LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- At the call to post for the 148th Kentucky Derby on Saturday afternoon, one horse will not be there: Ethereal Road.

On Derby morning, Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas talked about the decision to scratch his contender and gave one simple explanation:

He just wasn't ready.

"I made an effort to have him ready but I don't think I did a good job," Lukas said. "I just didn't feel he was doing well."

Lukas was honest, practical and level-headed when he assessed Ethereal Road's chances of winning the Derby, even before the scratch.

"First of all, you've got to be realistic, especially at my age," he said. "Could I win it? No. I didn't think he could, frankly. I thought he would maybe get a big piece of it."

But at least, Lukas thought, it would be fun to have the horse run in the Derby just to see how big that "piece" could be. 

That is, until he saw Ethereal Road's recent performance.

"Then, this week, he didn't train that well, either," Lukas said. "You know, he got flat and he didn't have that usual energy."

That's when it all came down to the wire.

"So, the decision I made — and I made it by myself — was if I win the Derby, I eliminated the next couple of events because I couldn't run him — Bang! Bang! Bang! — like I'd been doing," Lukas said. "So, I thought I'll skip the Derby and then I still have the option for the Preakness and even beyond."

It was a hard decision, Lukas said, but not for himself. 

"You think it's you when you first start but it's not you," he said. "It's the clients, the help. It's everybody else. So, I like the fact that everybody else can celebrate, especially (Robert and Stacy Mitchell, owners of Briland Farm). They're breeding two or three horses a year, for crying out loud. You talk about catching lightning in a bottle. I trained the mother. I trained the grandmother. They were nice horses, but they've really caught one here."

For now, Lukas said his decision on whether Ethereal Road will run in the Preakness Stakes will depend entirely on his performance.

"If he comes back and starts to act like his old self, that would be it," he said.

But regardless, he said he has no reason to complain. He's had the privilege to train some real winners and he sees more on the horizon.

"It makes it easier," he said. "I don't think I could get up if I didn't have a prospect of maybe a better horse every. ... I don't know how much more I'd push this.

"I said I don't want to do it beyond 95 anyhow."

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