Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas passed away Saturday at the age of 89, leaving a long and deep legacy on the global Thoroughbred industry. Coglianese Photo.
By Lynne Snierson/NYRA
The New York Racing Association, Inc. mourns the passing of legendary Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas at age 89, who passed away on Saturday evening after battling serious illness in recent weeks.
“D. Wayne Lukas’ vision and creativity transformed horse racing forever,” said David O’Rourke, NYRA president and chief executive officer. “He achieved success on a scale without precedent and developed a generation of trainers who continue to shape the future of the sport. New York’s racing community and fans will miss Wayne, and we look forward to celebrating his life and legacy this summer at Saratoga Race Course.”
New York is the biggest stage in the world and no one in the sport of thoroughbred racing has been a brighter star at Belmont Park and Saratoga Race Course than Lukas.
Though recognized for his custom-made Italian suits, aviator sunglasses and an abundance of charisma, he is renowned and revered as the most innovative, influential and prolific trainer in history. For six decades, Lukas has been the dominant force in this sport which he revolutionized.
Before announcing his retirement on June 22 two months before his 90th birthday, “Coach” won 4,953 races and earned purses of $300,548,290. His 15 Triple Crown race victories are second only to fellow Hall of Famer and close friend Bob Baffert, and he long held the record for most Breeders’ Cups wins with 20 until Aidan O’Brien tied him last November. The four-time Eclipse Award-winner and four-time Kentucky Derby-winner trained 26 horses who won divisional championships and three of his charges attained the honor of Horse of the Year.
As a mentor and coach, Lukas leaves behind a long list of proteges, including fellow Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, Classic-winner Kiaran McLaughlin, as well as George Weaver, Mark Hennig, Ron Moquett, Mike Maker, Dallas Stewart and Randy Bradshaw.
Horses conditioned by the legendary Lukas won 222 Grade 1s, many of which were contested at NYRA tracks. He won outright or shared 16 leading trainer titles at Belmont and Saratoga in the 1980s and 1990s, and his trophy case holds the hardware from almost all the illustrious top-level races at Belmont and Saratoga. Even better, he took most of those Grade 1 events in New York more than once.
Count among his accomplishments four scores – and three straight – in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes at 1 1/2-miles at Belmont Park with Tabasco Cat [1994], Thunder Gulch [1995], Editor’s Note [1996] and Commendable [2000], and consider his trio of wins in the Grade 1 Travers at Saratoga with Corporate Report [1991], Thunder Gulch [1995], and Will Take Charge [2013].
Lukas, who is credited with changing the business model of horse racing, experienced some of his greatest achievements with his Belmont Stakes horses.
After taking the 1994 edition with Preakness winner Tabasco Cat – the colt who had trampled and nearly killed his only child and top assistant Jeff Lukas – in 1995, he planned to run Thunder Gulch. But the Kentucky Derby winner wasn’t his marquee player. That distinction went to stablemate and reigning Preakness winner Timber Country, who was installed as the heavy morning-line favorite once the pair was entered. But then Timber Country spiked a fever and was scratched the day before the Belmont.
Thunder Gulch rose to the occasion and was a two-length winner, and the victory gave Lukas a record fifth straight win in a Triple Crown race [to be extended to six straight when he took the 1996 Kentucky Derby with Grindstone].
“When we got down to one horse today, we knew we had to have it all on this little horse’s shoulders,” Lukas told the Washington Post. “I’m a little bit overwhelmed.”
In 1999, Lukas was on a hot streak with Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Charismatic, whom he had elevated from the claiming ranks earlier in the season. Dispatched as the 8-5 favorite in the field of 12, the colt was leading in the stretch, and it looked as though Lukas would be the first to train a Triple Crown winner since 1978. Shockingly, Charismatic suffered a fractured leg but he still finished third.
“He was a part of our career – a big part of it,” Lukas told Daily Racing Form when Charismatic died in 2017. “You don’t replace Derby winners very easy. I really loved that horse. I was very fond of him. He was a knockout looker. When you get one that’s such an overachiever – I really thought that he might end up in the claiming ranks his entire career and the next thing he’s going for the Triple Crown – it was just a joy to be around him.”
Lukas, who has a record of 26-4-1-1 in the Belmont, was back in 2000 with Commendable. His final Belmont win is arguably his best Triple Crown training job. Commendable not only had finished 17th in the Kentucky Derby, but he was also winless since his debut the previous August at Del Mar and in six successive starts had fared no better than fourth. Yet, in the “Test of the Champion” Lukas had him at his best, scoring the upset at 18-1.
“If any touch of greatness rubbed off on Commendable, it probably came through his trainer, D. Wayne Lukas,” Joe Durso wrote in the New York Times.
No praise was higher than that bestowed by Hall of Famer Bobby Frankel, who had sent out the runner-up and favored Aptitude. “Give Lukas credit. I don’t know how he did it,” Frankel said after the race.
Lukas defied the odds in the Travers as well. In 1991 Corporate Report had been unable to catch Strike the Gold in the Kentucky Derby or Hansel in the Preakness and Belmont Stakes, but he led all the way in the Mid-Summer Derby. After Thunder Gulch executed the Belmont-Travers double in 1995, it would be another 18 years before Lukas graced the Travers winner’s circle again. To get there, Coach called an audible for Will Take Charge, who had been beaten in all three 2013 Triple Crown races. He gave the mount to a young Luis Saez, and they pulled it off at 9-1.
“I changed up a few things. I took a chance on an up-and-coming young rider. You look terrible if it doesn’t work, but it’s sweet when it does,” Lukas, then 77, told Daily Racing Form’s Dave Grening. “It feels pretty good. It’s been a long time between drinks, but when they come like this they double.”
Lukas wouldn’t return to the Travers until 2018, when he saddled his final and 20th runner, Bravazo, to a third-place finish.
Another of Lukas’ Triple Crown competitors included New York-bred Grade 1 winner Victory Speech. A son of Deputy Minister out of the Alydar mare Ida’s Image, Victory Speech finished third in the Grade 3 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park and third in the Grade 3 Jim Beam Stakes at Turfway Park before a 10th in the Kentucky Derby and fifth in the Preakness Stakes in 1996. He later won four stakes as a 3-year-old, including the Empire Classic Handicap at Aqueduct, and earned his Grade 1 victory in the 1997 Strub Stakes at Santa Anita Park. Victory Speech, who was bred by Robert Entenmann, earned New York-bred Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old male honors in 1996. He won nine of 27 starts and earned $1,289,020.
The Coach is the consummate horseman who has been a mentor, motivator, teacher, guide, influencer, inspiration, and most important, a friend to so many. His presence will forever loom large.
Multiple Grade 1 winning trainer Cherie DeVaux, who has been assigned Lukas’ former barn at Saratoga, summed it up best in a recent social media post.
“As I walked the shedrow this morning, I kept thinking about the horses that stood in these very stalls- champions whose names helped shape the sport. And then I sat in the office he left behind, at his desk, and stared at the empty chair. I wondered what he thought about in those quiet early hours. How many dreams began right there with a legal pad and a coffee?,” DeVaux wrote. “Wayne didn’t just train horses. He set a standard. He built a legacy that inspired generations, myself included. And while the tack room may bear a new name this summer, his spirit lingers in every inch of this place. Honored doesn’t begin to cover it. Grateful. Humbled. Inspired. We’ll do our best to honor what he built here – one horse, one morning, one moment at a time.”
Lukas’ Spa ledger includes a record number of wins in the Hopeful [8], Adirondack [7], Schuylerville [6], Spinaway [6, tied with Todd Pletcher], and H. Allen Jerkens Memorial, formerly the King’s Bishop [5]. However, when asked by NYRA’s press office in July 2024 to try and pick out a favorite Saratoga memory, he landed on the first-out maiden score by eventual Hall of Famer Winning Colors in August 1987.
“Any time you win one of these big stakes it’s a good memory. I think maybe it was Winning Colors breaking her maiden up here and going on to win the Kentucky Derby,” Lukas said. “I also remember one year up here I flew up and my son was running the barn and we had 13 individual Grade 1-winners in the barn. That was special.”
Lukas’s presence will be dearly missed by the sport, but his legacy will certainly live on.
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