0 million in the exacta pool and $34.7 million in the trifecta pool, both up 6 percent over last year. While betting on Saturday’s late pick six including the Derby was down 19 percent, from $1.32 million last year to $1.07 million this year, the decline was more than made up for by a new pick six that linked all of the Grade 1 races on the Friday and Saturday cards at Churchill. The new bet drew $479,561 in handle. The pick five ending in the Derby was up 36 percent to $3.98 million. Wagering totals were strong throughout the card, with the exception of the first few races on the day, which had a smaller number of betting interests than the comparable races last year. Betting on the race prior to the Derby, the Old Forester Turf Classic, was up 24 percent, signaling that Derby handle would also be strong this year. The racing industry’s public image has suffered recently under the glare of intense scrutiny in the wake of a spate of deaths at Santa Anita Park in Southern California this winter. However, the Derby itself is somewhat isolated from larger industry trends, given its unique stature on the U.S. sporting landscape. The records set Saturday also came in the midst of generally positive if uneven economic trends in the United States. Handle records also were set Friday for the Kentucky Oaks and its undercard, up 10.4 percent and 8 percent, respectively, underlining the hardened position that Churchill has built around both race days as cultural and sporting touchstones. Over the past 20 years, Churchill has invested heavily in massive renovations to its grandstand in order to attract high-income and high-status customers to its facility on Oaks and Derby days, and the company has generated gains in revenue for Derby week on a consistent basis throughout the past 10 years, largely through the increasing stratification of its building to offer a variety of ticketing options. It was not clear going into the Derby whether the scrutiny faced by the industry in the lead-up to the Triple Crown would have a significant impact on the race’s business, given the Derby’s iconic position. However, much of the most strident criticism came from quarters outside the racing industry that do not patronize the sport. In addition, the industry itself attempted to band together to implement reforms designed to address racetrack injuries and public-perception problems, perhaps mitigating some of the effect.  Attendance on Saturday was 150,729, according to Churchill, on a cloudy day in which a forecast of heavy rain in late afternoon proved accurate. Last year, Churchill reported attendance of 157,813, on what has been described at the wettest day in Derby history, based on rainfall totals. Attendance for Friday’s Oaks card also was down, from 113,510 reported last year to 105,719 this year, but weather conditions this year were less amendable than last year. The commingled handle totals for the Derby do not include $4.1 million in separate-pool betting in Japan, where bettors were able to wager on the race for the first time this year due to the presence of Master Fencer, a Japanese horse. Japan’s governing racing body, the Japan Racing Association, relaxed rules several years ago allowing the country to import a limited number of foreign races, provided a Japanese horse starts in the race. The separate-pool total was well short of handle numbers that Japanese bettors have provided for other top international races in the past several years, but Master Fencer was considered to be a notch below the top-class 3-year-olds in the country, and went off at 59-1 in the U.S. commingled pools. He finished seventh but was elevated to sixth after the disqualification of the Derby winner, Maximum Security.