Lukas Eyes Busy Weekend at Spa and Beyond

[Wandering Eyes]

Though his 83rd birthday is approaching on Sept. 2, D. Wayne Lukas is conceding nothing to age in his 35th summer at Saratoga Race Course. As usual, he arrives before dawn, spends about four hours on horseback during training hours, is enthusiastic about his horses and happy to talk about racing. His stable is no longer the coast-to-coast powerhouse that smashed records, produced champions and put him in the Hall of Fame, but Lukas certainly has not faded away and will have horses in three graded stakes this weekend.

For most of two months, Lukas and his 30 head are based at Barn 83, on the northeast edge of the Oklahoma training center that is part of the sprawling Saratoga facility. It is somewhat out of the way and a bit quieter than the atmosphere in the cluster of aged barns closer to the Oklahoma tracks. That is fine by Lukas, who said his mentor and patron John Nerud asked the New York Racing Association to assign him the barn when Nerud stopped training. Barn 83, its grounds tidy and manicured and decorated with flowers, has been the home to most of the Lukas horses that have won 249 Saratoga races, including 64 graded stakes. The foundation of that stakes haul is made up of well-known Grade I races: three Travers, two runnings each of the Alabama and the Whitney, six Spinaways and eight Hopefuls.

Lukas has won or shared six Saratoga training titles and has won at least one race in each of his 34 years at Saratoga, an impressive number but far back of the 47-year streak owned by Jonathan Sheppard. During his first summer, 1984, Lukas finished 1-2 in the GI Alabama S. with Life’s Magic (Cox’s Ridge) and Lucky Lucky Lucky (Chieftain) and won the GI Spinaway S. with Tiltalating (Tilt).

Following form, Lukas laughs at any suggestion that he might retire. Three years ago, a few weeks after his 80th birthday, he survived a life-threatening cardiac incident while in Philadelphia to run Take Charge Brandi (Giant’s Causeway) in the GI Cotlillion S. at Parx. The blockages were severe, but Lukas–who had bragged that he was so healthy he never needed to go to the doctor–recovered and returned to the saddle. Seven days a week, 12 months a year, it’s business as usual for Lukas on his personal circuit of Oaklawn Park, Kentucky racing from Churchill Downs and Saratoga.

“My energy is good,” he said, smiling. “I stepped on that pony at 5:15 and I stepped off at 9:10. I don’t ever miss a day.”

Lukas’s two Triple Crown series runners will return to competition this weekend. The higher-profile of the two, Calumet Farm’s GI Preakness S. runner-up Bravazo (Awesome Again) will tackle Kentucky Derby runner-up Good Magic (Curlin) in the GI Haskell Invitational Sunday at Monmouth Park. Saturday at Saratoga, Sporting Chance (Tiznow) will make his first start since his sixth in the Preakness in the GII Jim Dandy S. Lukas hopes to get both of them to the GI Travers S. on Aug. 25. Also on Saturday at Saratoga, Lukas will saddle Warrior’s Club (Warrior’s Reward) in the GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H.

During the winter, after he won the GII Risen Star S., Lukas predicted that Bravazo could handle the Triple Crown. He did as the only horse besides Justify to make all three races.

“He is tough,” Lukas said. “He’s very resilient and he’ll jump right into it. And every day he wants to train. He’s very good on that level. Not all of them are. Some of them, that Triple Crown eats them up.”

Lukas expected a better performance than Bravazo’s sixth in the GI Belmont S. after the fine Preakness, but said the Calumet homebred was not knocked out by three races in five weeks.

“I think he’s actually better right now,” Lukas said. “I think he’ll run better in the Haskell than any of the other three races.”

Sporting Chance gave Lukas a birthday present last year with his win in the Hopeful at 50-1. However, the colt needed surgery to remove a knee chip a few weeks later and wasn’t seen again until mid-February when he finished third in the GIII Southwest S. Both of Sporting Chance’s two wins came at Saratoga.

“He’s had some unfortunate things happen to him,” Lukas said. “We’re finding out that you can’t whip on him. The best race he ran was when Luis Contreras rode him and didn’t hit him. He doesn’t want any of that. He definitely has an attitude.”

Lukas said he still is high on Sporting Chance–“he’s got some ability”–and figures the Jim Dandy is a spot where he has a chance to redeem himself.

Warrior’s Club is owned by one of the partnerships organized by the Churchill Downs Racing Club. He and Lukas have taken the 200 co-owners– each of whom paid $500 to belong–on an exciting and successful ride. He has a 5-5-5 record from 25 starts, topped by a victory in the GIII Commonwealth S. at Keeneland and has earned $622,104. Lukas used his $50,000 budget on a colt who has made a lot of people happy.

“It’s been good,” he said. “It’s very satisfying to see what is happening with that.”

Lukas also has a 2-year-old filly for the club, She’s Got it All (Warrior’s Reward), who was purchased with some of the purse money earned by Warrior’s Club. She was second in a maiden race on opening day at Saratoga. Of course, the septuagenarian is well aware of the earnings accumulated by the non-profit club and is looking to the future.

“If I get the account up $1 million I’m going to go try to buy a serious yearling for the Derby, around $400,000-$450,000,” he said, “which would be the ultimate story.”

Most summers, Lukas is quick to tout his crop of 2-year-olds, but he is more reserved this year.

“I thought I had some pretty good ones and I’m beginning to think that they are not too hot. I don’t know,” I don’t know. “Calumet bred some nice horses this year and are showing a little something, but I’m guarded a little bit. When you get to be 83, you get a little more guarded. When you are 40, you’re open to the world and going to beat everybody.”

To be sure, Lukas still thirsts for the competition that is central to racing and is quick to make the case that the experience that comes with age is so important.

“I’m still doing the same thing. You should get better,” he said. “As long as your health is good and you are mentally lucid…”

Lukas paused for a moment without completing the sentence then said: “I guess when you get old you don’t know if you’re lucid or not,” and laughed hard. “It’s kind of like the Farmers Insurance: we know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two.”

 

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