Within the Nineteen Eighties and Nineteen Nineties, Pat Riley and Phil Jackson dominated the teaching ranks of the Nationwide Basketball Affiliation and held ten championships between them. Nonetheless, throughout the identical time, one other basketball coach was much more dominant than the 2 NBA legends, however he solely selected to remove the deal in one other sport.
D. Wayne Lucas was a Thoroughbred Race lightning after switching from Quarter Horse to Thoroughbred full-time in 1978, however like Riley and Jackson talked about earlier, Lucas was an extended stretch. His dominant energy in sports activities.
The previous hoop coach did not match the prototype mannequin of thoroughbred trainers within the business that was ingrained in custom, so Lucas was seen as utilizing unconventional strategies when he switched to thoroughbred after a profitable quarter horse racing.
“Everybody on the backstretch appears to be like at me to see what I do,” Lucas stated. Every day Race Type at the moment. “Perhaps I will be flat on my face, however I do not. The transition to thoroughbreds is making me much more enthusiastic than ever… I like the problem.”
Lucas actually stood as much as the problem. With the assist of extremely influential homeowners like Nelson Bunker Hunt, Robert Sangster and John Gaines, it wasn’t lengthy earlier than the barn ran as easily because the Showtime Los Angeles Lakers.
From 1983 to 1992, Lucas led all US trainers with pockets revenue every year. He received the primary of 15 US basic races with the Codex within the Preakness Stakes in 1980, and emerged as a dominant power on the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, changing into the primary coach to surpass his $100 million profession income.
Lucas developed a ardour for horses in his childhood. He spent his adolescence on a 10-acre household farm in Antigo, Wiscon, and commenced shopping for horses at auctions whereas he was in elementary college, and commonly raced and carried out methods on the county truthful circuit.
However there was a time when Lucas was positive his future was in teaching. Lucas attended the College of Wisconsin Lacrosse on a basketball scholarship, and after graduating he took over the Blair Excessive College crew in Blair, Wiscon. He later served as assistant to John Erickson and Johnny Oh at his alma mater whereas working in the direction of his grasp’s diploma. He impressed Orr along with his consideration to element.
“He will do no matter you needed,” Orr stated. Sports activities illustration included. “Once you advised him to observe, he laid all of it out and he was very organized. Once I acquired my first head teaching job in Massachusetts, I could not carry my assistant.
Lucas jumped on the probability to educate the younger boys basketball crew at Logan Excessive College in 1961. He maintained his horse throughout his tenure, cared for the secure earlier than college and after observe, and loved a memorable victory with rival Lacrosse Central. Nonetheless, after compiling the 1961-1967 loss report, Lucas determined to give attention to full-time coaching.
When he stood up prominently, Lucas, well-known for his neat barn and crisp, neat look, ran the huge stables like a well-oiled machine within the Nineteen Eighties.
The Street to the Racing Corridor of Fame – He took workplace in 1999, however not with out bumps alongside the way in which. Lukas’ Mid-America Racing Stables destroyed the racetrack and economically struggled to steadiness the monetary facets of the enterprise with the sensible equestrians of consultants throughout the powerful stretches of the early Nineteen Nineties. He weathered a winding emotional curler coaster when the two-year-old Tabasco cat (future twin basic winner) crashed to his beloved son and high assistant Jeff, who had made Jeff coma for practically a month in a gradual space in a terrifying December 1993 accident.
When Tabasco Cat received Preakness in Could 1994, D. Wayne Lukas shed tears and gave her victory to Jeff. Jeff Lucas was speaking about going out on his personal as a coach at some point, and sadly the chance was taken from him. (Editor’s Word: Jeff Lucas handed away in 2016 on the age of 58.))
Nonetheless, D. Wayne Lukas left an enduring legacy as a mentor, not simply as a coach, but in addition as a detailed pal, Bobby Knight.
Lucas – jockeys, coaches and all the time academics – helped launch the careers of former assistants Todd Plecher, Chiaran McLaughlin, Dallas Stewart, Mark Henig, Randy Bradshaw, Mike Maker, George Weaver and Bobby Burnett. They and most of the horse racing had been saddened when Lucas died on June 28, 2025 on the age of 89 after being contaminated. His household introduced Lucas’ retirement from coaching every week in the past, ending his six-year profession.
Like Pat Riley, Phil Jackson and Bobby Knight talked about above, the previous coach’s names have been without end etched in historical past books as one of many legends of horse racing.
Word: This text was initially printed and up to date in 2017.
Enjoyable truth
- Whereas in faculty, you typically trick-ride at county festivals and spend extra cash taking part in.
- Now we have compiled a 44-95 report as a coach for the boys’ basketball crew at Logan Excessive College in Lacrosse, WISC.
- 0-For-12: Lucas’ extremely publicized report with the Kentucky Derby starter till he received in 1988 colors
- Lukas’ Kentucky Derby Winners: Profitable Colours (1988), Thunder Gulch (1995), Grindstone (1996), Charismatic (1999)
- Lukas’ Preakness Stakes Winners: Codex (1980), Tank’s Prospect (1985), Tabasco Cat (1994), Timber Nation (1995), Charismatic (1999), Oxbow (2013), Seize the Gray (2024)
- Lukas’ Belmont Stakes Winners: Tabasco Cat (1994), Thunder Gulch (1995), Editor’s Notes (1996), Celebrating (2000)
- Six consecutive wins: Luca’s report of a collection of US basic victory that stretched from the 1994 Preakness Stakes to the 1996 Kentucky Derby
- The joint recording proprietor who received 20 wins on the Breeders’ Cup World Championships.
- Coach for the twenty third Quarter Horse Champion and 25 Thoroughbred Champion.
- 15 basic race winners, solely Bob Buffate
- Lucas celebrated the second half of his profession milestones after profitable the 2024 Preakness Stakes, and the Secret Oath was received when he received the 2022 Kentucky Oaks and Grey. The Secret Oath victory moved Lucas to a tie with Woody Stevens for a lot of the Kentucky Oaks victory by a five-year-old coach, grabbed Grey’s Preakness victory, giving certainly one of Bob Baffert’s 8-year-old information a Lucas 7 within the second spherical of 1 triple crown.
