At Grants Pass Downs, the flowers hang in baskets above weeds, many of the horse owners shovel their own manure, and the best race horses are also pets.

But the saga of an upstart chestnut colt with white markings Ñ “chrome” in horse racing slang Ñ gives the locals hope and inspiration that the peasants can win in the Sport of Kings.

“I think California Chrome is gonna smoke ’em,” said Brenda Martenia, trainer at Grants Pass Downs. “It’s been so long. I think it’s gonna happen.”

It has been 36 years.

California Chrome will try to become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978. On Saturday, the 3-year-old colt will start from the No. 2 post position at the Belmont Stakes in New York, the third leg of the Triple Crown.

His mother Love the Chase brought $8,000 at a maiden claiming race at Golden Gate Fields outside San Francisco in 2008. That’s for non-winners that no one really wants, by the way.

Later it was bred to sire Lucky Pulpit for $2,000, not exactly a staggering fee in the thoroughbred world.

Harvey Boyle, between pushing wheelbarrow loads of hay Thursday morning at the Downs, marveled at the story of owners Steve Coburn, a worker at a manufacturing plant in Gardnerville, Nev., and Perry Martin, who owns a testing laboratory in Sacramento. They call themselves the “Dumb Ass Partners.” They’re the last of what was once a large group of owners.

Boyle and his wife, Mary, have six horses ready to run at Grants Pass Downs, starting with opening day on June 14.

“Here’s these guys, working stiffs, and their very first horse they get Triple Crown potential,” Harvey said. “It just doesn’t happen. Almost all the owners who enter the Kentucky Derby are zillionaires and they can go to Keeneland and pay a million and a half per horse.”

“It’s a pretty special story,” added Mary Boyle. “They had an opportunity to sell 51 percent of that horse for millions. They said they didn’t want to break up the team.”

“This is for all the little guys,” added Nancy Klapatch, the retired octogenarian schoolteacher who’s still running horses in her fourth decade at GP Downs.

Klapatch’s horses have had some success in the Bay Area and the California Fair Circuit, including a couple with bloodlines to 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew.

Martenia owned a mare, Razzin Ruzzi, that in 2012 later bred to Lucky Pulpit at the same Harris Farm in Coalinga, Calif., where California Chrome was born. The resulting colt is running in the Bay Area.

Sally Reid, another local owner-trainer, raised Razzin Ruzzi right outside of Grants Pass. Now 10, it won its last race at GP Downs in 2009.

“She got taken down by a cougar here,” Reid said. “Gary Buckmaster (a local vet) sewed her up with 71 stitches.”

She’s also stunned by the story of California Chrome, whose humble pedigree has made him an underdog since birth.

“I always said when you get a good horse it’s a gift from God. And I’m not religious.”

Martenia mentioned a horse that used to live across from Hidden Valley High School in Murphy. It might have been 32 when it died about a decade ago. It was sired by Swaps, the 1955 Kentucky Derby champ, Martenia said.

Swaps’ exercise rider before the ’55 Derby was none other than Art Sherman, the 77-year-old trainer of California Chrome.

“Art Sherman has been a hard-knock trainer. He’s run horses everywhere. He’s entitled to a good horse,” said Boe Suhr, outrider at Grants Pass Downs.

Reid took a long look at her 4-year-old horse Olympic Torch doing workouts on Thursday at the Downs. He’s one of 10 she’s going to run at the Downs this summer.

“So far we’re looking pretty but we’re not running fast,” Reid said. “We ran fifth last year here. He’s probably not going to do it, but I gotta try.”

“Sally is locked and loaded,” quipped Tag Wotherspoon, the marketing person for Grants Pass Downs since 2007 and a sports and radio personality in Southern Oregon and Northern California for years. Wotherspoon’s first exposure to the ponies came at the Humboldt County Fair in Ferndale, Calif., as a kid. He dropped in on the Belmont Stakes in 1981, while he was a student at Syracuse University.

California Chrome is the 13th horse to win the Kentucky Derby and Preakness double since Affirmed won the Triple Crown in 1978. Big Brown in 2008 and I’ll Have Another in 2012 were the last two. They failed in the Belmont. I’ll Have Another didn’t even run, having been scratched the day before the race.

“Everybody wants to talk about California Chrome and the Triple Crown. It’s great for horse racing,” Wotherspoon said. “Regardless of what happens on Sunday it’s going to have a positive impact on every race track in America.”

The Boyles will head for Lava Lanes in Medford to watch on Saturday, because of all the interest, and the ability to place a bet at one of Oregon’s off-track betting sites.

Wotherspoon will also be there, handing out posters and passes for Grants Pass Downs.

“If California Chrome goes on to win the Belmont and the Triple Crown, I can only imagine how exciting it’s going to be for the sport of horse racing.”