Thursday marks the 40th anniversary of D. Wayne Lukas' first career victory at Oaklawn, which means the Hall of Fame trainer could come full circle this weekend at the Hot Springs, Ark., track – a place he calls home for roughly six months each year.
Miss Huntington – Lukas' first career Oaklawn starter – won the $250,000 Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) April 13, 1983. Lukas, 87, bids for another Apple Blossom victory Saturday when he sends out millionaire multiple stakes winner Secret Oath in the $1 million Grade 1 race for older fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles.
Miss Huntington, who was based with Lukas in Southern California, came from the clouds to win the Apple Blossom by a half-length under future Hall of Fame jockey Jorge Velasquez. The 1 1/16-mile race, which attracted a bulky field of 13, was run over a sloppy track.
“We were just starting to ship all over the world and run on everybody's track,” Lukas said Tuesday morning at Oaklawn. “We brought her in here. She was by a horse called Torsion and we thought she was a sprinter, so Jeff, my son (and assistant), and I decided that maybe we should stretch her out and we could maybe steal it, being that she was fast. So, what happened? Turning up the backside, she's last by a block. We end up winning it and Jeff looks at me and says, 'That's the last time we'll sprint that one.' ”
Miss Huntington, campaigned by the now-deceased San Diego Chargers owner Eugene Klein, sparked D. Wayne Lukas' 40-year love affair with Oaklawn. Lukas, then with divisions across the country, returned the following year to win the $500,000 Arkansas Derby (G1) with Althea, a filly, and won 35 races in 1987 to capture his first Oaklawn training title. Lukas has been a fixture at Oaklawn since 2005 and claimed his second local training title in 2011 with 27 victories.
“During the '80s and '90s, we kept analyzing where we could be the most effective for our owners and set up a stable, which would give every horse in the barn a chance to win,” Lukas said. “We took the philosophy that not all of them could handle Santa Anita or Belmont, so we're trying to find tracks that we thought where they could be really effective. This one (Oaklawn) really fell into that. This was a perfect fit for us. To be honest with you, when we came here, we fell in love with it. Randy Bradshaw was my assistant at that time. When I moved him away from here and put him with another division, he ended up buying a house here. He bought a house on the lake. Everybody that we've ever sent in here in a management capacity has fallen in love with Oaklawn. I love it here. I just bought another house. You don't buy houses when you're 87 years old. You're supposed to sell them.”
Lukas said he rented during the last two Oaklawn meetings after selling his home just off Oaklawn property. Lukas now has another home, purchased in January, in the heart of the historic Trivista neighborhood that straddles Oaklawn's north parking lot.
“We're having more damn fun with this one,” Lukas said. “This one, to me, of the houses that we've had, I like this one about as well as any. This house has a real warmth to it. I've used one tank of gas in the last two months. My life is in a four-block area.”
Miss Huntington marked the first of Lukas' 52 career stakes victories to date Oaklawn. Overall, Lukas (351) is the ninth-winningest trainer in Oaklawn history. He has 15 victories this season – his highest total since 2011 – including the $350,000 Azeri Stakes (G2) March 11 with Secret Oath.
The post ‘I Love It Here’: 40 Years After His First Apple Blossom Win, Lukas Is At Home In Hot Springs appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
