By Chris McGrath
It stands to reason, I guess, that the fountain of youth–the quest for which supposedly brought the first conquistadores to the shores of Florida–should instead turn out to be in Hot Springs. Certainly it seems as though there must indeed be something in those celebrated Arkansas waters, judging from the eternal vigor of an 86-year-old trainer based at Oaklawn this winter.
For a moment last Saturday, D. Wayne Lukas was going to sweep both Classic trials, Ethereal Road (Quality Road) just losing focus in the final strides of the GII Rebel S. after barnmate Secret Oath (Arrogate) had settled the GIII Honeybee S. with that exhilarating dart round the final corner. And if those of us marvelling from afar wished that we, too, might sample the rejuvenating properties of the thermal springs, then the good news is that we don't have to fly all the way there and book into Bathhouse Row.
Because it now falls within the compass of a single, extraordinary man to share among his whole community the dynamism he already appears to have imparted to Secret Oath. And he won't need a bottling plant. In the spine-tingling moment when his filly broke free of her inferiors last weekend, announcing herself at this point the most flamboyant talent of the crop, a sudden sunbeam broke across our benighted industry. Have we, in our hour of need, out of nowhere found a path to redemption?
Obviously, Lukas is too seasoned to be committing prematurely to the Derby. But don't tell me that one of the towering figures of the American Turf, seeing this filly maintain her current giddy trajectory, will turn his back on a challenge that so neatly dovetails the gilding of his own legacy with the overall interests of the sport.
It was a filly, of course, who in 1988 gave Lukas his first Derby. His three subsequent winners were all clustered in a five-year streak from 1995, interrupted only by the first pair saddled by another colorful arrival from the Quarter Horse world. That gentleman has long supplanted Lukas as the go-to trainer for the superpower investors, the transfer of the baton being aptly condensed (not least in their names) by two horses owned by Bob and Beverly Lewis: Silver Charm (Silver Buck), the first Derby winner saddled by Bob Baffert; and Charismatic (Summer Squall), the last saddled by Lukas.
Secret Oath's Honeybee romp | Coady
Or maybe not the last. But you know what, it scarcely matters whether or not Secret Oath can actually beat the boys in the Derby. Even to try would itself represent a huge win for a sport otherwise staring down the barrel of yet another public relations calamity, thanks to the very man whose silver charms have so faded over the past year.
We're not going to reprise the stagnant topic of whether Baffert's sense of personal injustice–whatever its merits–warrants the asphyxiation of his sport at the one time it receives the oxygen of publicity, in the first days of May. Because all of a sudden, over the horizon here comes a venerable knight riding to the rescue on his gray charger. All of sudden, All of sudden, the casting of Baffert as the specter at the Derby feast could become a relative sideshow.
As an outstanding visionary among modern American horsemen, with a born educator's sensitivity to the broader human fulfilments available in our trivial obsession, Lukas will surely be governed by the bigger picture in what may well prove the final benediction of a game-changing career.
At this stage of his life, would the old teacher and coach decline this priceless, paternal service to a beleaguered industry simply because Secret Oath would start at shorter odds in the GI Kentucky Oaks? At the very least, he can leave both options open by giving her a chance to earn the requisite gate points in the GI Arkansas Derby. And if she were to tackle that assignment in a fashion that extends the current dilemma, then it won't be a dilemma at all.
I mean, this is the man who even since last weekend has made us all feel humbled–if not downright ashamed, in some cases–by our failure to keep up with the indefatigable standards he still maintains in terms of evangelizing our way of life. Hardly anyone who heard or read his words (editor's note: Lukas Challenges Everyone “To Make a Difference” Every Day is located at the bottom of the story) to a Hot Springs conference can have remotely approached his eligibility to put his feet up, after so many decades of endeavor and achievement, and leave the future viability of the game in younger hands. Well, we may have younger hands. But we have none more vital and inspiring.
Just imagine having this guy front and center in Derby week! Not just intriguing, and winning over, the world outside; but energizing our base, challenging us all to be more deserving of the noble animal that ostensibly unites us all.
True, before coming up with the third filly to win the Derby, Lukas had also ended the fairytale of the second, Genuine Risk (Exclusive Native), with Codex (Arts and Letters) making a highly masculine swing to the fences on the final turn in the Preakness. Overall, however, the evidence suggests that Lukas trusts a filly to look after herself. Think Serena's Song (Rahy) in the GI Haskell; think Lady's Secret (Secretariat) in the GI Whitney; above all think Althea (Alydar) setting a track record that not even Secret Oath could hope to get near in the Arkansas Derby.
Okay, so Althea's performance at Churchill reminds us not to get too far ahead of ourselves. But in these dark days, when our parochial problems so plainly don't amount to the proverbial “hill of beans”, we must cling with all possible faith to such hope as we can find.
John Shirreffs | Horsephotos
Because every now then, we are blessed by the confluence of a great man and a great opportunity. Cometh the hour, and all that. It happened before, when Zenyatta (Street Cry {Ire}) won us so many new friends largely because she happened to find her way into the care of a man not only touched by the genius necessary for her fulfilment, but every bit as uncommon in the more fundamental human register of integrity and intelligence.
That's why this feels like a week of rare promise for our embattled sport: because it has also been the week in which John Shirreffs finally secured an overdue nomination to the Hall of Fame. If it could end with the redress of another unconscionably prolonged anomaly, and a first success for Shirreffs in the GI Santa Anita H., then I really will begin to think that somebody up there might be looking out for our sport, after all.
We all know that this is no longer the race it was, thanks to the booty nowadays seducing horses to faraway deserts. But we also know we can rely on the trainer of Express Train (Union Rags) to cherish the undiminished luster of its heritage. For here is a man who truly understands and respects that everything we are privileged to do with horses, today, is built on foundations laid by so many generations who preceded us.
And who knows? So long as we have exemplars like Shirreffs and Lukas to illuminate the way–men burning with a passionate, perennial sense of our responsibilities to the Thoroughbred–perhaps we might yet find the magic springs to renew and revive our weary, limping old sport.
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