Wayne Lukas

by Bill Finley & J. N. Campbell Seize the Grey (Arrogate) didn't show a thing in his debut, a July 1 maiden special weight race at Ellis Park. Trained by Hall of Famer Wayne Lukas and a $300,000 purchase at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale as a yearling, he beat just one horse and lost by 17 1/4 lengths. So it was no surprise when he was sent off at 16-1, a price that looked about right considering the competition he was set to face in Saturday's seventh race at Saratoga,...

As Hall of Famer Wayne Lukas entered his mid-eighties, his longevity and his persistence became one of racing's best feel-good stories. A trainer who belongs in the conversation as one of the best of all time, he was still out there every day, physically active, mentally sharp. There didn't seem to be anything stopping him. But there was a missing ingredient. Lukas, now 87, simply wasn't winning many races, especially important ones. Lukas won the 2018 GII Risen Star S. with Bravazo (Awesome Again) on Feb. 17, 2018. He didn't...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - D. Wayne Lukas is back and so is the Wilson Chute, after a much, much longer absence, for the 154th summer of Thoroughbred racing in Saratoga. The 40-day season at historic Saratoga Race Course launches Thursday and runs through Labor Day, Sept. 5. It will be the 77th consecutive year of competition at Saratoga--since the closing for three years during World War II--which coincidentally makes it the second half of the very long run since the first meet was held in 1863. During the eight-plus weeks...

    The TDN's 'Let's Talk'--a podcast series featuring TDN's Christina Bossinakis and TVG's on-air analyst Gabby Gaudet, offers candid discussion on personal and professional issues often faced within the racing community.    The latest edition features Hall of Fame horseman D. Wayne Lukas, who collected his latest Grade I victory with Secret Oath in the May 6 Kentucky Oaks. Wayne Lukas is no stranger to success. Inducted into racing's Hall of Fame in 1999, the Antigo, Wisconsin native has spent over four decades reshaping and even defining the sport of...

It was a hectic week in the Thoroughbred business with all eyes firmly focussed on Louisville, Kentucky. Here are some facts and figures that you might have missed in the rush. Record Numbers... Wagering from all-sources on the Kentucky Derby (single race) totaled $179 million, up 15% over 2021 and up 8% from the previous record of $166.5-million set in 2019. This year's wagering record includes $8.3 million of handle put through the window in Japan. The Smart Strike Factor... As a broodmare sire, Smart Strike has the distinction of...

'TDN Rising Star' Zozos (Munnings), most recently runner-up to Epicenter (Not This Time) in the GII Louisiana Derby Mar. 26, continued his preparations for the May 7 GI Kentucky Derby with a five-furlongs work that was timed in 1:00.20 Friday morning at Churchill Downs. Breezing in the company of his GI Longines Kentucky Oaks-bound stablemate Turnerloose (Nyquist), the Barry and Joni Butzow homebred was out at 5:30 a.m. and broke off about a length behind the GII Rachel Alexandra S. heroine before galloping along through fractions of :24 flat and...

There was a time when you would load as much experience and conditioning as possible into a Kentucky Derby horse, as a mere adolescent required to jostle with 19 others through 10 furlongs. Nowadays, however, trainers are trying to reach Churchill Downs across a highwire stretched to a thread by two diametrically opposed imperatives. One is their conviction, whether through perception or presumption, that the typical, commercial-bred Thoroughbred of today can only stand up to a much lighter schedule. The other is to secure enough gate points in the trials.

It stands to reason, I guess, that the fountain of youth—the quest for which supposedly brought the first conquistadores to the shores of Florida—should instead turn out to be in Hot Springs. Certainly it seems as though there must indeed be something in those celebrated Arkansas waters, judging from the eternal vigor of an 86-year-old trainer based at Oaklawn this winter.