D. Wayne Lukas

In response to the TDN series 'How I Got Hooked on Horse Racing,' we received the following letter from a former Thoroughbred owner who offers his own anecdotes about Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas. I really enjoyed Christina Bossinakis's professional profile in the Thoroughbred Dailey News today. Her history with D. Wayne Lukas hit a cord with me. I am a retired businessman, University of Wisconsin-Madison grad, and long-ago owner of a horse trained by D. Wayne Lukas. In 1986, I had a horse named Hurdy Gurdy Man that...

Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, who won his seventh GI Preakness Stakes in 2024 with recently retired new Gainesway stallion Seize the Grey (Arrogate), has two of his other highly regarded 2024 stakes performers training at Oaklawn Park for a return to the races. BC Stables, LLC and Henry Schmueckle's Just Steel (Justify), winner of the 2023 Ed Brown Stakes and runner-up in Oaklawn's 2024 GI Arkansans Derby, GIII Southwest Stakes, and Smarty Jones Stakes, emerged from a fifth-place finish in the Preakness with a right-front leg fracture and subsequently...

Without a doubt, I did not have the most conventional entry into horseracing. Growing up in Montreal, Canada, I was much more likely to have ventured into the world of harness racing rather than its Thoroughbred counterpart. Courtesy of Blue Bonnets (later re-named Hippodrome de Montreal), Montreal's racing landscape hadn't seen Thoroughbred racing since 1973, an era in which racetrack attendance in the province was at its zenith. One of three daughters of Greek immigrant parents, I simply did not have the access to horses or racing like many others...

Two-time Eclipse champion sprinter Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper) will be covered by MGISW Seize the Grey (Arrogate) this upcoming breeding season. The announcement was made by Resolute Racing's John Stewart on the social media site X Sunday evening. Goodnight Olive, who won her final start in 2023 in the GI PNC Bank Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint, sold to Resolute for $6,000,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Night of the Stars sale shortly after. She was bred to Not This Time for her first cover due early next year. Seize the Grey...

Seize the Grey (Arrogate), the winner the GI Preakness Stakes and GI Pennsylvania Derby, will point directly to the GI Big Ass Fans Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile on Saturday Nov. 2 at Del Mar, the Daily Racing Form first reported on Tuesday, Oct. 15. After taking home his second Grade I score, Seize the Grey's Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas left the door open to go to the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic, but after conferring with ownership groups MyRacehorse and Gainesway Farm that the Dirt Mile would...

After a horse named Causes Trouble (Creative Cause) broke down in the Aug. 24 Parx Dash at Parx Race Course and had to be euthanized, a video circulated that showed that the turf course was in abysmal condition. The video showed that there were numerous holes in the turf course and that the grass itself looked like something you might see in a vacant lot. Just without the broken bottles. There were as many weeds as there were blades of grass. "It's always been known as a bad course, but...

BENSALEM, PA -- Consider it a belated birthday present, Coach. Having turned 89 less than three weeks ago, the legendary Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas pulled yet another rabbit out of his hat, saddling GI Preakness Stakes hero Seize the Grey (Arrogate) to a victory in Saturday's GI Pennsylvania Derby, a result arguably more surprising than his off odds of 4.30-1 might suggest. The $300,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga purchase was only seventh to 'TDN Rising Star' Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) in the GI Toyota Blue Grass Stakes in April,...

Saratoga works for many reasons. The combination of great racing, a historic venue, iconic races like the GI Whitney S. and the GI Travers are reasons why more than one million fans file through the turnstiles every meet and the handle for the season now tops $800 million. But Saratoga's success also has a lot to do with its exclusivity. It's only open for eight weeks and there are just 40 racing days. That, as much as anything else, is what makes it special. There's an opening day and there...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - In a summer like no other at Saratoga Race Course --words that are appropriate most every year--which concluded Monday, there was noteworthy change that blended nicely into the tradition that make America's most important race meet so popular. To wit: A year ago, the main story of the meet, was the number of catastrophic injuries - 14 - which horses suffered in training and competition. With even more strict safety measures in place, there was single racing fatality and one in training during the meeting. Though...

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...

1st-SAR, $100K, Msw, 2yo, 5 1/2fT, 12:35 p.m. ET. BC Stables went to $850,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale to acquire CODE OF JUSTICE (Into Mischief). Sent to Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, the colt is the first foal for GSP Meal Ticket (Malibu Moon), who was picked up in a private sale by John Mulholland's Mulholland Springs. Now a 10-year-old, the dam is responsible for Code of Justice's younger full-sister Peanutbutternjelly and she foaled a colt by Gun Runner Apr. 14. Herself a half-sister to MSW...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N. Y. - Before summer at Saratoga began, eternally young Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas was confident his young horses would make him proud before the 40-day meet ended on Labor Day. The clock is ticking. Lukas has had one disappointment after another with his 2-year-olds. "I thought that a couple of them that I liked would have broken their maidens by now," Lukas said, sitting in his office at his barn at the Oklahoma Training Track. "I was looking for one of them to jump...