Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

At 80, D. Wayne Lucas still relies on horse sense

The renowned trainer has horses entered in Saturday's Cotillion and Pennsylvania Derby at Parx.

WHEN HE was asked if he could calculate how much money has gone in and out of his stable and his bank account during his lifetime in the sport, D. Wayne Lukas, just turned 80, smiled and said: "Everything I have in this world, I owe to a horse and everything I don't have in this world I owe to a horse too."

He could not count high enough to figure it all out if he wanted to, which he does not. Nobody has spent more money at more horse sales for more owners than Lukas. And only his protégé Todd Pletcher, in an era of inflated purses, has accumulated more career purse earnings.

"It would be astronomical," Lukas said. "If you put a gun on my head and asked me what my net worth was, or what my bank account is today, I would have no idea."

Lukas has a woman who keeps track of his money. He has just one request: "Don't let me bounce any checks."

The biggest big-race winner in horse racing history does not win much anymore, but he never gets discouraged. The trainer has won just 14 races this year, the same number as his record number of Triple Crown race wins. There is also the record 20 Breeders' Cup wins. The career numbers are 28,000 starters, 4,700 wins and $273 million in earnings for his owners.

There will be no retirement for the man who revolutionized a sport when he started flying his horses around the country to win major stakes from coast to coast, aka "D. Wayne off the plane."

A perfect definition of optimism is an 80-year-old buying yearlings at America's most important horse sale. That's why D. Wayne was buying horses at this week. And why he was at the Saratoga sale last month.

"I bought two really nice colts at Saratoga, one for $750,000 and one for $600,000," he said.

Lukas was on the Parx backstretch yesterday morning. Tomorrow, he has Take Charge Brandi in the $1 million Cotillion and Mr. Z in the $1 million Pennsylvania Derby. Neither horse will be favored, but that has never concerned Lukas. If he listened to anyone but himself, he would have retired a few years ago. Then, he would have missed out on 2013 3-year-old champion Will Take Charge who gave Lukas his first Pa. Derby on his first visit to Parx and 2014 2-year-old filly champion Take Charge Brandi who won last year's Breeders' Cup race at a cool 61-1.

Horse racing is renowned for great storytellers and few are better than D. Wayne. He got on an hour-long roll after his horses trained yesterday, talking horses and basketball.

He was an assistant basketball coach at Wisconsin where he became very good friends with another Badgers assistant, Johnny Orr who went on to become a great head coach at Michigan and Iowa State. Lukas wrote his masters thesis on a weighted basketball shoe that he patented and sold to Converse for, as he quickly found out, way less than he should have.

Lukas told a wonderful story about a time his good friend Bob Knight invited him to sit on the bench for an Indiana game. At halftime, Knight was ranting in the locker room and was sort of asking for second-half suggestions. None of the regular assistants would even look up. Lukas suggested that the other team was tired and IU might want to run more. Knight immediately went off saying, "It's gotten so bad at Indiana that a horse trainer is telling us what to do."

Lukas coached high school basketball while training horses on the side. He wasn't sure which way he wanted to go. He chose the horses. The rest is living history.

When Lukas was here two years ago, he spent his time at the barn or in front of a slot machine. He got hot in the casino Wednesday night and promised to be back for more.

"You know what the casino does, it takes my mind completely off the horses," Lukas said. "If you're in there fooling around playing on those damned machines, they demand your attention and you don't think about all the other problems you've got at the barn."

If there is a casino at a track, you will find Lukas in front of a machine. In fact, in the hours before Will Take Charge's win, he was playing a $2 slot machine in the grandstand.

He played $50 and hit for $1,800. He was told he was the first to hit the jackpot. Then, he won the Pa. Derby.

"I liked everything about ," Lukas said. "The hospitality was very good. I was surprised at the quality of the track and the barn area. They treated us royally."

Lukas still gets up at 3:30 a.m. every day. He is still astride his pony every morning at the track. He is still searching for the next big horse.

Lukas loved watching his friend Bob Baffert win the Triple Crown, but nobody is ever likely to win the three races with two different horses as Lukas did in 1995 or win six consecutive Triple Crown races as Lukas did starting with the 1994 Preakness and ending with the 1996 Kentucky Derby.

Twenty years later, it is not like that anymore, but Lukas is still here, with a divisional champion each of the last two years. And he knows exactly how he wants to time his ending.

"I always tell people, 'The last check I write I want to bounce.' "