New Year, New Outlook for Lukas at the Spa

A new Saratoga season has yielded a slightly different D. Wayne Lukas. A little over a month removed from this 81st birthday, the Hall of Fame trainer still climbs up on his horse most mornings, but now he's packing a pacemaker, some stents and the knowledge that he's fortunate to have survived a health emergency.

When he left Saratoga last year on the eve of a milestone birthday, Lukas was typically upbeat and was bragging about his good health and the long life lines in his family. Three weeks later, he was rushed to an emergency room in a suburban Philadelphia hospital where doctors told him there were massive blockages in his arteries.

“I had nine percent circulation,” he said.

There was no need for added emphasis from Lukas, a masterful public speaker, who knows well how to evoke emotion. The stat was enough. Nine percent.

Lukas is back at the Spa. Back at Barn 83, the last building on the east end of the Oklahoma training track, where he has held forth for decades. On the surface, nothing has changed–every stall is occupied, the flowers and stable sign are in place and the area is typically tidy–but much has in Lukas's world. Six months after Lukas was rushed to the hospital, his only child and former assistant, Jeff, died unexpectedly at his home in Oklahoma. Jeff Lukas, 58, was forced to leave the business when he was run over by a horse and suffered serious brain injuries in 1993.

Lukas accepted the condolences offered by his visitors and talked about his son for a while for a while before turning back to the medical problems that surfaced when he was at Parx in September for the GI Cotillion S. and the GII Pennsylvania Derby. Now, he acknowledges that before the incident he had noticed some changes in the way he felt.

“Last year, I wasn't too good,” he said. “I just thought it was old age, that I had a very good run and not to worry about it. When I got to Philadelphia and couldn't stand up to saddle my horse that kind of clued me in that I was in trouble. I had Mr. Z there and I told the boys to saddle him. They called me a little later. I told them to get the van hooked up and pick me up at 4 a.m. and we'll drive back to Louisville and I'll get a little rest.”

Fortunately, what proved to be a lifesaving 911 call was made and an ambulance was sent to Lukas's hotel.

“The paramedics came to the door and I knew I was having trouble standing up, I was so lightheaded,” he said. “They had a key because it was a emergency. They kept banging on the door and I tried to get to the door to throw open the latch and couldn't do it. Finally I got there, but that's about all I got.”

Soon after the door was opened, Lukas was on his way to the hospital and another story was unfolding. A ball cap on his head and dark glasses in place, he leaned back in the chair in his little office building facing Barn 83 and delivered the punch line.

“I'm going with the paramedics and the guy is saying 'stay with us, stay with us,'” he said. ” I thought 'is it that bad?'”

Turns out it was. A doctor later told him that people with that level of blockages usually end up in the morgue.

Lukas said that his heart was not damaged and he did not require bypass surgery.

“They put a pacemaker and stents in,” he said, grinning. “I was back on the horse in three days.”

With his energy restored and his heart being monitored by a specialist in Louisville, Lukas remains an active working horseman based at Churchill Downs. Without prompting, he serves up a familiar line that he will never retire, and his passing will consist of falling out of the saddle and being harrowed under the track. More than likely it will be included in a book of Lukasisms being compiled by his wife, Laurie. It already has a title: Sermon on the Mount.

Kiaran McLaughlin, once an assistant to Lukas, shares a visit with “The Coach” on Twitter Monday

Lukas spends the winter at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas and the summer at Saratoga, where he won the first of his six meet titles in 1986. Back then, he was at the helm of a powerful national

stable that rolled up victories and purse money like never before, making him a giant in the sport. He is the leader in Triple Crown and Breeders' Cup victories, has won 4,759 races and his horses have earned $274 million in purses money. Now he has a more modest operation with 32 horses in Saratoga and another half-dozen in Kentucky. He won a pair of races at Ellis Park on Saturday. This year he has a record of 18-16-17 from 169 starts.

During the first two days of the Saratoga meet–where he has had at least one winner for 32 consecutive years–Lukas saddled eight starters, compiling an 0-1-1 record. Only two trainers, Chad Brown with 14 and Todd Pletcher, 13, dropped more names into the entry box. Typical Lukas. But in a change in form, he declined an opportunity to tout his horses.

“We're pretty average for this meet, except for the 2-year-olds,” he said. “Without those, your passion and enthusiasm is gone. We do think we've got some pretty good 2-year-olds, but we could get a reality check quick. We're going to run some of them and we're going to see. You're supposed to know, but I don't know.”

Gentle coaxing cannot convince him to reconsider and chat about any that show promise.

“Yeah, we've got a couple,” he said through another grin, “but I'm getting more cautious in my old age.”