LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- D. Wayne Lukas will not train the winner of Kentucky Derby 147 on Saturday at Churchill Downs. Odds are that Lukas made his fourth and final trip to the Derby winners’ circle in 1999 with Charismatic.
No complaints from Barn 44.
Lukas beat something more daunting than the best 3-year-olds in the world. He beat the novel coronavirus.
Nobody will savor Kentucky Derby Week more than Lukas.
“It was the closest you can come to dying,” Lukas said. “In fact, I think I was starting to die.
“I told my wife (Laurie) and Brady (his grandson) that it felt like I was drifting away, real peaceful.”
COVID-19 didn’t realize who it was battling: the most unrelenting and determined horseman the game has seen.
This was last August. Lukas, 85, was sidelined with broken ribs and a back injury after he was tossed from a horse at Churchill Downs. Fluid around his heart left him fatigued.
But this was different, different from other health issues Lukas experienced. His body ached. He was lethargic. No sense of smell. No sense of taste. No appetite. Lukas lost nearly 25 pounds.
Breathing was the ultimate challenge. Lukas remembers passing out once and then a second time. The first time he was lying down.
Despite a scare from COVID-19, trainer D. Wayne Lukas is back at Churchill Downs this spring. WDRB Photo/Rick Bozich
“My grandson picked me up,” he said. “I had no air. I told him I was just drifting away. I’m losing you.
“Brady squeezed around on me on my chest and got some air.
“I kept my consciousness, and I made it through the night.
“The next day around 6 in the morning, I was pretty much awake all night. I thought I’ll get up and put my sweatsuit on. I got up and just collapsed. I was so weak. I couldn’t crawl from me to you.
“I spent the next 8-10 days just trying to get enough strength to walk from here to there.”
Lukas said he did not go the hospital. He’s an old school-style patient. He said that his ability to breathe was an issue for nearly two weeks.
“It didn’t scare me as much as it confused me about what was happening,” Lukas said.
By last fall, he returned to the track, training horses. You’ll find him at Churchill Downs every morning, usually as early as 5:30 a.m., just like he was 40 years ago when he showed up with Partez, his first Derby horse. He’s eager to share his Derby knowledge with any trainer who has questions.
“The first time you come here, you think it’s easy,” he said. “I didn’t realize I had to get my butt kicked for a few years before I figured it out.”
His barn is full with 32 horses but none that will compete in the Derby or Oaks. He saddled his 49th and final Derby horse in 2018. He won his last Triple Crown race when Oxbow scored in the Preakness eight years ago.
His stable has won five races in 71 starts this year for $278,000 in earnings. Any time one of his horses hits the board, it adds to his racing record of more than $283 million in purse money.
But there is nothing in his barn that will get him to the Derby, Preakness or Belmont, the Triple Crown races that Lukas has won a record 14 times.
When Lukas rolled through the 80s and 90s — winning the Derby four times, the Preakness five times and the Belmont three times during those decades — he dominated the sales rings at Keeneland and Saratoga, backed by powerful owners like Bob Lewis and Bill Young.
Those days are over. Lukas said his five wealthiest and most competitive clients have passed away. Bob Baffert, Todd Pletcher, Steve Asmussen and others have the hot barns today. And the popularity of ownership syndicates also changed the game.
D. Wayne Lukas, 85, made his first trip to the Kentucky Derby in 1981. WDRB Photo/Rick Bozich
“Charlie Whittingham told me when you get a little age on you, people will start thinking you can’t train any more,” Lukas said.
“The fact is I’m out there every morning opening the gate.”
And the fact is that Lukas is still grinding, even though he is nine years older than the oldest baseball manager (Tony LaRussa), 13 years older than the oldest NBA coach (Gregg Popovich) and 16 years older than the oldest NFL coach (Pete Carroll).
Father Time has not stopped him. Neither did COVID-19.
“I think I have at least five or six more good years in me,” Lukas said.
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