January 15, 2025

Lukas back on top following Oxbow’s Preakness win

Last updated: 5/19/13 1:19 PM


Back in the 1980s and ’90s when trainer D. Wayne Lukas was
winning Triple Crown races with astonishing regularity, the catch-phrase “D.
Wayne off the plane” followed him from track to track as he made his hit-and-run
assaults on racetracks across America with a lineup of assistants that included
Todd Pletcher, Mark Hennig, Kiaran McLaughlin and Dallas Stewart.

The glory days of Lukas had seemingly subsided in the new
millennium with the passing of wealthy clients like Eugene Klein, W. T. Young
and Bob Lewis. In recent years, Lukas had geared down his operation and had
become more of a fringe player on racing’s biggest stage.

That all changed Saturday when the 77-year-old Hall of
Famer saddled his record-14th Triple Crown race winner, Oxbow, for the 138th
Preakness for legendary Calumet Farm, which had similarly faded from the
forefront of major Thoroughbred racing.

It was the first spring classic winner for Lukas since
Commendable took the Belmont Stakes in 2000, and the Preakness score by Oxbow
ended a drought in the classics for Calumet dating all the way back to Forward
Pass’ victory in the 1968 Preakness.

Lukas and his nine-horse contingent, that also included
Dixie upsetter Skyring and his personal pony, were on the highway before dawn
Sunday morning, heading back to their home base at Churchill Downs. Then it’s on
to the Belmont Stakes in three weeks with Oxbow and possibly seventh-place
finisher Will Take Charge. Titletown Five, Lukas’ third Preakness entrant who
finished last, will run in shorter races for the rest of his three-year-old
campaign.

“I’ve always rode with the horses all my career,” said
Lukas, who now has six Preakness winners, one behind Robert Walden for the
all-time record in the middle jewel of the Triple Crown. “I used to go on the
airplanes and stand there with them all the time. We don’t fly much anymore.”

He’s “the man on the van” these days, having ridden in a
pickup truck for more than 12 hours to Pimlico on Tuesday and scheduled to
follow the same routine back home Sunday.

“I’ll get him home at feeding time just about,” Lukas explained.
“By the time I get him home and give him a bath it’ll be right about 5 o’clock
(EDT).
They put a bucket seat where I ride on kind of an air-ride slide thing. It’s
like riding in a boat somewhere on the waves.”

This Preakness was a serious helping of history for the
connections of the winner. In addition to Lukas and Calumet, jockey Gary Stevens
capped an unlikely comeback at age 50 by winning his third Preakness. His
previous victories came aboard Silver
Charm (1997) and Point Given (2001).

Last year at this time, Stevens was working in Baltimore as
a TV analyst for NBC and HRTV. Lukas said all week he was thrilled to have the
Hall of Famer aboard Oxbow and was encouraged by his Derby performance.

“He’s so on top of all this stuff,” Lukas praised. “He’ll tell
you the fractions, who was laying fourth on the backside and everything. He’s
very into this, very into this.”

Oxbow, a son of Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Awesome Again,
is Lukas’ first Preakness winner since Charismatic in 1999. His other Preakness
winners were Timber Country (1995), Tabasco Cat (1994), Tank’s Prospect (1985)
and Codex (1980).

Over those glory days, there was a sometimes
not-so-friendly rivalry with colleague Bob Baffert, who saddled Govenor Charlie
to a disappointing eighth-place finish Saturday. It was Baffert’s 14th Preakness
starter (five winners), well behind Lukas’ record total of 40.

“Over the years a lot of people thought that Baffert and I
had a rivalry, when actually we come from pretty similar backgrounds and we’re
pretty good friends,” Lukas said. “It was really significant yesterday when he
came down and congratulated me right after the race. A mutual friend of ours
said that when his horse didn’t look like he was getting it done at the
half-mile pole, Bob and a friend were jumping up and down and saying, ‘Go get
’em, Lukey.'”

Lukas said almost immediately after the Preakness that he
hoped to try Oxbow in the 1 1/2-mile Belmont Stakes.

“I was trying to be politically correct all week, but I
thought (Oxbow) was the toughest horse. I thought if there was some adversity or
something went wrong, he had the best chance to overcome,” Lukas admitted. “Will
Take Charge is so big that he has to get a clear run. He can’t check, stop, take
a bump or anything. The other horse (Titletown Five) we knew was going to need a
career quantum leap forward.”



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