Lukas Back At Oaklawn: ‘I Feel Better Here Than Any Place’

If it's hard to keep a good man down, what about a great trainer?

The legendary D. Wayne Lukas, 85, has returned to Oaklawn, his winter base for more than a decade, after recently losing another one of his longtime prominent clients in an era of super trainers, declining foal crops and COVID-19.

But “The Coach” is still coaching, among other things, overseeing a downsized stable – 27 horses – mentoring two 20-something female exercise riders and continuing to take his runners to the track each morning on a pony.

“We're down in numbers, like most barns, other than two or three,” said Lukas, a former high school basketball coach who was Oaklawn's leading trainer in 1987 and 2011. “Some of them are up, but we're not. I think what we've got will give us a competitive meet, but I don't have any grandiose ideas that we're going to have a dominant meet.”

A four-time Eclipse Award winner as the country's outstanding trainer (1985, 1986, 1987 and 1994), Lukas has several well-bred young prospects, notably Nov. 27 Churchill Downs maiden special weights graduate Lock Up, unraced My Favorite Uncle and Ram.

Lock Up, a 3-year-old by Maclean's Music, is a half-brother to Grade 1 winner Sinister Minister. My Favorite Uncle is a 3-year-old son of champions Uncle Mo and Storm Song. Ram, a 3-year-old ridgling by 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, is a half-brother to millionaire Coal Front, winner of Oaklawn's $500,000 Razorback Handicap (G3) for older horses in 2019 for trainer Todd Pletcher. Lock Up is nominated to the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes Jan. 22, Oaklawn's first of four Kentucky Derby points races.

“Lock Up just broke his maiden, but he did it pretty impressively,” Lukas said. “You look at that video, it was very impressive and the time was excellent. I'm sure his sheet numbers are going to be pretty good.”

Ram is winless in four starts, but did run second in a Sept. 3 Churchill Downs maiden special weight route. The winner, King Fury, returned to win the $98,000 Street Sense Overnight Stakes Oct. 25 at Churchill Downs before running seventh in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) Nov. 6 at Keeneland.

“I'm looking for Ram to especially improve this spring and maybe get in the fray a little bit if everything goes good,” Lukas said. “He's got some ability.”

Ram was purchased for $375,000 at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale by the now-deceased Robert C. Baker and William L. Mack, who had previously campaigned Grade 1 winners Strong Mandate, Sporting Chance and Dublin with Lukas, as well Super Saks, winner of the $150,000 Carousel Stakes for older female sprinters in 2016 at Oaklawn.

Lukas said Baker's recent death represents the loss of another “key client,” following Eugene Klein (died in 1990), W.T. Young (2004), Bob Lewis (2006) and Bob French (2013). Some of Lukas' best horses for Klein, Young, Lewis and French included champions and/or Classic winners Lady's Secret, Tank's Prospect, Flanders, Grindstone, Charismatic, Timber Country, Serena's Song, Capote and Landaluce.

“I'm from the old school,” Lukas said. “The five major clients that I've had have all died. That hurts. You don't replace Bob Lewis, somebody like that, at least in this age. That's five guys that were 100 percent behind me in the sale ring and everything. But we're here, 85 years old, on a pony every day. What the hell?”

Lukas owns or co-owns a handful of his horses, including the maiden Atoka, a 4-year-old Union Rags colt with a string of bullet workouts at Oaklawn. Lukas' right-hand man remains longtime assistant Sebastian “Bas” Nicholl, while exercise riders Kaylee Crotchett and Jade Cunningham are learning the ropes under the Hall of Fame trainer. Crotchett, 22, said she will make her riding debut aboard Mr. Peterkin, a Lukas-trained 3-year-old maiden, early in the 2021 Oaklawn meeting.

“I'm trying to make Jade a top exercise rider,” Lukas said. “She's tall. She's really come along great. Kaylee, I'm going to ride.”

Lukas, of course, already has an immaculate track record as a teacher. Several of his former assistants, including Pletcher, Mike Maker, Dallas Stewart and three-time Oaklawn champion Bobby Barnett (1994, 1995 and 1996), became stars after going out on their own.

“I'm still coaching,” Lukas said. “A couple of guys that have left me recently, they are calling me on the phone, trying to get advice on this and that. I think once a coach, always a coach. I don't think you ever get away from that. I find myself even saying things where I don't belong out there with some young guy. I'll say, 'What don't you try this with that horse?' I find myself doing that.”

Lukas has been sidelined in recent years with heart and back problems and took a brief sabbatical in August because of COVID-19. But it's hard to keep this great trainer down.

“I'm 100 percent,” Lukas said. “In fact, I feel really good. My energy is better here than any place where I go. I think it's the air. I think it's the oxygen. What do they say? The trees filter the air. But I have more energy and go on less sleep here than any place I go. I've got a beautiful home in the woods in Kentucky, but I feel better here than any place. You see why people come here and retire.”

Lukas has a home adjacent to the northeast corner of Oaklawn property. He has 324 victories, including 47 stakes, in his Oaklawn career.

Overall, Lukas has amassed 4,842 victories and $282,785,442 in purse earnings in his career, according to Equibase, racing's official data gathering organization. Lukas was a 1999 inductee into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame

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Crotchett To Make Race Riding Debut At Oaklawn After Galloping For Lukas, Catalano

Kaylee Crotchett, an exercise rider at Oaklawn for Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, said Sunday morning that she plans to make her riding debut early in the 2021 meeting that is scheduled to begin Jan. 22.

Crotchett, 22, was raised in Henryville, Ind., about 25 miles north of Churchill Downs, and has been galloping horses for approximately 5 ½ years.

“I'm really excited right now,” Crotchett said. “I'm sure the day of the race, my adrenaline will get to me, my nerves, but this is something I've worked so hard for.”

Crotchett said her first scheduled mount is Mr. Peterkin, a 3-year-old Ghostzapper colt who is winless in six career starts for Lukas. Mr. Peterkin, under Crotchett, worked a half-mile in :53.20 over a fast track Sunday morning in advance of his 2021 debut.

Crotchett said she grew up trail riding and began galloping horses at 16, initially working at a small training center in Indiana before moving to Churchill Downs to work as an exercise rider for trainer Buff Bradley. She spent approximately a year as an exercise rider for Lukas before going to work as an exercise rider for trainer Wayne Catalano early in the 2020 Oaklawn meeting. Crotchett said she reunited with Lukas in September at Churchill Downs.

“Kaylee's ready to ride,” Lukas said Sunday morning. “For two years now, I've been working on the gate with her and she's getting away real well. She's (100) pounds. That helps. She sits a horse beautifully. Again, it will get down to those girls that are light like that, finishing. I told her to get on that mechanical exerciser and get that finish, get strong. I'm going to put her on a couple and I expect her to do well.”

Crotchett said she had hoped to make her riding debut last year, specifically in early May at the end of Oaklawn meeting, but racing's uncertain landscape because of COVID-19 contributed to delaying her debut.

“Things have just been tough with the pandemic and everything, so I just took a step back,” Crotchett said. “I came back and worked for Wayne, and he said he was going to help me. I just kind of sat still and came back here. Hopefully, things will get going and I'll have a good meet.”

Crotchett said she will not have an agent to begin her riding career.

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