At 86, Lukas Ready for First Weekend in May

These days trainer D. Wayne Lukas admits to a bit of an easier schedule.

Make no mistake, the 86-year-old trainer still gets up at 3:15 a.m. each day to head to the barn, but he has cut himself some slack on the front end of that equation.

"I used to try to go to bed by 10 p.m.," Lukas said, "but I try to go to bed by 8:30 or nine now. By nine if I can."

While talking the morning of May 3 in his office at his Churchill Downs barn, Lukas "confessed" to that small change in recent years. On the wall outside that office, four green and white signs form corners that celebrate Lukas' four Kentucky Derby (G1) winners: Winning Colors, in 1988; Thunder Gulch, 1995; Grindstone, 1996; and Charismatic, 1999. 

This weekend he'll send out his 50th Derby starter; a longshot named Ethereal Road , and will be represented by one of the top Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) contenders in Secret Oath , a grade 3 winner who enters off a third-place finish against males in the Arkansas Derby (G1). He got his Derby week started with a win May 3 when Mohaylady  won the third race at Churchill, a claiming event.

Yes that demanding early morning schedule continues to pay dividends for Lukas, who sent out his first Derby starter in 1981, Partez, who finished third; and again will compete in the race 41 years later. Lukas still loves training horses, but make no mistake, part of the attraction includes competing at a high level. He's been energized by the emergence of these two 3-year-olds.

"I have a passion to try to develop a good horse," Lukas said. "If I had to train 25 average or below-average horses, I don't know that I'd have the passion to get up (and do this)... Playing in the big arenas is the only place I want to play. If I couldn't play in the big arenas, I think after a year or two I'd say enough is enough."

Then, with a smile that suggested that for him enough might never be enough, he added, "But then again I got good 2-year-olds this year."

Beyond the thrill of developing a top horse, Lukas earlier this year said that he enjoys seeing his owners enjoy big wins and big races—a joy that has grown later in his career. Secret Oath is campaigned by her breeder, Briland Farm. Ethereal Road is owned by Aaron Sones and Julie Gilbert.

These days Lukas feels closer to his fellow trainers, which also makes a morning on the backstretch pleasant.

"I enjoy the camaraderie with the other trainers; I have a great camaraderie with all of them. When I first came around, I didn't feel that," Lukas said. "I felt there was a certain amount of jealousy, especially with me coming over from the Quarter Horse side. But I have good camaraderie now and I enjoy the people." 

Working into his 70s and then 80s has just happened. Lukas can't remember ever thinking much about how long he would condition horses.

"I don't think I would have thought about that. When you're young, you don't think about anything like that," Lukas said. "I thought we'd be in a bunch of these types of races. We had a lot of success in the Quarter Horse game and we were confident, maybe cocky, that we'd have a lot of success in this too."

Should Ethereal Road upset the Derby Saturday, Lukas will be the oldest trainer ever to win the race; surpassing Art Sherman, who was 77 when he sent out California Chrome   to victory. But on a morning five days out from the Derby, Lukas found himself thinking about younger trainers like John Ortiz making their first Derby start with Arkansas Derby runner-up Barber Road . He noted that of the thousands of horses from each foal crop, the people associated with nearly all of those horses dream of the Derby but at most only 20 make it.

"Just making the Derby? That's an achievement," Lukas said. "Guys like John Ortiz that are here for the first time, it's an achievement for them to qualify a horse. That's not a small deal. So to get a horse in, to qualify one, is an achievement from a training standpoint." 

On that point, D. Wayne Lukas would know.