D. Wayne Lukas

In his penultimate work for the GI Kentucky Derby, American Promise (Justify) went fast by design for trainer D. Wayne Lukas, and will ship to Kentucky Sunday. The breeze Friday morning at Oaklawn Park, shortly after the renovation break, was a seven furlong trip from the gate in 1:25.20 under Nik Juarez, who will also have the call in the big race. According to Oaklawn's lead clocker Jim Hamilton, American Promise rolled through :22 for the opening quarter, :33.60 for three furlongs, a half in :45.80, five furlongs in :57.80,...

Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas told the Oaklawn media team Friday morning that Caldera (Liam's Map) and American Promise (Justify) will make their next starts in Kentucky Derby prep races at Keeneland over the coming weeks. A $500,000 OBS March purchase by MyRacehorse, Caldera earned 10 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby when finishing the narrow runner-up in the Sunland Park Derby Feb. 16, but he effectively lost all chance at the break of the Mar. 22 GII Louisiana Derby, stumbling and checking early before finishing...

Her dam had once been claimed for $15,000 and when John Fort's vet went out to approve the transaction, he found the filly grazing with a bunch of cattle. He rang Fort to check whether he realized that she wasn't even on a horse farm. "It's a cattle ranch," he told the owner of Peachtree Stable. "She's the only horse out here." Fort had noticed that she was bred by a Greenwich Cattle Company, but had given it no further thought. He had loved the filly, from the first crop...

Added to the Kentucky Derby Trail for the first time, the Virginia Derby entered a new era over the dirt at Colonial Downs on Saturday and it was American Promise (Justify--Tapella, by Tapit) who deposited 50 points into his 'Run for the Roses' account. It took him six starts to graduate from the maiden ranks, but a patient progression has never dissuaded D. Wayne Lukas before, and once the chestnut got his first win, he was tasked with stepping up into graded company. Crossing the line in sixth, but disqualified...

Getaway Car just got his nose in front to nip Caldera on the line in a dramatic finish to the Sunland Park Derby. Already a graded stakes winner and Grade I stakes-placed, Getaway Car was sent off the 6-5 favorite in his sophomore debut Sunday. He went right to the lead and was unchallenged while setting fractions of :23.31 and :46.93. Caldera, who had raced in midpack down the backstretch, rushed up four wide as the favorite attempted to skip away on the far turn. The gray stuck his head...

Just Steel (Justify), runner-up in last year's GI Arkansas Derby, continues to train towards his 4-year-old debut at Oaklawn Park, with the Mar. 29 GIII Oaklawn Mile his first major target of the season, according to trainer D. Wayne Lukas. Just Steel has been sidelined since suffering a condylar fracture during a fifth-place effort in the GI Preakness Stakes last May. "He's pretty versatile," Lukas said. "He could go long or short, so I've got some options. In a perfect world, if everything would fall into place, I'd like to...

Longtime NYRA stakes coordinator Andrew Byrnes will retire at the end of the Saratoga meet in September 2025, the organization announced Friday. "The New York Racing Association is proud to recognize and celebrate the career of Andrew Byrnes," said NYRA's Senior Vice President of Racing and Operations Andrew Offerman. "Andrew has invested much of his career working to showcase the best racing in North America at NYRA's racetracks. The consummate professional, we appreciate Andrew's willingness to provide advance notice of his retirement and his desire to ensure his replacement is...

She is not the oldest living Eclipse Award winner--that honor is believed to belong to 1994 Champion Turf Female Hatoof (Irish River {Fr}), who is still going strong at Darley's Gainsborough Farm at age 36--but she's close. As the hours tick down before the newest class of champions are honored Thursday evening, it's a thrill to remember 1995 Champion 3-Year-Old Filly Serena's Song (Rahy--Imagining, by Northfields), who just turned 33 at the Bandoroff family's Denali Stud near Paris, Kentucky. This year the sport celebrates the 30-year anniversary of her spectacular...

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...