The first Kentucky Derby since the death of trainer D. Wayne Lukas has a different vibe
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — D. Wayne Lukas always talked up his latest crop of 2-year-old horses with an eye toward the next Kentucky Derby, telling his wife to get her dress for Oaks day.
“This was what he lived for,” said Todd Pletcher, now an accomplished trainer himself after working for Lukas beginning in 1989. Lukas' eternal optimism about the future was an annual tradition that lasted until June, when the Hall of Fame trainer was hospitalized with a severe blood infection and died at age 89 . The horse racing community gathers this week for the first Kentucky Derby without Lukas, though his presence lingers over everything around the biggest event in horse racing.
"I miss Wayne. I miss talking to him," two-time Triple Crown-winning trainer and longtime friend Bob Baffert said. “The thing is, without him here, it’s a different little vibe.
” His name remains a part of Churchill Downs, with a sign marking the “Lukas Gap” impossible to miss on the way between the fabled track and barn 44, which he occupied for more than four decades. Baffert wanted it badly, he said, but it's now where Mike Maker's horses are. It's fitting because Maker is one of countless horsemen now thriving after learning under Lukas.
Pletcher, who has won the Derby twice and has the favorite this year in Renegade, is one of the strongest branches on Lukas' racing version of a coaching tree. “It’s an incredible tree, really, when you look at all the different branches and how many people are currently training that either worked for Wayne or worked for me or worked for one of the other assistants (who worked) for Wayne,” Pletcher said. “It just shows you how many lives Wayne directly or indirectly touched.