Saratoga Notebook, Sponsored by NYRA Bets: Lukas Would Relish a Special Birthday Gift

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Without hesitation Sunday morning, Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas said he knows what he will be doing Monday, his 89th birthday.

“Training horses,” he said. “I got two in, and I'll see if I can make it a special day by trying to get those things at least closer or win one. I told Laurie, my wife, 'for a birthday present, I'd like see one of them jump up and win.'”

A victory on closing day of the Saratoga Race Course season would enable Lukas to have a positive end to what he said has been a less-than-satisfying summer. He entered Sunday with a 1-5-2 record from 29 starts.

“The nice thing is, I still enjoy getting on that pony and riding out there and training and seeing the results and everything,” he said. “But it has been very frustrating from a standpoint of where I thought I could take some of these horses.”

Four of those five seconds came in 2-year-old maiden special weight races, which Lukas said may show that his youngsters are on the verge of producing some victories.

“I didn't get that one, Ripped (City of Light), even started, and he's one that we really think is special,” Lukas said. “I hope, to have a big fall. We should come up strong in the fall, and then I'm comfortable, if I can just develop them at Hot Springs over the winter.”

Ever the optimist, Lukas was promoting his 2-year-olds last summer and predicting great things for 2024. One of the colts he was touting was My Racehorse's Seize the Grey (Arrogate). Seize the Grey, who broke his maiden in July and was third in the Skidmore Stakes. In May, Seize the Grey won the GI Preakness Stakes, making Lukas the oldest trainer to win a Triple Crown race.

“Laurie reminded me of that today,” he said. “She reminded me that we won a Classic this year. I was complaining. I have a tendency to think that they all have to win.”

Seize the Grey was seventh in the GI Belmont Stakes at Saratoga on June 8 and finished fourth in the GII Jim Dandy Stakes on July 27. The decision was made to bypass the GI DraftKings Travers Stakes on Aug 24 and prepare him for the $1-million GI Pennsylvania Derby on Sept. 21 at Parx.

“We've got to sneak over there with him,” Lukas said. “That would be another nice one to get.”

Lukas has always been forward-looking and he said another Seize the Grey scenario is possible.

“I think that we've got a great shot to win some Classics next year,” he said. “I really like our 2-year-olds. I know I've been saying that right along, but we bought horses that are definitely Classic-type horses, and we've asked them to do some things that aren't in their wheelhouse like, 5 1/2  furlongs, six furlongs and stuff like that. I think that as they develop this fall, and they look like they're going in the right direction to me, that they're big, sound horses, I think we have a chance to really step up and have a big spring. I'm hoping for a big spring, and turning 90.”

When he was at the top of the sport, Lukas managed a nationwide stable stocked with dozens of horses. At this point in his career, he feels that 40 horses is enough.

“I was concerned five, six years ago,” he said. “When you get a little age on you, people start turning to the younger people. I thought that was coming, but before I came up here, I turned down 17 new ones.”

Lukas said he did accept four more from MyRacehorse.

“My major clients that have got a large stable already haven't backed up a bit,” he said, referring to BC Stable. “They're going right into the sale this fall with a vengeance.”

Lukas's final starter of the season will be Innovate (Authentic) in the GI Hopeful Stakes–a race he has won a record eight times from 35 starts–the 10th race Monday.

“He's a maiden, but he ran a nice second,” Lukas said. “He's a developing horse. The way I looked at that, he doesn't know he was second. He was flying at the end there. If he won, we would have said, 'Well, we got to point him for the Hopeful.' He didn't win, but we're still pointing for the Hopeful. I've done that before.”

End of An Era as Rice Approaches Retirement

Although he hasn't made it official yet, Harry Rice thinks Monday might be his final day as a NYRA valet at Saratoga Race Course. He has talked about retirement before, but he said this could be the year he steps away from a job he has had–working with and for jockeys–for nearly 50 years.

“I've had a great run,” he said.

Rice, 66, said he has been aiming to retire at the end of the 2025 Saratoga season. He said he likely will leave sooner if a contract with the union that represents valets and the people who work in the silks room completes negotiations on a new contract with NYRA. The contract may include incentives for him to retire. Rice is the shop steward.

With a friendly, outgoing personality, Rice is a well-known figure at the NYRA tracks. That is especially true at Saratoga where jockeys and valets walk through the crowd to the paddock and back to the jocks' dressing room after each race. It often seems that everyone knows Rice and vice versa.

Rice knows his time to leave is approaching, but isn't anxious to go.

“I enjoy it,” he said. “I enjoy the people I work with.”

Rice's father was a pressman at the New York Times and had a part-time job with the Pinkerton security company at the NYRA tracks. Rice said he could have followed his father into the newspaper business, but opted for racing.

Harry Rice | Sarah Andrew

“I started out as a Pinkerton for like a day and then I went to the White Caps,” he said. “I stayed there until I graduated high school and then I started at NYRA. My first day in the jock's room was January 6, 1976. I've just enjoyed it so much. And the people you meet and friendships you make, it's good, and it will be sad.  I'll always come back up here.”

Through the years, Rice has gotten to know dozens of jockeys who have competed at the NYRA tracks.

“I got to work for a lot of great guys, and then work for a lot of great jockeys,” he said.  “It goes all the way back to Jean Cruguet, then Mike Smith, Mike Luzzi and I'm working for Frankie Dettori now. I've had relations with these guys for 30 years. I'm still very close with Cruguet, Chris McCarron, Corey Nakatani, Rajiv Maragh. I don't want to leave any of the guys out. They were all good. And steeplechase guys.”

Rice has already started the transition toward retirement and recognizes that he will have more flexibility in his life.

“I tend bar two days a week in a place, Lee's Tavern, in Staten Island,” he said. “It's a very famous neighborhood bar with tremendous pizza. Then I'm going to make some trips. I'm going to go visit some racetracks that I haven't been to. And I'd like to go to Oaklawn and Del Mar, and some other ones. And then I will always come up here. I want to sit with the guys I've known for years from all over the place underneath that tree with a cooler. I'm looking forward to that. And just looking forward to take it a little easier because it's a grind.”

While people who know him wonder whether Rice may postpose retirement until next year, he said the settlement of the contract will be a bittersweet turning point for him.

“It's not only your livelihood,” he said, “but the racetrack is your life.”

Stewart Has a Pair in the Hopeful

Trainer Dallas Stewart has had a solid Saratoga season with a 3-3-4 record from 20 starts. He will try to pick up a big prize Monday with a pair of runners in the closing-day GI Hopeful Stakes.

Stewart will saddle Tough Catch (Complexity) and Smoken Wicked (Bobby's Wicked One) in the seven-furlong test. Tough Catch won a July 13 maiden special weight and, in his only local appearance, Smoken Wicked was third, beaten 3 1/2 lengths, in the GII Saratoga Special on Aug. 10.

The veteran trainer is a partner in Tough Catch with S.O.K. Racing, Gervais Racing, On Our Own Stable and Zak Stables.

“Very nice horse,” Stewart said. “Trained great at Churchill. Came in here, I don't even think we worked here, but walked over there and beat a nice field. Did it the right way. He's just been training steady with a nice work pattern going up to the race. We know it's a great race. Lot of good horses in there. He's ready.”

Tough Catch was purchased for $280,000 at the OBS April sale of 2-year-olds.

“We had others that we had liked, too,” Stewart said. “Then we got to him, and he was an extremely nice-looking colt. Just moved good, worked good. Kind of what we were looking for and hopefully we would get him in the price range. He fit what we wanted.”

The unexpected bonus for Stewart and his partners is that Complexity has emerged as a top first-class sire.

“We didn't know much about the Complexitys at the time,” Steward said, “and then they just started popping: boom, boom, boom.”

Smoken Wicked is a Louisiana-bred who sold for $38,000.

“He's a horse that Murray Valene bought,” Stewart said. “I've been training for him for a long time. I've had like seven or eight champions, for him, Louisiana-breds. He's an ex polo player, so he picks his own horses out. He knows horses, and he saw this horse as a yearling at a sale in Louisiana and bought him.

After the colt broke his maiden by 7 1/2 lengths at Evangeline Downs on June 1, Valene sent him to Stewart in Kentucky. He finished second in the Bashford Manor Stakes at Churchill Downs on June 30 at 32-1 and earned a spot in the string of 10 Stewart brought to Saratoga to start the meet.

“He ran good there, comes here runs good in the Special and pushes on to the Hopeful,” Stewart said. “He's had a race over the track. Good work. Big, strong, impressive looking. Looks like a 3-year-old, matter of fact. Should run well. Seven furlongs should fit him very well.”