Columnist Ralph Siraco: Lukas puts together a winning weekend

Ralph Siraco

Monday, Feb. 21, 2000 | 10:32 a.m.

Ralph Siraco's horse racing column appears Monday and his Southern California selections run Tuesday-Friday. Reach him c/o Las Vegas Sun, 800 S. Valley View Blvd., Las Vegas, NV 89107.

Team Lukas is at it again.

The signature white-bridled runners of the most influential trainer of our time were flying high and running hard this weekend from the Everglades to the bayou.

Trainer D. Wayne Lukas had to pack extra luggage, for a change of multiple Gucci suits, as the impeccably dressed icon of racing led four horses in four stakes races to the winner circles at Gulfstream Park and the Fair Grounds.

And they were all 3-year-olds on the way to Kentucky.

The accomplishments that Lukas has amassed over his three-plus decades of training rival any in professional sports. His achievements could fill an encyclopedia and are unparalleled in the sport.

But this weekend was a great one even for Lukas, a man who once won six consecutive Triple Crown races, has trained 20 Eclipse Award winners, won the national trainer title 14 times from 1982-1997 and became the first trainer in the history of the sport to surpass $200 million in earnings.

It was a vintage weekend even for the man who is a four-time Eclipse Award winner, has trained three Horse of the Year winners (Lady's Secret in 1986, Criminal Type in 1990 and Charismatic in 1999), is the leading Breeders' Cup trainer with 15 wins including last year's Classic (Cat Thief) and was recently inducted into horse racing's Hall of Fame.

Even by his standards it was a weekend to remember.

Lukas spread the victories around to different owners, too.

You see, the success of D. Wayne Lukas lies not only in his ability to train racehorses, but in finding owners who have the deep pockets to buy them.

The winning Lukas clients this weekend included William T. Young's Overbrook Farm, Robert and Beverly Lewis, and Lukas' newest well-heeled owner, Satish H. Sanan of Padua Stables.

On Saturday, Lukas saddled the Lewis' High Yield in the Grade I Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park. The 1 1/16-mile race was the final steppingstone to the Grade I Florida Derby, which in turn is a major prep for the Kentucky Derby.

High Yield had just finished second to The Deputy in the Santa Catalina Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 30 and Lukas thought the Florida route may be kinder to his improving runner. With Pat Day in the irons, High Yield proved Lukas right with a decisive victory over the East Coast's best.

The Lewises are trying to garner a third Kentucky Derby in four years with High Yield. Their Charismatic won last year following Silver Charm in 1997. Lukas rival Bob Baffert trained Silver Charm.

The Lewises are prominent thoroughbred owners in California. Bob serves as Thoroughbred Owners of California Chairman of the Board and is member of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association's policy board. He owns and develops industrial real estate and, as owner of Foothill Beverage Company, is the proprietor of the second-largest beer distributor in California.

About an hour after the Fountain of Youth score, Lukas pulled an upset with an Overbrook Farm color-bearer at the Fair Grounds. Shawnee Country ran down the Baffert-trained Chilukki to win the Dovana Dale Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. She paid an un-Lukas-like $59.40 to win by beating the 1999 Juvenile Filly Eclipse Award winner at the New Orleans track.

William T. Young is the founder of W. T. Young Food, Inc., which manufactures Jif peanut butter and other foods and holds interests in Royal Crown Cola, general warehousing and shipping. He is Director Emeritus of Churchill Downs and resides on 1500-acre Overbrook Farm in his hometown of Lexington, Ky.

Young's Grindstone won the 1996 Kentucky Derby -- one of five Overbrook Triple Crown winners that were trained by Lukas. Young owns top stallion Storm Cat, sire of Overbrook's Cat Thief.

On Sunday Lukas won a pair of races for his new client, Sanan.

Sanan, who was born in India and migrated to England at age 16, is the founder and chief executive officer of Information Management, Inc., which supplies computer outsourcing and software services to firms around the world. Employing 1,600, the firm's clients include Ford Motor Co., American Airlines and Phillip Morris International.

Sanan's passion is thoroughbred racing and his goal is to win races all over the world. To that end, he has purchased 586-acre Silverleaf Farm in Florida and has named Lukas general manager and minority partner in Padua Stables.

Lukas returned the stable's 1999 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Cash Run to Gulfstream Park, and Cash Run passed her first test as a 3-year-old with a well-spotted victory. She is now headed to Kentucky with the Oaks at Churchill Downs as her main objective.

Lukas also has Overbrook Farm's Surfside heading for Louisville, and she may be run in the Derby rather than the Oaks if she continues to dominate on the distaff side.

Either way, Padua could very well be represented by its own Derby contender in Exchange Rate, winner of the Risen Star Stakes. Another well-placed runner in a Fair Grounds added-money feature after a confidence-building victory down the hill at Santa Anita, Exchange Rate entered the Derby picture with his victory. He will likely stay in New Orleans for the track's major Derby prep, the Louisiana Derby -- a route that proved successful for Lukas with Grindstone in 1996.

So, four stakes-race victories, three happy owners and a number of Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks contenders later, the weekend proved to be a happy one for Team Lukas.

Stand by, Kentucky. Here come those signature white bridles -- and the Gucci suits too.