Happy 80th Birthday D. Wayne Lukas

Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas reaches another milestone Wednesday, this one very personal: his 80th birthday.

As he was preparing to leave Saratoga Springs to return to his home in Louisville on Monday, Lukas said becoming an octogenarian is no big deal. He figures his non-celebration will consist of what he does every other day: get out of bed in the middle of the night and go to work.

“I don't feel any different,” he said. “I think I've gotten a little bit smarter about training horses because I think it is a game of experience and there is no other way to learn it but by trial and error. Having been involved with so many horses–good, bad and indifferent–I think the experience factor is huge. Having said that, I don't feel any different than when I was 50.

“I still enjoy very much getting on my saddle horse and getting out there right next to the horses training. I don't know when the last time is that I've missed a day.”

For years Lukas has joked that he will never retire, intends to die with his boots on, and figures he will fall off his horse on a track somewhere and be harrowed under.

“My health is very good and I just feel like it's business as usual,” he said. “I don't feel like 80 is any milestone at all or that anything should change. I want to stay competitive. There are a few things that I would like to do yet. It's been wonderful all this time training these horses and it's still good.”

So it goes for the former teacher and basketball coach from Antigo, Wisconsin, who left his job in education after the 1968-69 school year and turned his summer job training race horses into his full-time gig.

“I made a career change and it really worked out well,” he said, chuckling.

Yes it did. Lukas became a dominant player in Quarter Horse racing before making a complete switch to Thoroughbreds in the 1970s. In the years that followed, he set the standard in the sport for money won and wins at the highest levels. Among the records he holds is career wins in Triple Crown races, 14, as well as the most victories and money won in the Breeders' Cup. He is a member of the Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred halls of fame.

Although Lukas certainly qualifies is a senior citizen, he's not ready to settle in the rocking chair and spend time talking about the good old days.

“I'd still like to have another Derby winner or two,” he said, “or maybe some of the other Classic races and the Breeders' Cup, races that are so important and milestones in a trainer's career.”

“I've been really blessed. We're not as competitive as we were in the '80s, the '90s and the early 2000's, but we had a champion last year and we had a champion the year before. A lot of guys never have a champion. I feel really blessed in that respect. We're still competitive. Not as much as I'd like to be, but we're still competitive.”

Will Take Charge was the 3-year-old champ in 2013 and Take Charge Brandi was voted the 2-year-old filly titlist last year.

Lukas has never been afraid to aim high and that approach has not changed.

“I'd like to win the Triple Crown,” he said. “I was kidding Bob Baffert the other day. I congratulated him when he did that and I'm very proud and happy to be his friend. I told him, 'Bob, I wanted to do that before you did.' That's hanging out there.”

While he's as ambitious and confident as he ever was, Lukas acknowledges that he has mellowed in some areas and now savors the successes.

“I was telling some friends the other day that I wish in the '80s and '90s when we were winning five or six Grade I's on a weekend and running through the Triple Crown, that I had stepped back and enjoyed it a little bit more,” he said. “Now I enjoy it a little bit more, when we do win a Grade I.”

Lukas won two last year with Take Charge Brandi and a total four in 2013 with Preakness winner Oxbow, Will Take Charge and Strong Mandate.

It was part of a comeback from a tough stretch when he went three years between graded stakes victories.

Since making the move to Thoroughbreds, Lukas has developed 26 champions, three of whom were elected Horse of the Year. He is adept at stepping around the question of which one tops his personal list of stars.

“I've been asked that so many times,” he said. “The best Quarter Horse I ever had, and I had 23 champions, was Dash for Cash, who absolutely dominated the breed and the racing industry at that point of his career.

“The Thoroughbreds, it just depends on what era you point to. You look at Winning Colors then Serena's Song and then Lady's Secret. Down through the years, it's hard for me to pinpoint which one was probably the best. Brilliance-wise, Landaluce was probably the most brilliant one that I ever had, but her career was so short. Year after year, I've come up with a horse that in a lot of ways was surprising and they become

special, too. I don't know if I'd pinpoint one.”

With the racing world still buzzing about American Pharoah's loss in the Travers, Lukas offered Thunder Gulch, the 1995 champion 3-year-old male, as a member of his elite group of standouts.

“One of the things that they talk about is the stress of trying to make it through the Triple Crown and then the Travers. We just had that story this week,” he said. “But when you stop and talk about Thunder Gulch, it's unbelievable what he did. At that time nobody thought too

much of it. You win the Fountain of Youth and Florida Derby. Then you run in the Blue Grass, you win the Derby, you're third in the Preakness and you win the Belmont. Then you go to California and win the Swaps. Then you come back and win the Travers.

“That's a pretty damn good run. I'd have to put that horse right up there with the best.”

Thunder Gulch was a member of the crew that Lukas used to win six straight Triple Crown races–a feat that seems likely to stand forever–from the 1994 Preakness to the 1996 Derby.

“We never have won the Triple Crown, but sometimes I wonder if it is a bit more difficult to win them all in a row with different horses,” he said. “That means that at least you are developing different horses for your clientele.

“Having one horse like American Pharoah or a Seattle Slew or Affirmed is wonderful. I'm so happy for Bob Baffert and the Zayat family. When I look back, we were reaching into the talent pool that we had and were able to win one for one client and then come up and win

another one. Thunder Gulch wins the Derby, Timber Country wins the Preakness and then you come back with another one from Thunder Gulch. Serena's Song wins the Haskell. That's a pretty good run, too.”

Lukas said he is grateful for having had terrific relationships with owners like William T. Young and Bob Lewis. Now on his roster of owners are Ahmed Zayat, Willis Horton, Robert Baker and Bill Mack. When Cat Thief won the 1999 Breeders' Cup Classic, Lukas gushed about being able to deliver such an important victory to Young, the master of Overbrook Farm.

“You right away turn to your clientele that has supported you and been so loyal,” Lukas said. “To win it for Bill Young and then win the Derby for him those are great highlights. Absolutely. As a trainer you win one for Bill Young, you win one for Bob Lewis. You've had that experience over and over, but they only get that opportunity once in a while.

“For example, with Will Take Charge, when Willis Horton won the Travers, that was a very special day. Why? Because we won it for him. I've won it before. I've been there. I've stood there before. I've seen that. It takes on a new meaning with your clientele.”

Though they compete with him for owners, horses and victories, Lukas said he is happy that his former assistants, a group that includes Todd Pletcher, Kiaran McLaughlin, Mark Hennig and Dallas Stewart, have become very successful running their own stables.

“One of the things that has been so satisfying in an 80-year run here is the fact that my proteges, the guys who have been with me and have been so good, are doing so well,” he said. “I sit over there at Saratoga and see Todd win three in one afternoon, Kiaran win two more and Dallas win one, I think 'Geez, they only ran nine races and my guys won six or seven of them.' That's a great feeling.”

During the midst of the best years of his career, which was a very long time, Lukas was driven to the point that he could be difficult to deal with and often feuded with the media covering the sport. Fiery when he wants to be, in the last decade or so, a gentler Lukas has emerged and he has become something of a senior statesman or spokesman of the sport.

“What happen is that I think you inherit that mantle,” he said. “You owe it a little bit. I don't even have a horse in a race and the media still wants my opinion, which is very flattering. I think what is part of the case is that after you've been around for 70 years or 60

years, you get to the point where people think you know more than the young ones, but that's probably not true.”

Lukas remarried in 2013 and he credits his wife, Laurie, for helping to make this a happy time in his life.

“I finally got it right,” he said. “Laurie has been just a wonderful companion for the last couple of years. It's really been special. She's an accomplished horseman in her own right. I tell people now that I am the second-best horsemen in the house. She's an accomplished horseman and judge all over the world. She relates to what we're doing, but she's got a great feel for what it takes to be a companion to a horse trainer. That's not easy.

“I would say that being a wife of a football or basketball coach is very, very stressful, but I think that being the wife of any horse trainer is very, very tough, too. I think those women are special that stay in there because the mood swings, the pressure and the ups and downs are so intense. It's been a joy to be with her because she really gets it. She rides out and back (to the track for training) with me every day, which is amazing at our age. For us to go out and share the whole morning, that's pretty special, too.”

The lowest point in Lukas's career came in Dec. 1993, just before that run of six consecutive Triple Crown wins, when his only child, Jeff, his chief assistant, was run over by a loose horse at Santa Anita Park. Jeff Lukas was critically injured and was near death. He survived, but was never able to return to training horses and now works in a bank in Oklahoma.

“I reflect a lot on what might have been without Jeff's injury,” Lukas said. “In fact, just this last week Laurie and I sat here and talked about it and reminisced about what happened and what led up to it because she wasn't part of that.

“It's something we've been dealt and Jeff always says, 'these are the cards I'm dealt and I'll deal with them.' He's got a great attitude. It's been amazing probably what could have been because his career was taking off, too. I think about that a lot. But he's happy and he's living through his two children. One graduated from the Air Force Academy and the other is going into medical school. We're solid. We're OK.”

Meanwhile Grandpa D. Wayne, who was honored by the industry with an Eclipse Award of Merit in Jan. 2014, is turning 80. He will do it as quietly as possible at Churchill Downs while following the usual routine.

“I'll get up at 3:30 and I'll go out and train my horses,” he said. “We're shipping so I'll have to settle the barn. It might be a long day. At some point Laurie and I will run through Wendy's and we'll get some chili and that will do it.”

Lukas laughed at the suggestion that he was still going strong because he goes for chili at fast food restaurants. He noted that he has no medical issues and that he comes from a family with a history of reaching old ages. His mother died at 94.

“The thing is I never drank at any time in my life and I've never smoked at all. I think that a good work ethic keeps you active and keep the juices flowing,” he said, before offering less-than serious advice.

“Don't take any vitamins, don't see any doctors, eat a lot of junk food and you'll be great.”