Lukas looking forward to birthday weekend stakes

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – D. Wayne Lukas turns 87 years old on Friday, but the Hall of Fame trainer hopes to extend the celebration throughout the Labor Day weekend.

Lukas hopes to put the bow on what has been a successful summer in Saratoga – his first time here in three years – where he will have runners in three graded stakes over the weekend, including one in both Grade 1 stakes for 2-year-olds that bring the curtain down on the 154th Saratoga season.

On Saturday, Lukas, who has four winners at the meeting as of Wednesday, will send out Ethereal Road in the Grade 3, $200,000 Saranac for 3-year-olds on turf. On Sunday, he’ll start Naughty Gal in the Grade 1 Spinaway, a race Lukas has won six times. On Monday, Lukas will saddle Bourbon Bash in the Grade 1, $300,000 Hopeful, a race he has won a record eight times.

“I feel optimistic we could finish up Saturday, Sunday, and Monday pretty darn good,” Lukas said in his office Wednesday morning. “Those are tough races we’re targeting, but we’re okay.”

Lukas, who ranks eighth all-time in wins and fourth in purse-money won, may walk a little slower these days, but he still gets atop the stable pony each morning, accompanying horses to and from the track. The success he’s had this year, with the likes of Kentucky Oaks winner Secret Oath and some promising 2-year-olds, has provided the impetus to keep doing what he’s been doing for more than 40 years.

:: DRF's Saratoga headquarters – Stakes schedule, previews, recaps, past performances, and more

“I don’t know how long I would train if I would have a situation where I was just retreading a bunch of claiming horses,” Lukas said. “The fact that we are able to buy nice yearlings in anticipation of what they may develop into the next year, I think that has the stimulation that keeps us going like we do.

“I love the challenge, but the bottom line is I don’t feel any different or any older out there on the saddle horse than I did when I was 50 or 40, I really don’t,” Lukas added. “I forget when I go to get off or get on the saddle horse or reach for a horse that is having trouble or something, I realize then that I’m 87 years old.”

In the Saranac, Lukas will send out Ethereal Road, a stakes winner on dirt who finished ninth in his turf debut in the Saratoga Derby Invitational. Lukas said things just didn’t go right that day for Ethereal Road, who Lukas is hoping takes to the turf like some other progeny of Quality Road have done this year such as Bleecker Street and Park Avenue.

“Quality Roads are really surfacing on the turf,” Lukas said. “With that in mind, I thought maybe I should try it.”

In the Spinaway, Lukas well send out Naughty Gal, who comes off a 2 1/2-length victory in the Grade 3 Adirondack here Aug. 7.

“She’s a little green yet, but she’s a big, powerful, strong filly, I think the seven-eighths is going to be right in her wheelhouse,” said Lukas, who won the Spinaway six times between 1984-1995.

Lukas said the filly Summer Promise, who was second in the Adirondack, is on the shelf after having a chip taken out of a knee and will likely return later this year or early in 2023.

Lukas has the maiden juvenile filly Take Charge Brianna to run on closing weekend. She blew out a swift three furlongs in 35.10 seconds Wednesday over a muddy Oklahoma training track.

:: Get Saratoga Clocker Reports from Mike Welsch and the Clocker Team. Available every race day.

On Monday, Lukas will send out Bourbon Bash in the Hopeful, a race he’s won a record eight times, most recently in 2017 with Sporting Chance.

Bourbon Bash, a son of City of Light, finished sixth to Blazing Sevens in a July 24 maiden race and came back three weeks later to win his maiden here by eight lengths, improving his Beyer Speed Figure from a 64 to an 83.

Among Bourbon Bash’s rivals in the Hopeful will be Blazing Sevens, who will go into the Hopeful with just the one start for trainer Chad Brown.

“Chad Brown beat us six lengths. I guess if you’re just reading that, that’s a no-brainer, that one’s better,” Lukas said with a wry smile. “We’ll see about that.”

While Lukas will send the bulk of his horses back to Kentucky when this meet ends, he does plan to leave Secret Oath, runner-up in the CCA Oaks and Alabama, here to train for her next start in the Grade 1 Cotillion on Sept. 24 at Parx Racing.

“She’s thriving here,” Lukas said.

The same can be said for her trainer.