Lukas eager to visit old stomping grounds

CYPRESS, Calif. – When D. Wayne Lukas arrives at Los Alamitos on Thursday in advance of Take Charge Brandi’s appearance in Saturday’s $350,000 Starlet Stakes, he may need a moment to gain his bearings.

Much has changed since Lukas was based at Los Alamitos in the 1970s, and since he raced a small stable of Quarter Horses there in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

On Tuesday, Lukas noted that there are few familiar faces left from his early days.

“I know it’s changed,” he said. “D. Wayne Lukas might be the answer to a trivia question.”

Lukas is the answer to these trivia questions: Who trained Dash for Cash to victories in the 1976 Los Alamitos Derby and 1977 Los Alamitos Invitational? Who led the nation’s Quarter Horse trainers in earnings from 1974 to 1977? Who led the nation’s Quarter Horse trainers in wins in 1974-75?

After Saturday, Lukas may be the answer to this trivia question: Who was the first trainer to win Grade 1 races for Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds at Los Alamitos?

Take Charge Brandi has emerged as the nation’s leading 2-year-old filly in the last six weeks, winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita on Nov. 1 in a 61-1 upset and the Delta Downs Princess Stakes in Louisiana on Nov. 22.

The Starlet, run over 1 1/16 miles, is the final Grade 1 race for 2-year-old fillies this year. Take Charge Brandi has won 3 of 7 starts and earned $1,410,126. Take Charge Brandi will be a heavy favorite in the Starlet, and a win will clinch a title that Lukas argues she has already earned.

“I’m excited to run her,” he said. “It’s the last Grade 1 of the year. I think she’s done enough for champion.”

Take Charge Brandi, who races for Willis Horton, will run at a racetrack that has changed remarkably in the last year. The oval that measured five-eighths of a mile and was used for decades was lengthened last January to just under a mile, and at slightly more than a quarter-mile, the stretch is the longest in the nation.

“It will be fun to go back there,” Lukas said. “It will be interesting to see the changes and the configurations of the racetrack. One thing about it, I know the neighborhood. I won’t get lost.”

In the last year, Los Alamitos has become a year-round base for 700 Thoroughbreds, many from stables based at Hollywood Park, which closed last December. The Starlet was previously run at Hollywood Park.

The physical changes and a December Thoroughbred meeting that includes the Starlet and the $500,000 Los Alamitos Futurity on Dec. 20 make Los Alamitos a different track than when Lukas last frequented the place.

“I think it will help Los Al to have a Breeders’ Cup winner,” Lukas said. “It gives credence to the fall meeting they’re having.”

Lukas and his former wife, Laura, raced a small stable of Quarter Horses in the late 1990s and early 2000s. They owned many of the runners, which were trained by Laura on a daily basis. One highlight from that period was a win by Check Him Out in the $477,100 Ed Burke Memorial Futurity in 2001.

Check Him Out had unusual bloodlines for a Quarter Horse. He was by the Thoroughbred Hennessy, whom Lukas trained to multiple stakes wins in the 1990s.

These days, Lukas strictly trains Thoroughbreds. Take Charge Brandi gave the 79-year-old Lukas a record 20th win in a Breeders’ Cup race last month. Lukas has not won the Starlet since Surfside took it at Hollywood in 1999. Should Take Charge Brandi win the race Saturday, it would come at a venue that helped define Lukas’s career.