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By Wandering Eyes · Posted
I knew it was coming, but that doesn't dull the sadness. I posted online last week that I was sad about the news D. Wayne Lukas had been put in hospice care and retired from training, but it's complicated to explain why I feel so profoundly sad about the passing of a man that I'd only spoken with a few times briefly in my life. A lot of it has to do with a connection I had with my dad that he unknowingly helped fuel many times over more than 40 years. In a strange way, Lukas's death feels like I'm losing another connection to my dad, who also passed away on Mar. 13 of this year. As a kid, I fell in love with horse racing and treated horse racing magazines and Thoroughbred pedigrees like other boys my age treated baseball cards. It was an unusual obsession for a boy growing up in Texas while pari-mutuel wagering was still illegal and no legal racing was anywhere in my home state. But that was fitting because I wasn't like most other boys my age. As a teenager, my dad and I started a tradition of going to Oaklawn Park every April for the Arkansas Derby–the biggest race close to Texas every year at that time. And a friend of his told him how we could sneak into the stable area of the track without licenses–a trick that worked flawlessly for us year after year. My dad didn't really understand my obsession with racing, but he loved me enough to indulge it and even encourage it. I'm sure he would have rather had a son who was more interested in football or baseball and had any athletic ability, but I wasn't going to be that kid. The first year we went to Oaklawn Park, I took my camera and dragged my dad all over the stable area looking for the barns of the big trainers who had the stakes horses–the horses about whom I had encyclopedic knowledge. And number one on my list was the barn of D. Wayne Lukas. He was at the top of the game at that time, and his barn was full of horses that I wanted to see up close and photograph. Tops among them the first year we went (1983) was King Ranch's splendid champion filly by Alydar, Althea, who stormed to an impressive victory over males in the Arkansas Derby that year. While I was walking the shedrow quietly and snapping pictures while trying not to get caught, Wayne Lukas himself came around the corner. I was sure my dad and I were about to get yelled at or thrown out of the Oaklawn stable area. Instead, Wayne engaged me in a conversation about his horses, treating me with the kind of welcoming kindness and encouragement he wasn't known for until much later in his life. At that time, people viewed him–fairly–as often arrogant and brash. Legitimate or just momentary kindness, he made my dad and I feel like he was impressed with my knowledge of his current and past trainees. Maybe even more meaningful, my dad knew enough about the sport at that point that he knew Lukas was a big deal, and he was clearly proud that his son had been able to hold a meaningful conversation with such an expert. It was the first time D. Wayne Lukas brought my dad and I a little closer. The next April, my dad and I were at Oaklawn again, and we again ran into Wayne at his barn. He was welcoming, and this time he told me to follow him to a particular stall, where he told me, “You'll be hearing a lot more about this filly here.” Then, he proceeded to pull the gray filly to the front of her stall so I could take a picture of him with her and my dad could take a picture of me with her. She was relatively unknown at the time, but she won some major stakes later that year. The next year, that filly–Lady's Secret–put together a campaign that included a win over males in the GI Whitney Handicap and a victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff on her way to the 1986 Horse of the Year title. While my dad's interest in horse racing was never as keen as mine, when it was Triple Crown time, he always wanted to know who Lukas had running. Growing up, my dad owned a mortgage company, an insurance agency, and did work as a real estate appraiser and real estate agent–whatever it took to keep things going as the economy ebbed and flowed over the decades. He worked incredibly hard, and he worked a lot. He didn't have many hobbies, and especially as I got older, I often found it hard to find things to talk to him about. But he did enjoy gambling, and that made horse racing more interesting for him and something we could share. Lukas and his horses factored into many of those conversations over the years. My dad was proud when some horse racing columns I had written were quoted in a biography about Lukas sometime in the 1990s. Even as an adult, few things feel better than when your dad is proud of you. One more gift Lukas unknowingly gave me. In 2022, an opportunity came to buy shares in a yearling colt by Arrogate through MyRacehorse that was going to be trained by Lukas. I couldn't resist, and I knew it was a journey my father would want to take with me. He did. We both bought shares in the gray colt and relived a lot of memories, including the days at Oaklawn Park when I was a teenager as we embarked on our adventure with our trainer, D. Wayne Lukas. That colt, Seize the Grey, was a topic of many conversations with my dad over the next couple of years, at a time when his world was getting smaller and more difficult as his health declined. In 2023, I was at Saratoga to watch my Derby winner, Mage, run in the Travers. That morning, I stopped by Lukas's office in the Saratoga stable area. I told him about my dad and me meeting him 40 years earlier at Oaklawn and the fact that we were now both shareholders in Seize the Grey. Though I know he heard similar things frequently, he indulged my story. And in Lukas's typically optimistic way, he proceeded to tell me what a talented colt he was and that he thought he was going to have an exciting future. I knew enough about Lukas to know he might be telling the truth, or he might be saying what he knew I wanted to hear because he always was the sport's best marketer. Turns out Lukas was telling the truth because Seize the Grey won the following year's GI Preakness Stakes, as well as some other major stakes. When Seize the Grey was coming down the Pimlico stretch in front, tears started streaming down my face. Interestingly, it was less about winning the Preakness than it was about this journey with my dad centered around this trainer who had hovered around our lives for more than four decades. At a time when my dad wasn't having many moments of joy, this man I hardly knew delivered a moment of great joy that my parents and I could share. It seemed an incredible and perfect end to an unlikely story many years in the making. While the Preakness was not Seize the Grey's last major win, it was the last one my dad was well enough to enjoy. And because of the Lukas connection and all the history and emotion behind it, that win means more to me than my two Kentucky Derby winners or any other race I've been fortunate enough to win with my tiny shares in horses. Today, I find myself both mourning D. Wayne Lukas and the loss of one more connection to my dad. Lukas–especially in his younger days–was often too hard on horses and made his share of mistakes. But he was also the kind of horseman who held champion filly Landaluce's head in his lap as she passed away from a freak disease. And the kind of man who routinely chose random kids to join him in the winner's circle after a win to encourage their interest in racing. Later in his life, he was a trainer who gave young riders a chance to ride quality horses when others wouldn't. Most importantly to me, though, D. Wayne Lukas was part of the fabric of my relationship with my dad–at times enhancing our closeness and providing us moments of unforgettable joy. I will always be grateful to him for that, and the world seems a little less bright and optimistic today knowing he's no longer with us. Richard Glover Jr. is the CEO of the Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens, and has owned shares in two Kentucky Derby winners, Mage and Authentic. The post Letter to the Editor: Wayne Lukas, My Dad, and Me appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Light Years Charm has Group racing in his future after scything his way through the field to win the Class Two Hong Kong Reunification Cup (1,400m) at Sha Tin on Tuesday. The David Eustace-trained improver always travelled best one from the rear under Zac Purton and despite turning widest of all into the straight, the top jockey was full of both rein and confidence. When unleashed, the Rubick galloper surged into the lead at the 100m pole before holding off a challenge from the equally...View the full article -
Not sure they will find away around ban…. no good looking at VPNs as I just received this from Sports -
Hi All, Be interesting to see what % of everyone’s betting will now look like, let’s see if the reclaimed leakage will reward Entain. You know my views 🤣, I’m filthy, hate being told where and how I can spend my hard earnt… Anyway, here is my split again, Sportsbet 45%, Betcha 45%, Tab 10%. Right, so Sportsbet gone now, I will never invest this money in NZ. Tab, dropped them bigtime lately, have withdrawn all money, I may take up a decent deposit match offer if it’s decent, otherwise will not use. So that leaves Betcha, have been given regular promos etc, still peeved so have decided to cut back as well for now. So now, here is my new spend, Betcha around the 25% turnover, Tab 0-10%…. so already a decrease for Entain. I’m sort of looking forward to more time, especially on a Saturday doing other things, and of course more money in the pockets some weeks. Whats your views, do anyone see themselves betting more in NZ 👍
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