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Baltimore It was not a late night for D. Wayne Lukas on Saturday. No
big dinner to celebrate his seventh Preakness victory. No endless bacchanal to
toast his 15th win in a Triple Crown race. "I went home, and I crashed," Lukas said Sunday, sitting in
that familiar white chair at the west end of the Pimlico stakes barn. "I was
dead. I'd had enough that day." Seize the Grey makes Lukas a 7-time Preakness winner. Sunday arrived quickly. Just 8 1/2 hours after Seize the Grey delivered an emphatic triumph in Preakness 2024, Lukas was up as always at
3:30 a.m. And then back at the barn at 4:30 a.m. And then fielding questions before
a fog-muted sunrise at 5:48 a.m. EDT. About 50 yards away, his newest equine millionaire was munching
on the grass still wet from a Saturday soaking that also turned the main track
at Pimlico into a muddy playground for the horses who ran well on it. It was a taxing surface, one that Lukas said "nearly pulled
my shoes off walking over it." It was no trouble for Seize the Grey, who led at
every call after the start on the way to a 2 1/4-length win. Asked the perfunctory question about how the horse came out
of the race, Lukas said, "Really well. Unbelievably well. He went around here
just on his toes. You would have never thought he ran yesterday. He'd really
come out of it good." So good that the 88-year-old Hall of Famer was leaning even more
toward sending Seize the Grey to the Belmont Stakes, a race that Lukas
has won four times at 1 1/2 miles but never under next month's unprecedented circumstances caused
by the rebuilding of Belmont Park. "We'll definitely consider it," he said. "A couple of
factors. You know the fact that it's a mile-and-a-quarter this year. It's at
Saratoga. I like that. I like the Saratoga surface. The whole situation at
Saratoga I like. We run there every year with our stable, and I'm sure that
those officials will be contacting us. I would say at this point we're strongly
leaning in that direction." Lukas said he would not fully commit to the June 8 race
until after he got Seize the Grey back to Churchill Downs in Kentucky on Monday,
a day later than he normal. "I gave him an extra day," he said. "We were going to leave
this morning at 5 a.m. Yesterday after the race I got to thinking about it. I
thought, you know what? Why are we rushing out of here? We'll give him an extra
day. He's out there grazing right now, so we'll let him have a little grass and
take life easy."
It has been a whirlwind for the 3-year-old Arrogate colt owned by 2,570 holders
of 5,000 micro-shares sold for $127 each by MyRacehorse. Seize the Grey won the
Grade 2 Pat Day Mile on the May 4 undercard to the Kentucky Derby, the race
that produced Preakness runner-up Mystik Dan and third-place finisher Catching
Freedom. The last time the top three Preakness finishers came in with
only a two-week break since their last starts was 2013, when the first five
across the finish line came out of the Derby. Thanks to Oxbow's 15-1 upset that
year, it also was the last time Lukas won a Triple Crown race until Saturday. "It's always the horse," Lukas said. "It gets down to
whether you've got a horse that can bounce back like that. This particular
horse has done remarkably well." Lukas is not reluctant to wheel horses back off short rest.
When he did it in the 2018 Preakness, Bravazo came charging through the fog to
put a scare into Justify, losing by only a half-length. It was as close as
Justify ever came to defeat on his way to the Triple Crown, an early retirement
and the Hall of Fame. Despite being unafraid to put plenty of races onto his
horses' past performances, Lukas has been a proponent of spreading the Triple
Crown series beyond its traditional five-week framework. He has suggested keeping
the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in May, moving the Preakness to the
first Saturday in June and running the Belmont Stakes around the Fourth of July. That, he said Sunday, is more about humans than horses,
especially when one day's hero skips an upcoming Triple Crown race and vanishes
for most of the summer. "On a two-week break from the Derby to the Preakness, we
lose a little bit of the fan base because it comes up too quick," Lukas said. "These
fans want to relate. Now they'll jump on the bandwagon with this horse. They
want to relate and follow him down through a program. When they don't get (another
race quickly), now they wait to the Travers (G1), for example, with some of
these. It takes some of the strong fan base away." Lukas has had his own fan base for a long time. Now, at 88,
he is developing a whole new following of racegoers who cannot help but
appreciate how age is just a number for him. No one looks more raring to go on
a stable pony nearly every morning than D. Wayne Lukas. He also has his old friends and former pupils who have
become appreciative rivals. His post-race encounters Saturday with vanquished
trainers Bob Baffert and Kenny McPeek were especially gratifying to Lukas,
especially in the maelstrom on the way to the infield winner's circle. A respectful and great moment at the track: @BobBaffert congratulated D. WAYNE LUKAS on the way to the Winner's Circle, following SEIZE THE GREY big win in the Preakness Stakes Un gran momento de respeto y admiración: BOB BAFFERT y su esposa felicitan a D WAYNE LUKAS luego de… pic.twitter.com/qcvFijb3lS "That was really the highlight of the whole presentation for
me," he said. "It's unexpected. I've had a great camaraderie with those guys
all along the years. I've tried over the years with those guys and Nick Zito
and all of them to try to keep that relationship strong. And it has been
strong. For them to go out of their way, it wasn't too easy to get to us right
there at that moment. That really meant a lot." With new owners such as MyRacehorse to replace the loyal
clients whom he has outlived, Lukas's career is getting a second wind. Maybe
even a third. As rewarding as another classic win was this weekend, his voice
really brightens when he talks about the 2-year-olds whom he will put on the
racetrack this summer at Saratoga. "I really feel good about them," he said. "I've had them
just long enough now that we're breezing them a little bit, and they're
impressive. Which one it will be or more than one or none, we'll get them
sorted out. With what I've seen so far, and with my experience and everything,
I'm pretty impressed." The names will come soon enough from Lukas, who clearly has
been invigorated with Saturday's success and the promise of more to come. "That's what you need," he said. "If you've got to look down
that shed row and train the same $20,000 or $10,000 claimer every day, those
guys are admirable. Just recycling those types of horses and everything, I don't
know if that fits me."