IN MEMORY OF D. WAYNE LUKAS - THOROUGHBRED AND AQHA HALL OF FAME MEMBER

          D. Wayne Lukas, the only person to be inducted into both the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame (1999) and the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame (2007), died on Saturday, June 28 at his home in Louisville, Kentucky, after a brief illness. He was 89.                                                                                         “Wayne was an incredible person,” said Ed Allred, the owner of Los Alamitos Race Course. “His standards of horse care revolutionized training practices on the backside. Through all of his success in the Thoroughbred world, he remained a dear friend.                                               

         “Racing has lost an incredible horseman and a visionary in this industry. It will be a long time, if ever, for anyone to match his career.”

          Known affectionately as "The Coach," Lukas built an incredible legacy in Thoroughbred racing, winning 15 Triple Crown races, 20 Breeders' Cup races, and training the earners of more than $300 million. He also had tremendous success with Quarter Horses at Los Alamitos winning 739 races and saddling 24 AQHA racing champions before moving to Thoroughbred racing in the late 1970s.                                    

          Lukas ranked among the top 10 Quarter Horse trainers for 11 seasons and lead the nation in Quarter Horse earnings from 1974-75. In 1975, he doubled the record for most Quarter Horse wins by a trainer in a single year, achieving 150 victories. Lukas also trained famous Quarter Horses like Dash For Cash, Flight 109, Little Blue Sheep, and She's Precious. The champion Dash For Cash was once considered by Lukas as the best horse he had ever started.                  In 1979, Lukas saddled his last Quarter Horse winner and went on to train Thoroughbreds. Success followed Lukas into the Thoroughbred circles, and the trainer had four Kentucky Derby winners.  Lukas was also the first trainer to condition the earners of $100 million. At one time, Lukas had conditioned 20 champion Thoroughbreds, including horses of the year Lady’s Secret, Criminal Type and Charismatic.                                                                             

        Lukas bought the American Quarter Horse Sir Ryon, a son of Ronas Ryon, in 1997, just before the final of the Kindergarten Futurity.  Lukas soon had a top barn at Los Alamitos and was conditioning Quarter Horses once again. His stable included top runners First Special Dash, Drop Your Sox and Private Venture. He was part-breeder of Heros Call, a Quarter Horse gelding sired by Grand Slam, who became the AQHA distance champion in 2003. Lukas was also part of the ownership of Bridlewood, a stakes winner at Los Alamitos.     In 1998, Lukas purchased a First Down Dash gelding which he named Walk Thru Fire. Lukas would saddle him to his maiden victory in August of 1999 and would later see him become a multiple graded stakes finalist, Walk Thru Fire would be sold privately later in his racing career but his biggest impact in Quarter Horse racing came after his retirement, as he became one of the industry’s all-time leading stallions.                                                                                     

         Lukas and Zory Kuzyk also co-owned the Hennessy colt Check Him Out, who won the 2001 Ed Burke Million Futurity. Check Him Out would also go on to become a successful sire in Quarter Horse racing.             

         Prior to his racing days, the Wisconsin native coached high school basketball and was a pretty good horseman at Park Jefferson, South Dakota

       "The horses were his life,” Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert said. “Behind his famous shades, he was probably the greatest horseman who ever lived."                             

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