Just Steel

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY -- This is not a new story. The calendar flips to September, the Saratoga season is in its final few days and Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas is having another birthday. Lukas turns 88 Saturday and the beat goes on. He will get up at 3 a.m. and within an hour will arrive at his barn located a couple of hundred yards from the Oklahoma training track. As usual, he will be in the saddle on his pony accompanying his horses as they go out...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - In an atypical move, Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas said that GIII Saratoga Special S. runner-up Market Street (Street Sense) will likely make his next start on grass in the Aug. 31 GIII With Anticipation S. Lukas, 87, built his exceptional career with dirt horses and most years saddles far fewer horses on the grass. So far in 2023, just six of his 193 starters (3%) have run on turf. Since the beginning of 2019, 11.9% of his starters have been on turf. His...

The student or the teacher? It was going to come down to one or the other as the second race at Saratoga Saturday, a six-furlong maiden special weight, developed into a stretch battle between the Wayne Lukas-trained Just Steel (Justify) and the Todd Pletcher-trained Be You (Curlin). At the wire, it was Just Steel who had his nose in front, showing once again that the 87-year-old Hall of Famer still knows how to get it done. "You can't let the kids beat you," Lukas said. "You've got to get them...

4th-ELP, $120K, Msw, 2yo, 5 1/2f, 3:16 p.m. OXO Equine's BALTA (Munnings), a $685,000 '23 OBSMAR purchase who went :9 4/5 during the under tack show, debuts Saturday for Paulo Lobo. The 2-year-old chestnut colt's family tree includes GISW Cupid (Tapit) and is a half-brother to SW Opus Forty Two (Mendelssohn). Opposing him will be fellow firster, trained Kenny McPeek, Northern Flame (Flameaway), who brought $425,000 at the Fasig-Tipton August sale last year. Also entered is D. Wayne Lukas trainee Just Steel (Justify), who went for $500,000 at the '22...