No thoroughbred trainer ever had this kind of year. And if all goes according to trainer D. Wayne Lukas` plan, Saturday is going to be the greatest day in the year.
That`s the day the second chapter in the $10 million Breeders` Cup series of seven races will be presented at Aqueduct.
Lukas will be represented by 10 oustanding runners competing in four of the races.
Those horses have accounted for 30 of his stable`s record 62 stakes victories in 1985 and a goodly portion of its earnings in excess of $8 million, which is another record.
The 50-year-old native of Antigo, Wis., who spent his 20s and 30s coaching mediocre basketball teams in his home state, is in a position to accomplish a monumental sports feat.
Here is Lukas` lineup, contemporary racing`s version of the New York Yankees` Murderers` Row of the Roaring 20s:
— Distaff race–A three-horse entry of Lady`s Secret, winner of eight straight stakes; Life`s Magic, last year`s champion 3-year-old filly; and Alabama Nana, coming off a powerful stakes triumph at Belmont.
— Juvenile Filly race–Another trio linking Family Style, top 2-year-old filly in the East and Midwest, with Arewehavingfunyet, best in the Midwest, and Twilight Ridge, who has two victories and one place in three starts.
— Sprint race–Mt. Livermore, the nation`s most accomplished older sprinter, coupled with Pancho Villa, the No. 1 sprinter among the 3-year-olds. — Juvenile colt and gelding race–An entry bringing together Ketoh, a winner of two of three in New York, and Louisiana Slew, triumphant in two of four California starts.
But Lukas believes the best is yet to come. ”We set some lofty goals this year and last, and we will set some big ones next year,” he said.
”Last year, we wanted to break the money record and win 40 stakes, which we were able to do. This year, we wanted to break our own money record and the record for most stakes victories, which we have already done.
”Next year, we`ll go for $12 million, a million a month in purses, and 80 stakes victories.”
The pre-Lukas records put his amazing training feats into perspective. The old record for money earned was $4,588,897 set by Charlie Whittingham in 1982. The previous standard for stakes victories was 45, established by Calumet Farm`s Jimmy Jones in 1947 and equalled by Eddie Neloy in the 1960s.
The numbers are fascinating, but even more intriguing is the story of the man who compiles these statistics by racing ”123 horses around the country 365 days a year–sometimes at four or five tracks a day.”
The drive always was there. But a 44-95 record in seven years as a high school basketball coach at LaCrosse Logan in Wisconsin, where parimutuel racing is illegal, gave no hint that he was destined to reach unparallled heights in sports.
He grew up in Antigo, a small agricultural community in the northern part of Wisconsin, with a fixation for horses. When he was still in grade school he was racing his pony at the fairs. When he reached high school, he had graduated to buying and selling mustangs and quarterhorses at cheap sales.
But he also loved sports–”I was mediocre at everything and good at nothing”–so he heeded his mother`s advice.
”My mother told me to do something worthwhile with my life, so I got into education and coaching,” recalled Lukas. ”I really thought I`d be a Big 10 coach. I kept my priorities in that direction for a lot of years.”
He graduated from the University of Wisconsin, then became a teacher and coach in the tiny town of Blair, Wis. Obsessed with a desire to become a college coach, he went back to Wisconsin for a master`s degree in education and became an assistant basketball coach under John Erickson.
But when ”a very attractive offer” at LaCrosse Logan beckoned, Lukas went back to coaching high school.
”I was in my early 20s and I had a chance to be a coach at a major high school in the state, so I jumped at it, even though my best bet might have been to stay as a college assistant,” he said.
But all the while, Lukas never cut the ties to the horses. Gradually, he had a change in consciousness in two areas.
”When I graduated from the University of Wisconsin, I felt teaching was a necessary evil,” he said. ”I didn`t think there was anything in the world but coaching. When I left LaCrosse Logan, I was thoroughly enjoying my job as a teacher.
”But it had become apparent from a material standpoint and from an interest standpoint that the horses were pulling too strong. I was making as much money fooling around in the summer at places like Park Jefferson (S.D.)
as I was coaching. I put a lot of energy into coaching, and I thought if I put that much into the horses for 12 months you could never tell.
”Quarterhorses were getting prominent, and training three months I had almost won the national title. I asked myself: `What will happen if I put the other nine months into it?` What happened is that I dominated the sport.”
Lukas began his quarterhorse career in 1967, starting in Claremore, Okla. He went from there to Laredo, Tex., then to El Paso, Tex., and finally to California in 1972. ”The further I went west, the better I liked it,” he said.
In 1975, he won 150 quarterhorse races, doubling the most triumphs recorded by a quarterhorse trainer in a single year. By 1978, he had trained 23 world champion quarterhorses.
Then, in Lukas` words, ”I left my world championship stable to my assistnt, gave him all my equipment and said: `I will not be back!` I walked out the front gate to go over to Santa Anita to train seven thoroughbreds. Everybody kidded me because a lot of quarterhorse guys had left and bombed out badly.
”I was not intimidated. We`d won on every level, and I thought we`d win over there, too. I gave myself five years to win a national championship and three years to win a classic race, and we achieved both goals. In 1980, we won the Preakness with Codex, and in five years we`d won two national championships.”
All his life, D. Wayne Lukas held fast to the convinction that someday there would be a year like this year and a day like Saturday at Aqueduct.
