LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — D. Wayne Lukas, the cowboy-hatted former schoolteacher who revolutionized horse training and helped redefine thoroughbred racing in the modern era, died Saturday in Louisville after a brief illness. He was 89.

"Wayne dedicated his life to Thoroughbred racing—not only through his unmatched success on the track, but through his impact on the people within it," a statement released by the family on Sunday said. "He shaped generations of horsemen and horsewomen, and helped grow the sport with his passion, vision, and leadership."

A four-time Kentucky Derby winner and 20-time Breeders’ Cup champion, Lukas didn’t just train champions — he trained the sport itself, reshaping everything from barn management to the way top horses are scouted, shipped, and prepared. His influence gallops through every stable that ever tried to run like a business and every young trainer still trying to outrun his shadow.

And up until nearly the end, Lukas could still be found doing what he loved — astride his pony at Churchill Downs before dawn, leading a string of horses onto the track as the sun broke over the horizon.

"He probably has had the most remarkable career that anybody’s ever put together," Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott said.

He was the oldest trainer ever to win a Triple Crown race, claiming the 2024 Preakness Stakes at age 88 with Seize the Grey. But as recently as this past Derby, Lukas was still climbing into the saddle — with a little help — to get a look at his Justify colt, Just Steel.

“The fire burns 24-7,” Lukas said, a few days before the 2025 Derby.

From courts to colts

Born Sept. 2, 1935, in Antigo, Wisconsin, Lukas didn’t begin his professional life in the racing world. He earned a master’s degree in education from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and spent nine years as a high school basketball coach in La Crosse.

But horses were always part of his life — first quarter horses, which he trained with national success in California, then thoroughbreds, to which he switched full-time in the late 1970s. In both arenas, he introduced a level of professionalism, intensity, and innovation that hadn’t been seen before.

He was the first trainer to reach more than $100 million in career purse earnings and won the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer four times.

“He brought a corporate model to a cowboy sport,” said Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, who took the same quarter-horse route to thoroughbred success.

Lukas quickly became known for his precision, presentation, and production. His barn was immaculate. His staff, largely hand-picked, became the gold standard.

His horses were sleek and shipped by plane long before that was common. “D. Wayne off the plane,” the saying went — not always with admiration — but rarely without a winner.

In 1985, Lukas gave Gary Stevens the Arkansas Derby mount on his Kentucky Derby hopeful Tank’s Prospect. He told Stevens he’d pick up him at his home for a ride to the airport.

“I’m waiting for Wayne to show up and this big black stretch limousine shows up in front of my house in Arcadia, Calif.,” Stevens said. “I looked out and said, ‘I guess this is my ride.’ And I went out, and Wayne was dressed in a green, ‘Wayne Lukas’ cashmere sweater, and I got in and we chatted on the way to the airport. … We went in a different entrance than I’d ever been in before. And all of a sudden, the electronic gate slid open and we drive out on the tarmac, and I saw a jet sitting there with a “W L” on the back of it. We get in, and there was a bed in the back and he had some coffee and donuts and we chatted for a while and he said, ‘Go on back and get some rest. If we do well tomorrow, get used to this.’”

Listening to Stevens tell the story, Lukas smiled and said, “What he forgot to tell you is that I told him if he didn’t win the race, he’d have to find a way home.”

Those were heady days. They won that race, but it would be three years before Lukas finally won the Kentucky Derby.

A golden run

His first taste of classic success came in 1980, when Codex carried jockey Ángel Cordero Jr. to a controversial Preakness win over Genuine Risk.

But it was Winning Colors — the gray filly who captured the 1988 Kentucky Derby — who cemented Lukas’ place in racing lore.

That Derby win came after more than a dozen tries. But when it arrived, it unlocked a torrent of victories – and a new level of celebrity.

Lukas liked to tell the story of the morning after that race, He was sprinting to catch a commercial flight to Los Angeles for an appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. He barely made the plane and when the other passengers saw him, they broke into applause.

“They’re glad you made it,” the flight attendance said to him.

“No,” the pilot corrected her. “He just won the Kentucky Derby.”

“And everybody on the plane knew it,” Lukas said, telling the story 30 years later. “That was really something.”

Lukas wound up getting bumped from the Carson show. They told him if he waited around another night, they’d get him on. He wasn't waiting.

“Wayne Lukas is always the headliner,” Stevens said.

And from then on in racing, he was.

Thunder Gulch, Grindstone, and Charismatic followed as Kentucky Derby winners in the 1990s, along with six Preakness wins, four Belmont victories, and 15 Triple Crown race wins, including a sweep of all three in 1995 with two different horses.

He became the face of the Breeders’ Cup, winning 20 races at the championship event — more than any other trainer in history. And his trainees won 25 Eclipse Awards, including three Horses of the Year: Lady’s Secret (1986), Criminal Type (1990), and Charismatic (1999).

And even that wasn’t his only legacy.

The Lukas Tree

Lukas spawned the most prolific “coaching tree” the sport has ever seen. Todd Pletcher, Kiaran McLaughlin, Dallas Stewart, Mike Maker, George Weaver, Mark Hennig, and Ron Moquett all emerged from Lukas’ tutelage. Bob Baffert, who would later win two Triple Crowns, modeled much of his own operation after Lukas.

“Wayne Lukas was always the bar,” Baffert once said. “And he still is.”

Another assistant, Bas Nicholl, took over training of Lukas' stable when he relinquished it late last week. 

But Lukas also nurtured relationships beyond racing. His barn was a gathering place. His memory a vault of stories. Good Morning America host Joan Lunden fell off one of his horses horse while filming a segment. Clint Eastwood once rode one of Lukas’ horses in his film, Pale Rider. Toby Keith was a close friend. So was Bob Knight.

And if you lingered at the barn office long enough, he might show you a page of poetry — sometimes written to his wife Laurie, sometimes inspired by his beloved dogs. The fierce competitor, it turned out, had a tender streak.

Tragedy and tenacity

Lukas’ life wasn’t without heartbreak. His only son, Jeff, was his right hand at the barn until 1993, when a runaway horse, Tabasco Cat, struck him at Santa Anita, causing a devastating brain injury. Jeff never fully recovered and died in 2016.

Lukas also battled COVID-19 in 2020, recovering despite his age and preexisting conditions.

But even those setbacks didn’t keep him from the track.

“To retire would be bad for my health,” he joked more than once.

He rose at 3:30 a.m. every morning. He rode Boomer or Rip or Scotch — whatever pony was sound and slow — out to the track. He watched every gallop. And when asked about slowing down, he’d reference Toby Keith’s line: Don’t let the old man in.

“Reality sets in when I creak and moan and try to get out of bed in the morning," he said during an interview in his barn three years ago. “But I don’t feel old.”

Some lines from one of his poems, maybe, said it best: Today I will love each and every one as if they were truly mine / as I realize and know I’m running out of time.

A lasting legacy

In his final years, Lukas was widely regarded as the elder statesman of the sport — still sharp, still competitive, and still widely respected.

"You inherit a certain amount of responsibility if you’ve been here a long time and you have a wall like this," Lukas said, turning to his barn with a list of champions that stretched a classic distance.

Everybody marveled that he was still riding his horse onto the track at age 89. His reply: “Getting around on a horse is easy. It’s walking that’s harder.”

His barn wall at Churchill Downs bore a framed version of the “Cowboy Code.” The last line: Finish what you start.

If anyone ever did, it was Lukas. He donated his collection of racing trophies and memorabilia to the Kentucky Derby Museum. But even after that, he kept winning more. At age 86, he won the Kentucky Oaks, 40 years after his first Oaks win.

But his greatest trophy was the sport itself, reshaped in his image — cleaner, sharper, more efficient, and more ambitious.

“The Kentucky Derby is always better when Wayne Lukas is in it,” Todd Pletcher said.

For nearly a half century, it was.

More on D. Wayne Lukas:

Scott Davenport praises storied career of friend D. Wayne Lukas as trainer retires

Coffee with Crawford | D. Wayne Lukas never let the old man in — now he’s turning for home

Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas retires from racing amid serious health issues

Seize the Grey wins the Preakness for D. Wayne Lukas and ends Mystik Dan’s Triple Crown bid

At 88 and still in the saddle, Lukas to receive Derby Museum's first Lifetime Achievement Award

BOZICH | COVID-19 could not stop D. Wayne Lukas from savoring Kentucky Derby week

CRAWFORD | Lukas is back in the saddle for another Derby week after beating back COVID-19

BOZICH | Virus delay drives D. Wayne Lukas's Kentucky Derby dream

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