The first Kentucky Derby since the death of trainer D. Wayne Lukas has a different vibe

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — D. Wayne Lukas always talked up his latest crop of 2-year-old horses with an eye toward the next Kentucky Derby, telling his wife to get her dress for Oaks day.

“This was what he lived for,” said Todd Pletcher, now an accomplished trainer himself after working for Lukas beginning in 1989.

Lukas’ eternal optimism about the future was an annual tradition that lasted until June, when the Hall of Fame trainer was hospitalized with a severe blood infection and died at age 89. The horse racing community gathers this week for the first Kentucky Derby without Lukas, though his presence lingers over everything around the biggest event in horse racing.

“I miss Wayne. I miss talking to him,” two-time Triple Crown-winning trainer and longtime friend Bob Baffert said. “The thing is, without him here, it’s a different little vibe.”

His name remains a part of Churchill Downs, with a sign marking the “Lukas Gap” impossible to miss on the way between the fabled track and barn 44, which he occupied for more than four decades. Baffert wanted it badly, he said, but it’s now where Mike Maker’s horses are.

It’s fitting because Maker is one of countless horsemen now thriving after learning under Lukas. Pletcher, who has won the Derby twice and has the favorite this year in Renegade, is one of the strongest branches on Lukas’ racing version of a coaching tree.

“It’s an incredible tree, really, when you look at all the different branches and how many people are currently training that either worked for Wayne or worked for me or worked for one of the other assistants (who worked) for Wayne,” Pletcher said. “It just shows you how many lives Wayne directly or indirectly touched.”

Among them is now-retired jockey Jerry Bailey, whose second of two Derby victories came aboard Lukas-trained Grindstone in 1996. Their connection traced back to Lukas’ days training quarter horses in New Mexico before getting into thoroughbreds and becoming one of the faces of the sport.

Bailey recalled once riding a horse for Lukas that finished up the track, nowhere close to winning, and thinking afterward he never would get aboard again. Lukas changed his mind in their conversation on the way back to the jockeys’ room.

“He was such a glass-half-full, positive guy,” Bailey said. “He had me believing this horse was the next coming of Secretariat by the time I got back. … And that’s really who Wayne Lukas was: always Mr. Positive. And I think the game was better off for him.”

Lukas was still riding his pony himself into his late 80s, showing no signs of slowing down the get-up-early work ethic that made him successful. Still, Bailey made it a point to visit every time he got the chance, not knowing when it would be the last time they got to talk.

Fellow jockey-turned-NBC Sports analyst Donna Brothers, who rode for Lukas in the ’90s, also was a regular visitor, eager to get his perspective on not just his horse and stable but any number of things leading up to a big race. Working her final Derby, she doesn’t get that chance.

“It’s quite a void to walk by Wayne’s barn and not see Wayne’s pony sitting out there and know that you’re not going to be able to go by Wayne’s barn and talk to him about who he likes for this year’s Derby and why,” Brothers said. “He was a consummate horseman, knew his horses well, but he also knew the competition pretty well also, so it was always nice to go by his barn and pick his brain about who he likes and why. Beyond that, he’s just a legend.”

Lukas won the Kentucky Derby four times, trailing only Baffert and Ben Jones for the most victories. He saddled 51 horses in the race from 1981 through last year, second only to Pletcher.

“He recognized very early in his career that the Triple Crown races and the Breeders’ Cup races were what drives the industry and draws the owners to the game,” Pletcher said. “It won’t be the same without him, for sure.”

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AP horse racing: https://apnews.com/hub/horse-racing