By Mike Kane
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Though Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas rarely passes on big stakes opportunities, he is skipping the GII Shuvee S. Sunday with Secret Oath (Arrogate).
After she turned in an uncharacteristic dull performance in the June 10 GI Ogden Phipps S., Lukas and the 4-year-old filly's breeder-owners Robert and Stacy Mitchell are using a little-bit-less-is-more approach at Saratoga Race Course.
“She's really, really doing well,” Lukas said Wednesday morning, “but we have made a decision to run here only once. We're trying to space her program so it leads to the Breeders' Cup. What we've got mapped out is the [Aug. 25 GI] Personal Ensign and then the [GI] Spinster at Keeneland. [The Mitchells] live in Louisville, so the Spinster is like the Kentucky Derby to them, and then the Breeders' Cup. That's the program that they have asked me to follow and that's not bad.”
Lukas, who will turn 88 on Sept. 2, brought 19 horses–10 of them 2-year-olds–to Saratoga this summer. Typically, he has been active at the entry box. Through the first four days of the meet, he has three seconds from five starters.
It's a very safe bet that by the time Secret Oath goes into the gate for the Personal Ensign, the other 18 horses in the stable will have made at least one start. Lukas said that Saratoga is the ideal spot for Secret Oath to get ready for the Personal Ensign, where she is likely to re-engage with standouts Clairiere (Curlin), Nest (Curlin) and Played Hard (Into Mischief), who are headed to the Shuvee.
“She thrives here because we don't have an opportunity to graze for an hour every afternoon like we do here,” he said. “We've got a chance to get her out every afternoon.”
Last year, Secret Oath won the GI Kentucky Oaks and finished fourth in the GI Preakness S. At Saratoga, Nest avenged her loss in the Kentucky Oaks and trounced Secret Oath in the GI Coaching Club American Oaks and the GI Alabama S. Secret Oath was third in the GI Cotillion S. and fifth in the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff.
Beginning this season at Oaklawn Park, Secret Oath beat Clairiere by 2 3/4 lengths in the GII Azeri S. and was beaten a neck by that foe in the GI Apple Blossom. On Oaks Day, May 5 at Churchill Downs, Secret Oath and Tyler Gaffalione were second by a neck to Played Hard. In the Phipps on June 10 at Belmont Park, she never was able to muster her off-the-pace run. It was just the fourth off-the-board finish in her 17-race career.
“The other day, I definitely think it was the track, and so does Tyler, that she had a sub-par race,” Lukas said. “He said it was rolling underneath her. Every time he gathered her up, she moved. Every time he asked her to run, he said she didn't get a hold of it. What happens here in the Personal Ensign, who knows?”
Lukas saddled his first starters at Saratoga in 1984, launching a run of 36 consecutive years at the track. He skipped 2020 and 2021 because of Covid-19 and a downturn in the quality of his stable. With Secret Oath as the centerpiece of the stable, he returned last summer and compiled a 7-6-2 record from 31 starts. He picked up his 61st stakes win at Saratoga with Naughty Gal (Into Mischief) in the GIII Adirondack S.
Secret Oath breezed five furlongs in 1:01 Monday over the Oklahoma training track in the midst of her longest break between races this season.
“I think it helps her,” Lukas said. “She's a better horse this year. If you want to know the truth, she can probably take more, but we're not going to test that. We're just going to space it out and come into the Breeders' Cup. We're skipping the Shuvee. It would be pretty easy to drop into the Shuvee, test the waters and see how she handles the track. We're going to just go for broke in the Personal Ensign.”
The Mitchells had planned to sell Secret Oath last fall, though Lukas urged them to keep her in training as a 4-year-old. He said he told them Secret Oath could earn millions more in purses this season and still bring a multi-million price at auction. They did pull her out of the sale and she has earned $576,350 this year.
“Well, if she never did anything more that would be pretty good,” Lukas said, “but she's going to get more. Three more and they're all big [purses].”
Lukas picked up a pair of seconds with his 2-year-olds on opening day–Lady Moscato (Quality Road) in a maiden special weight and Saratoga Secret (Arrogate) in the GIII Schuylerville S. His third second came Sunday with Just Steel (Justify), a $500,000 yearling purchase, making his second career start.
An easy winner in her debut at Ellis Park, Lukas said that BC Stable's Saratoga Secret showed in the Schuylerville that she is a promising filly.
“I thought her race was good,” he said. “She's another Arrogate and she's very immature, even more so than Secret Oath was. She's small and slight. She will benefit from the time. She's going to go in the [Sept. 3 GI] Spinaway.”
Lukas never lacks enthusiasm for his young horses and he is high on this crop.
“I think it's the best bunch we've had since probably the mid-'80s or '90s when we were a lot stronger than most,” he said.
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