Would you believe trainers Woody Stephens and D. Wayne Lukas on the same team?
Well, it`s going to happen Saturday in the Grade II Ohio Derby at Thistledown when Tsarbaby from Lukas` barn and Digress from Stephens` stable race as an entry. A bet on one will be a bet on both, and the entry is the early-line 6 to 5 favorite.
The reason the colts are coupled under Ohio rules is because of a thread of common ownership. Tsarbaby`s owner, Peter Brant, owns a small piece of Digress, who carries the colors of Seth Hancock`s Claiborne Farm.
Hancock also owns Forty Niner, the colt that Stephens sent on what turned out to be a racing kamikaze mission against Lukas` brilliant filly Winning Colors in the Preakness.
Forty Niner engaged in a duel for the lead with Winning Colors from the outset, herding her to the outside and possibly costing her the race.
Afterward, Winning Colors` owner, Gene Klein, said Stephens belonged in
”the Hall of Shame” instead of the Hall of Fame.
But now, in the Ohio Derby, the archrival trainers, Stephens and Lukas, will become allies in a race that will be simulcast at four Chicago-area tracks: Sportsman`s, Arlington, Maywood and Balmoral.
