D. Wayne Lukas: A Personal Reflection on Racing’s Greatest Ambassador
The horse racing world lost one of its most influential figures when legendary trainer D. Wayne Lukas died Tuesday, just days after entering hospice care and officially retiring from training. He was 88.
Lukas’s impact extended far beyond his Hall of Fame statistics — 4,881 wins, more than $293 million in purse earnings, 14 Triple Crown race victories, and 20 Breeders’ Cup triumphs. For many fans, he created personal connections that transcended the sport itself.
The timing of his passing — on March 13, the same date my father died earlier this year — creates a poignant symmetry that underscores the unique bond Lukas unknowingly helped forge between my father and me over four decades.
As a boy growing up in Texas when pari-mutuel wagering remained illegal, I developed an unusual obsession with horse racing. While other kids collected baseball cards, I memorized Thoroughbred pedigrees and devoured racing magazines. My father didn’t share my passion, but he loved me enough to nurture it.
We established a tradition of visiting Oaklawn Park each April for the Arkansas Derby — the premier race near Texas at that time. Through a friend’s tip, we discovered how to access the stable area without credentials, a tactic that worked flawlessly year after year.
During our first visit in 1983, I dragged my father through the backstretch, camera in hand, searching for the barns of prominent trainers. D. Wayne Lukas’s stable topped my list.
When Lukas himself appeared around a corner, I braced for ejection. Instead, he engaged me in conversation about his horses, treating a starstruck teenager with unexpected warmth. He seemed genuinely impressed by my knowledge of his trainees, past and present. My father, recognizing Lukas’s stature in the sport, beamed with pride as I held my own in conversation with the master horseman.
The following April, our paths crossed again at Oaklawn. This time, Lukas led us to a specific stall housing a gray filly. “You’ll be hearing a lot more about this filly here,” he predicted, positioning her for photographs with both of us. That relatively unknown filly — Lady’s Secret — would become 1986 Horse of the Year after defeating males in the Whitney Handicap and capturing the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
Though my father’s interest in racing never matched mine, Triple Crown season always prompted him to ask about Lukas’s contenders. These conversations provided common ground during years when finding topics to discuss sometimes proved challenging.
My father worked tirelessly across multiple businesses — mortgage lending, insurance, real estate appraisal — adapting to economic fluctuations. He had few hobbies, but his enjoyment of gambling made horse racing something we could share. Lukas and his horses frequently featured in those discussions.
In 2022, an opportunity arose to purchase shares in a yearling colt by Arrogate through MyRacehorse that would be trained by Lukas. I couldn’t resist, and I knew my father would want to join this journey. We both invested in the gray colt, Seize the Grey, reliving memories of those teenage visits to Oaklawn as we embarked on this new adventure with our trainer.
The colt became a frequent topic during my father’s declining health, when his world was increasingly constrained.
While at Saratoga in 2023 to watch my Derby winner Mage in the Travers, I visited Lukas’s office. I recounted our 40-year-old Oaklawn encounters and mentioned our shared investment in Seize the Grey. With characteristic optimism, Lukas praised the colt’s talent and predicted an exciting future.
His assessment proved accurate when Seize the Grey captured the 2024 Preakness Stakes and several other major races.
As Seize the Grey surged to victory down the Pimlico stretch, tears streamed down my face — not primarily for winning a Triple Crown race, but for this journey with my father centered around a trainer who had orbited our relationship for four decades. During a period when my father experienced few joyful moments, this man we barely knew delivered an experience my parents and I could celebrate together.
While the Preakness wasn’t Seize the Grey’s final major win, it was the last my father was well enough to enjoy. Because of the Lukas connection and the emotional history behind it, that victory means more to me than my two Kentucky Derby winners or any other racing success I’ve experienced through fractional ownership.
Today, I mourn both Lukas and the loss of another connection to my father. Lukas had his flaws — he was sometimes too hard on horses in his earlier years and made his share of mistakes. But he was also the horseman who cradled champion filly Landaluce’s head as she died from a sudden illness, and the man who regularly invited random children into winner’s circle celebrations to nurture their interest in racing.
D. Wayne Lukas wove himself into the fabric of my relationship with my father — enhancing our connection and providing unforgettable moments of joy. The racing world seems dimmer today without his presence and boundless optimism.
Richard Glover Jr. is the CEO of the Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens and has owned shares in two Kentucky Derby winners, Mage and Authentic.
