(1-6-23) MyRacehorse announced in August of 2022 that Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas would join MyRacehorse. A list that includes numerous Hall of Fame trainers, Todd Pletcher, Mark Casse, Bill Mott and Steve Asmussen,

Lukas will train Smart Shopping ‘21, a colt by the late, Arrogate, sire of 2022 Kentucky Oaks winner, Secret Oath.

The pairing of Lukas and Smart Shopping ‘21 will compete on the Kentucky/New York circuits.

According to the MyRacehorse release –

Roderick Wachman, Global Head of Bloodstock and Racing

“D. Wayne Lukas is still the King at the age of 86 ((born September 2, 1935, Antigo, Wisconsin)) as evidenced by his success in this year’s Kentucky Oaks with Secret Oath. A supreme master of his trade and one who has mentored some of the best trainers in the business, Wayne’s horsemanship skills to this day are to be revered.”

Lukas is a winner of 20 Breeders’ Cup World Championship races, five Eclipse Awards, and 4 Kentucky Derbys, Lukas has certainly ascended his way to the top in the world of horse racing. The colt he will train is by a sire who to this day remains the world’s richest racehorse, amassing earnings of over $17,000,000 during his impressive career.

How it all started for Lukas

Lukas began training Quarter Horses full-time in 1967 and won 73 races in 1970. In 1975 his 150 victories doubled the record for most Quarter Horse wins in a year by a trainer. He produced 23 champions between 1976 and 1977 and captured all six major California stakes of $100,000 or more for three consecutive years (1975–77).

Lukas said –

“My absolute fondest memories, without a doubt, are of my days with Quarter Horses in the Southwest. Goliad, Sunland Park, Ruidoso – those were great times; nothing like ‘em.”

The first AQHA Racing champion trained by Lukas, Flight 109 in 1974, he was the division’s leading money earner with $60,800 and a winner in six of 15 starts, four of those wins coming in stakes races. 

He trained two-time Quarter Horse of the Year Dash for Cash and in 1976, Dash For Cash gave Lukas his second straight win in the Los Alamitos Derby. Lucas won every major race except the All-American Futurity, the quarter horse counterpart to the Kentucky Derby.

Years later Lukas returns to quarter horse racing...1999 in the PCQHRA Breeders Futurity…SV Blue Tornado is disqualified from first, giving D.Wayne Lukas the win with the filly Worth A Look.This is would be the first quarter horse stakes win in 20 years for Lukas.

Legendary trainer D. Wayne Lukas talks about the 2022 Kentucky Oaks victory and his successful career

WDRB News – Official – You Tube Video

D. Wayne Lukas continues to train winners…a Hall of Fame career that continues.

Did you know….

Lukas taught high school at a small Wisconsin farming town of Blair, coaching football, basketball and track. While he was a graduate student in education at the University of Wisconsin, he was an assistantcoach to freshman basketball coach Johnny Orr.

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