Intriguing moments from the career of D. Wayne Lukas

When we look back on those in the racing world we lost in 2025, D. Wayne Lukas might be considered the most impactful. Many words have been written, and memories shared, since his death on June 28 at the age of 89, and there is still much about his career to reflect on and digest six months later.

What follows are tidbits, trivia, and the occasional oddity related to Lukas' legendary Hall of Fame training career.

Thoroughbred firsts

Most obituaries of Lukas traced his career with Thoroughbreds to 1977, when he began focusing on them full time. But as Equibase stats show, Lukas had won with 14 of 55 Thoroughbred starters in 1974. After scouring Daily Racing Form chart books, I've independently verified 13 of those 14 recorded wins.

At the time, a dominating force on the Quarter Horse scene at Los Alamitos and Bay Meadows, Lukas began dabbling with Thoroughbreds beginning at the 1974 Hollywood Park meet. It was on May 3, 1974, in a six-furlong maiden race for three-year-olds, that Lukas saddled his first Thoroughbred winner, a 21-1 longshot named Hillhouse. Owned by Gene Cashman, who later campaigned 1976 Preakness (G1) winner Elocutionist, Hillhouse would go on to win six more times for Lukas that summer at Hollywood and Del Mar.

Hillhouse won the $20,000 Bay District S. at Bay Meadows on Sept. 10, but the trainer of record for that win was Ed Bean, who reportedly served as Lukas' assistant at Hollywood. Thus, Lukas' first official Thoroughbred stakes winner was the three-year-old Harbor Hauler, who on Sept. 13 won a division of the $10,000 Foothill S. at Pomona, later known as Fairplex Park.

Effervescing

When Lukas resumed training Thoroughbreds in 1977-78, some of his notable successes came with Effervescing, a cast-off from the powerful Ogden Phipps stable.

At age three in 1976, Effervescing won the Man o' War (G1) and appeared destined to become an important older horse in the turf division. Instead, he proved a relative disappointment and was privately sold by Phipps in the fall of 1977. Effervescing's new home was in the Lukas barn.

In the summer of 1978, the son of *Le Fabuleux won two $100,000 stakes in less than a week. He captured the American H. (G2) at Hollywood Park on July 4 and followed up with the Citation H. five days later. The following month, Effervescing added the Eddie Read H., then ungraded but still one of Del Mar's signature grass events.

Effervescing was too sulky and roguish to be a consistent top-level performer, but proved to be the most accomplished turf horse trained by Lukas until Steinlen came along a decade later.

Hialeah's Flamingo Stakes

It's been nearly 40 years since the beautiful and legendary Hialeah Park held a meeting during the coveted "middle dates" in South Florida, the once-lucrative span from mid-January through early March that Hialeah and Gulfstream Park fought for years over, both inside and outside the courtroom.

Hialeah's signature event was the Flamingo (G1), a Kentucky Derby (G1) prep over 1 1/8 miles. The very last edition run during the prime winter dates was in 1987 and broadcast live on ABC. The winner was the Lukas-trained Talinum, a son of Alydar who posted a 9-1 upset over Cryptoclearance, who avenged that defeat five weeks later with a neck victory over Talinum in the Florida Derby (G1).

Talinum never ran again at age three and was not of Grade 1 quality when he came back at four. But fans of Hialeah should remember the Lukas trainee as the answer to: "Who won the Flamingo when Hialeah last reigned over Florida's winter racing season?"

Juvenile filly bust

Even with future Kentucky Derby (G1) heroine Winning Colors on the sidelines following her debut win at Saratoga that August, the Lukas barn was still bursting with juvenile filly talent in 1987. As proof, he wound up with five entries in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) at Hollywood Park.

Collectively, the quintet of Lost Kitty, Over All, Classic Crown, Dream Team, and Blue Jean Baby had accounted for victories in the Del Mar Futurity (G1), Frizette (G1), Oak Leaf (G1), Spinaway (G1), Matron (G1), Del Mar Debutante (G1), Sorority (G2), Schuylerville (G2), Adirondack (G2), and Landaluce (G3). Surely one of them could have pulled out the win? Nope. Dream Team, who finished a distant third behind 30-1 longshot winner Epitome, fared best of the bunch.

However, Lukas was back the following year at Churchill Downs with another five entries in the Juvenile Fillies. Lukas swept the top three placings, led by future Hall of Fame inductee Open Mind.

Walkover

The afternoon of Dec. 7, 1997, was a historical day at Hollywood Park. In addition to seeing the first triple dead-heat to win at the track in 40 years, fans also witnessed the first significant walkover since Spectacular Bid's isolated run in the 1980 Woodward (G1) at Belmont Park.

The Lukas-trained Sharp Cat, one of that season's top three-year-old fillies, found herself the only starter in the Bayakoa H. (G2) after Ron McAnally scratched his two entries due to the muddy conditions. Under Alex Solis, Sharp Cat went through the motions of negotiating 1 1/16 miles in 1:42 3/5 to collect her $60,000 winner's share. Lukas, however, reportedly did not attend while recovering from dental work.

Although he saddled countless odds-on favorites and dominated other races with sheer numbers, Sharp Cat's Bayakoa was literally the easiest win in Lukas' legendary career.