DeVaux Honored to Follow Lukas at Spa Barn

[Wandering Eyes]

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – There was far more than a simple change of address for trainer Cherie DeVaux when she was assigned Barn 83–for decades the Saratoga base for legendary D. Wayne Lukas–for this summer's racing season.

In addition to dealing with the daily demands of managing her large stable, DeVaux, a rising star in the sport, has embraced her new roles: historian and preservationist of an important corner of the barn area on the sprawling Saratoga Race Course grounds. Within a day or two of DeVaux moving her stable into the barn, the Lukas family announced that Lukas, 89, was retiring from racing and entering palliative care. She reacted with eloquent social media posts on June 23:

“….With his recent retirement from training due to health, we've been entrusted with taking over this space for the summer. But it doesn't feel like just taking over a barn. It feels like entering a cathedral of greatness.

“As I walked the shedrow this morning, I kept thinking about the horses that stood in these very stalls–champions whose names helped shape the sport. And then I sat in the office he left behind, at his desk, and stared at the empty chair. I wondered what he thought about in those quiet early hours. How many dreams began right there with a legal pad and a coffee?

Sarah Andrew photo

“Wayne didn't just train horses. He set a standard. He built a legacy that inspired generations, myself included. And while the tack room may bear a new name this summer, his spirit lingers in every inch of this place.

“Honored doesn't begin to cover it. Grateful. Humbled. Inspired. We'll do our best to honor what he built here-one horse, one morning, one moment at a time.”

Six days after DeVaux made that post, the Lukas family released the news that he had died on June 28. DeVaux learned of his passing while sitting in his former office, a small building about 20 yards across from the 32-stall barn. Another touching social media followed.

In that office Tuesday morning, DeVaux said that it is not typical of her to make those type of public statements.

“I'm not really an emotional person, personally or professionally, but I think that, when you're moved to something…” she said, her voice trailing off. “I am not tone deaf either. Can't come in here and just pretend like I'm going to be the new czar of Barn 83. I just felt like it was necessary to say something. I felt it and I felt like it was emotional enough to share.”

DeVaux now conducts her business from a well-ordered separate space, one of just a few on the grounds, that is something of a Lukas museum.

“When we first came in here, this office was left like they were coming back,” she said. “They had every intention of coming back here. It wasn't like last year they thought, 'Oh, well, maybe we're not going to come back.' This office was set up. And you can see there's still pictures of Wayne and his wife and sentimental things that will still be there. His own handwriting right there, about Winning Colors. Those things will stay. There are things I just don't feel comfortable moving. I have to make my own traditions and make it my own, but still feel the need to honor what has been left here.”

Among the memorabilia on the walls, just to the right of the door is Lukas's note that says Winning Colors is the only Kentucky Derby winner to break its maiden at Saratoga.

Lukas made his debut at Saratoga in 1984, but was not in Barn 83 in the early years. Longtime Lukas assistant Randy Bradshaw said Wednesday that he first set up Barn 83 for Lukas when Is It True and Open Mind were 2-year-olds, which was 1988.

DeVaux, 43, was born in Saratoga Springs while her parents operated their standardbred stable at Saratoga Harness, but the family moved when she was of kindergarten age. She left college at SUNY Albany to start her racing career 21 years ago and worked on the staffs of two other Saratoga-area natives, the late Chuck Simon of Ballston Lake, and multiple Eclipse Award winner Chad Brown of Mechanicville. She started her own business in 2018 with eight horses and celebrated her first victory in her 29th career start. Her success and purse earnings have improved markedly every year and she jumped from $5.5 million in earnings in 2023 to $10.2 million in 2024. Entering this week, the start of the second half of the year, she has $3.98 million in earnings and is winning at a 22% rate. DeVaux has 21 graded stakes wins, five of them Grade I.

DeVaux was stabled on the backside of the main track at Saratoga and said she rarely came near out-of-the-way Barn 83, which is the farthest on the grounds from the finish line of the main track. Since her horses typically visit the Oklahoma training track daily, she was interested in being stabled closer to that facility but only if she could get a barn with a covered shedrow. Barn 83 fit both criteria and she accepted the offer from New York Racing Association officials to relocate, even though it meant following a legend who set the standard for success on the track, but for tidy barns decorated with flowers.

A photo of Wayne and Laurie Lukas left in the office at Barn 83 at Saratoga | Sarah Andrew

“I thought it was really neat, obviously,” she said. “You can't come in here and not feel like a special honor. You come into these places, and you think about the horses that have come through here and been in these stalls. You just think about how pristine it has been. Then you think, 'Oh no, now I have to emulate some of that.' We're trying to, but it's going to be a process for us.”

DeVaux said that longtime Lukas assistant Bas Nicholl, who has taken over the Lukas stable, has sent her images of how Barn 83 has looked in recent years. She understands that with the four-day Fourth of July meet that opens Thursday and the launch of the 40-day meet on July 10, there will be visitors stopping by the Lukas-turned-DeVaux barn and grounds.

“That's why I'm trying to get all my flowers in order and clean it up,” she said. “But, it's a big undertaking. Wayne had a whole staff dedicated to getting the barn set up before we even got here and this is our first year, so we've got to come up with our own system. We're personally ready, but we're getting there as far as getting it set up and just having it as esthetically pleasing as we can.”

In her communications with Nicholl, DeVaux asked him to send up a Lukas Stable sign that she hopes can be part of a Lukas memorial garden on the site. She has an order in for an American flag to put on the flag pole in front of the barn.

Since they often competed on the same tracks, DeVaux said she did get to know Lukas a little bit.

“I had conversations in passing,” she said. “I first started my career in 2004 and I was in Kentucky, and anyone who knows me would find it profound that I was intimidated by him, but I was. In my own career, we spent some time just waiting for races and in the horsemen's lounge and chatted a bit. Very friendly. I obviously had an immense amount of respect for him. He was just so nice and genuine, just a genuine person.”

So many great horses were located in Barn 83 during Lukas's time there and DeVaux is hoping to find out which stalls standouts like Winning Colors lived in. Her intention is to put some of her top runners and 2-year-old prospects like Zenyatta's final foal, Nyume, and the Lady Eli colt, Dr. Ange, in those spaces. She has reached out to Saratoga veterans like Daily Racing Form photographer Barbara Livingston and welcomes help for anyone with some knowledge to share.

Sarah Andrew

DeVaux acknowledged that it felt a little weird to be sitting in what had been Lukas's chair in the office.

“The first time I really sat in the chair is when I wrote that post,” she said. “I walked around the barn and it was hot as blazes. It was that hot, hot, 90-something day, and that's when I sat and wrote that. It's a bit emotional, but we don't really get the luxury of, like, sitting there, really thinking about things, because I have to-do lists all over the place. Here. One here. One here. So you just get a few moments to think about it, and then it's fleeting, and then you think about it again. Then it's kind of you get to really think.”

DeVaux said she is comfortable handling two responsibilities at Saratoga.

“I have my own career that I'm trying to do,” she said, “but I still want to make sure that I'm not just brushing away a memory of a person that deserves to be recognized and memorialized for many years to come.”

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