Trainer D. Wayne Lukas watches the training during training Friday morning at Churchill Downs April 26, 2024 in Louisville, Ky. The 88-year-old has won four Kentucky Derbies. Hall of Fame horse trainer D. Wayne Lukas is gravely ill and has retired immediately.
The Lukas family issued a statement Sunday that said the 89-year-old had been hospitalized with a severe infection and declined to go through the “aggressive treatment plan” doctors in Louisville, Ky., had outlined.
USA Today reported Monday that Lukas has returned to his home and is under hospice care to spend his remaining days with his wife, Laurie, and their extended family.
“Wayne is one of the greatest competitors and most important figures in Thoroughbred racing history,” said Mike Anderson, president of Churchill Downs Racetrack. “He transcended the sport of horse racing and took the industry to new levels. The lasting impact of his character and wisdom — from his acute horsemanship to his unmatched attention to detail — will be truly missed. The enormity of this news is immense, and our prayers are with his family and friends around the world during this difficult time.”
The horses trained by Lukas are now under the guidance of Sebastian “Bas” Nicholl via the succession plan of Lukas Enterprises Inc. Nicholl is the longtime assistant to Lukas.
Lukas-trained horses won 15 Triple Crown races, second only to Bob Baffert’s 17. His horses posted 20 Breeders’ Cup wins and he won the Eclipse Award as the country’s top trainer four times.
Lukas was enshrined in the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in 1999.
After college, he began his career as a high school teacher and basketball coach in Wisconsin, and he took a summer job working with quarter horses in South Dakota in 1968. Four years later, he moved to California to become a full-time trainer of quarter horses, and in 1977 at age 42, he got his first win as a thoroughbred trainer at Santa Anita.
As a throughbred trainer, he had 4,967 wins and his horses earned more than $301 million from 30,607 starts, according to statistics from Churchill Downs.
The final win of his career came when 4-year-old colt Tour Player won at Churchill Downs on June 12. His final Triple Crown victory was at the Preakness Stakes with Seize the Grey in 2024.
Other Triple Crown winners trained by Lukas include Tabasco Cat (1994), Thunder Gulch (1995) and Charismatic (1999). He won six consecutive Triple Crown races, starting with the 1994 Preakness Stakes and running through the 1996 Kentucky Derby.
Nicholl said he will carry the influence of Lukas with him.
“Wayne built a legacy that will never be matched,” Nicholl said. “Every decision I make, every horse I saddle, I’ll hear his voice in the back of my mind. This isn’t about filling his shoes — no one can — it’s about honoring everything that he’s built.”
While horse racing brought success at the highest level to Lukas, it also gave him his greatest tragedy.
In December 1993, his only son, Jeff, was at Santa Anita when Tabasco Cat got loose from his handlers. When 36-year-old Jeff Lukas tried to stop him, Tabasco Cat slammed into him, leaving the younger Lukas with a severe brain injury. He returned to work for his father the next summer but only for a short period of time.
Jeff Lukas died on March 24, 2016, at age 58.
–Field Level Media
