Lukas sending Dial Me in Adirondack

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer D. Wayne Lukas has won six runnings of the Adirondack Stakes, including four straight in the mid-1980s. So, it’s only appropriate that when the Adirondack is run for the 100th time on Saturday, Lukas will be represented.

Lukas will send out Dial Me, a daughter of Dialed In who won a six-furlong maiden race at Ellis Park on July 23. Dialed In is owned by the Churchill Downs Racing Club, a group of racing fans who each put up a $500 membership fee to get involved in horse ownership.

Dial Me finished fifth with some trouble in her debut at Churchill on June 24. She came back a month later to win her maiden by three-quarters of length in 1:10.54, beating a highly regarded Steve Asmussen runner in Truthful.

“They’ll give her no credit because she’s from Ellis, but she’s pretty good,” Lukas said Monday. “Her numbers are decent. The time of that race is significant. They don’t run like that at Ellis, and she was three lengths out of it at the top of the stretch and blew by a pretty nice horse. She merits being in there.”

On Monday, Dial Me worked a steady half-mile in 48.57 seconds over the Oklahoma training track. She went in quarter-mile fractions of 24.22 seconds and 24.35. She galloped out five furlongs in 1:03.72.

Luis Saez will ride Dial Me in the Grade 2, $200,000 Adirondack.

Others pointing to the 6 1/2-furlong Adirondack are Ever So Clever, a 7 1/4-length debut winner at Churchill; Libby’s Tail, a debut winner at Belmont; Nonna Mela, a second-out winner at Monmouth; and Silvertoni, who beat males in the Kentucky Juvenile before finishing ninth in the Group 2 Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot.