The Breeders' Cup Legacy of D. Wayne Lukas

 

The Breeders’ Cup Legacy of D. Wayne Lukas
Joseph Di Rienzi

 

D, Wayne Lukas
(Orange County Register)

Any attempt to capture in writing the life and success of thoroughbred horse trainer Darrell Wayne Lukas who died on June 28, 2025, at age 89, will fall very short of the mark in capturing the breadth and depth of his influence on the sport. A larger-than-life personality, by his skill, vision and charisma he transformed the art of training thoroughbred horses being the first to have a truly national stable. D. Wayne, as he was commonly referred as, conditioned 26 horses that were voted Eclipse Award champions and had 15 that were victorious in a Triple Crown race. He, himself, won the Eclipse Award as outstanding trainer four times. It’s in the Breeders’ Cup Thoroughbred World Championship races, that Lukas perhaps had his greatest impact in which he conditioned a record 20 winners. An early and enthusiastic supporter, D. Wayne stocked the early Breeders’ Cup races with runners hoping to showcase their championship caliber. This piece will examine his success in the first five years of the series, beginning with its inception in 1984.

Hollywood Park was the setting for the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Thoroughbred World Championships. D. Wayne had five entries scattered through the seven-race series, but the best finishes were seconds in the Breeder’s Cup Juvenile (by Tank’s Prospect) and the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (Life’s Magic).

The next year (1985) when the Breeders’ Cup was run at Aqueduct Racetrack, D. Wayne’s horses struck Breeders’ Cup gold. He ran a three-part entry in the one-mile Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies – Arewehavingfunyet, Family Style and Twilight Ridge. Of the three, Family Style had the best credentials coming into the race having won the Spinaway, the Arlington Lassie and the Frizette Stakes while Arewehavingfunyet was a clear leader on the West Coast. Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Klein, who owned Family Style, was also represented by Twilight Ridge, a leggy bay daughter of Cox’s Ridge who had impressed early in her racing career, then was given time off. She had recently returned to finish second in the 6½ furlong Critical Miss Stakes at Philadelphia Park. Coupled together the entry was the odd-on favorite in Juvenile Fillies

The triple-headed entry went off as the odds-on favorite. On Breeders’ Cup Day, Twilight Ridge proved best, after racing just off the pace under Jorge Velasquez to gain command in the upper stretch and hold off a rally by Family Style by a length. Twilight Ridge, who was winning her first stakes race in her fourth start, tried to confirm her claim to the Champion Two-Year-Old Filly title in her next outing, the Hollywood Starlet Stakes, but could only finish third. Voters, thereby, gave the Eclipse Award to her more accomplished stable mate, Family Style.

Twlight Ridge winning 1985 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies
(BloodHorse.com)

Throwing another three-ply entry into the 10 furlong Breeder’s Cup Distaff, Lukas again saw his white bridled runners finish 1–2. The Kleins’ Life’s Magic did one better than the previous year and capped off a championship season with a 6¼ length victory over her stablemate Lady’s Secret. The victory by the daughter of Cox’s Ridge propelled her to a second Eclipse Award despite the fact she had only won 2 of 13 starts in 1985. (However, about 25% of Life’s Magic’s races were in top tier races against the best of her male counterparts.)

The Lukas brigade rolled on in 1986 with two more Breeders’ Cup victories, this year held at Santa Anita Park. In the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, Capote, a dark bay or brown son of Seattle Slew owned by Barry Beal, L. R. “Bob” French Jr. and Eugene Klein, led all the way in the now 8½ furlong race. In the beaten field were such stalwarts as Alysheba, Gulch, Bet Twice, Polish Navy and Demons Begone. This win coupled with a previous victory in the Norfolk Stakes was enough to convince voters to crown Capote with an Eclipse Award.

In the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, Lady’s Secret emulated Life’s Magic in improving one place from the previous year. The diminutive gray daughter of Secretariat, owned by Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Klein’s led all the way for a popular 2½ length triumph. Not only did this victory secure an Eclipse Award for Older Filly and Mare, but her active campaign in 1986 which included a victory against males in the Whitney Handicap and placings in several other open gendered races, resulted in Lady’s Secret, dubbed “The Iron Lady”, being voted Horse of the Year.

Lady's Secret (on left) winning 1986 Breeders' Cup Distaff
(BloodHorse.com)

In 1987, with the Breeders’ Cup races returned to Hollywood Park, Lukas achieved another double. Eugene Klein’s Success Express scored a mild upset over uncoupled entry mate Tejano. The Lukas duo ran first and second for most of the one mile race with Canadian bred Regal Classic rallying to pass Tejano for second place honors. Neither Success Express nor Tejano were accorded the Eclipse Award for Male Two-Year-Old. That honor went to Claiborne Farm’s Forty Niner who did not contest the Breeder’s Cup Juvenile.

As in the two previous years, a D. Wayne Lukas trainee won the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.  Sacahuista, a three-year-old daughter of Raja Baba owned by Barry Beal and L. R. French Jr. Prior to the Distaff, Sacahuista had the dubious distinction of finishing first in two stakes (the Cotillion and Ruffian Handicaps) only to be disqualified and placed second in the former, third in the latter. However, in her start prior to the Distaff, Sacahuista ran straight and true to win the Spinster Stakes at Keeneland Racetrack. One of three Lukas trainees in the Distaff, the bay daughter of Raja Baba led all the way, defeating barn mate Clabber Girl by 2¼ lengths. This victory coupled with her Spinster triumph clinched Three-Year-Old Filly honors for Sacahuista.

Sacahuista winning 1987 Breeders' Cup Distaff
(BloodHorse.com)

The 1988 Breeders’ Cup Championships were a tour-de-force for D. Wayne Lukas as horses trained by him won three, finished second twice and three times placed third.

It was a miserable day at Churchill Downs for the fifth edition of the Breeders’ Cup with a pronounced sloppy track. In the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, Peter Brant’s Gulch who had raced at various distances through his distinguished career, including all Triple Crown races in 1987, was shortened up in the 6 furlong Sprint, and, under Angel Cordero, unleashed a furious drive to win over Canadian runner Play The King by ¾ of a length. This triumph catapulted the son of Mr. Prospector to an Eclipse Award for Sprinter.

Gulch winning 1988 Breeders' Cup Sprint
(BloodHorse.com)

In the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, Lukas ran a five-part entry in which three occupied the first three places. Eugene Klein’s Open Mind, again under jockey Angel Cordero Jr., finished first, 1¾ lengths ahead of Darby Shuffle with Lea Lucinda a neck further back. The bay daughter of Deputy Minster cemented her Eclipse Award with a follow-up victory in the Demoiselle Stakes.

Lukas’ third Breeders’ Cup winning trainee was largely unanticipated. Eugene Klein’s Is It True, a bay son of Raja Baba, had been defeated thrice by the vaunted Easy Goer and there was no expectation he would reverse that result in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. However, on a slippery track Easy Goer could not get good traction, Is It True, and jockey Laffit Pincay Jr. held sway by 1¼ lengths over the Ogden Phipps color bearer. Despite this win by the Lukas horse, it was Easy Goer who was voted Two-Year-Old Champion.

Of the other second place finisher, it was Eugene Klein’s Kentucky Derby victress, Winning Colors that just missed by a nose in the last stride in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff to Ogden Phipps’ undefeated Personal Ensign.

D. Wayne Lukas’ nine horses who were Breeders’ Cup heroes in the first five years, were from 46 starters in a series which at that time (1984 – 1988) comprised of only seven races instead of the current bloated 14. Lukas would go on to add 11 more trainees to the Breeders’ Cup honor roll from an astounding 169 starters. In number of winners (20) D. Wayne Lukas is currently tied with Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien and with the addition of turf races on the Breeders’ Cup cards, the latter should soon become the single leader. Nevertheless, D. Wayne Lukas’ legacy will remain as the horse trainer who put the Breeders’ Cup series of races in the forefront of the thoroughbred racing community’s consciousness.