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Hall of Fame: Trainers

D. Wayne Lukas is one of the most successful trainers in the history of Thoroughbred racing. He has conditioned more champions than any other trainer and has won 19% of all the stakes races run by his horses. Lukas' first career was as a teacher and as a coach of high school basketball, professions he chose because his mother wanted him to make a contribution to society.

During his summer breaks from teaching, Lukas began racing horses at Park Jefferson in South Dakota. In 1972 he settled in California as a full time trainer of Quarter Horses and quickly established himself as a leading trainer. His Quarter Horses routinely earned an average of $1 million per year. At the same time, he occasionally trained Thoroughbreds and in 1978 he switched his operation to full-time training for that sport. Over the past 20 years he has broken nearly every record in the history of Thoroughbred training.

Through 1998, Lukas had won 7% of all North American graded stakes run in the past two decades. This is a phenomenal record and is coupled with additional records in earnings. For fourteen years, he has led all trainers in earnings. He broke Charlie Whittingham's record in 1984 with $5.8 million in earnings and almost doubled his earnings the following year with $11.1 million. He still holds the single season earnings record of $17.8 million which he set in 1988. He was also the first to reach a career total of $100 million and then $200 million.

Through the 1999 spring season, Lukas had won 12 Triple Crown races, including four Kentucky Derbys, five Preaknesses, and three Belmonts. In the 1994 Preakness Tabasco Cat put Lukas on a six race winning streak in the Triple Crown races. It took trainer Nick Zito's horse Louis Quatorze to end this record winning streak. In 1999 Lukas came close to winning the coveted Triple Crown series with Charismatic, whose injury in the Belmont brought a disappointing end to the year's Triple Crown fever.

Lukas has also set a record in the Breeders' Cup with 13 victories in that competition. In 1985 he became the first trainer to win two Breeders' Cup races in one day. In 1988 he broke his own record by winning three in one day with Gulch, Open Mind, and Is It True.

In addition to his 19 champions, Lukas has also trained many other horses of note, including: Tabasco Cat, Codex, Tank's Prospect, Grindstone, Editor's Note, Open Mind, and Terlingua.

In a career laced with record-setting, one quickly runs out of adjectives to describe Lukas' achievements. His mother hoped that he might have an impact on the world, and he's certainly lived up to her expectation in the world of racing. D. Wayne Lukas was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 1999.