Weekend Racing at Del Mar : Lukas’ Fast Fillies Figure to Eclipse Debutante Rivals

Trainer Wayne Lukas’ stable is rarely a factor in the handicap divisions for older horses, but when it comes to 2- and 3-year-olds, there isn’t much room for anybody else on the block.

This year, Lukas is up to old tricks, cornering the market on the top 2-year-old fillies. Two juveniles from this crop, Arewehavingfunyet and Life at the Top, are entered in Sunday’s $125,000 Del Mar Debutante, a race Lukas has won for three straight years and four times overall.

Arewehavingfunyet and Life at the Top will be starting less than a week after Lukas sent out Family Style and Nervous Baba, who ran 1-3 in the Spinaway Stakes at Saratoga. Arewehavingfunyet and Life at the Top ran 1-2 in their last race, the Sorrento Stakes here Aug. 19, just as Nervous Baba and Family Style were the first two across the line in the Adirondack Stakes earlier in August at Saratoga.

Lukas has still another 2-year-old filly, Twilight Ridge, who was a stakes winner in New York before being sidelined. It is this kind of depth that has enabled Lukas to rack up more than $6 million in purses this year, already breaking the record of $5.8 million that his far-flung stable set last year.

Lukas, who will be 50 Tuesday, is paying $10,000 to supplement Arewehavingfunyet into the Debutante, a mile race that he has won with Fiesta Lady in one division last year, with Althea in ‘83, with Landaluce in ’82 and with Terlingua in ’78. In the 34 runnings of the Debutante, no trainer had ever won the stake more than twice in succession before Lukas’ three straight. Both Landaluce and Althea used the Debutante as springboards for winning national 2-year-old filly titles.

Lukas has never won the Eclipse Award given the outstanding trainer, but this could finally be his year. Despite leading the country in purses the last two years, Lukas watched Woody Stephens get the award in ’83 and Jack Van Berg take it in ’84.

Lukas says the award doesn’t mean that much to him. “The year Woody won it, I figured we had a good chance, but only thought about it for a minute when I heard we didn’t win,” Lukas said.

Lukas watchers know better. Other than being voted into racing’s Hall of Fame, the Eclipse is the highest honor a trainer can receive, and Lukas is determined to hook the one that’s gotten away for two straight years.

Lukas’ credentials this year are even more imposing than in the past. Besides the $6 million in purses, he registered his 46th stakes win with Family Style in the Spinaway, tying the record Jimmy Jones set when he trained for Calumet Farm in 1952.

The Lukas pair will be opposed by six others in the Debutante, including Python, who finished third in the Sorrento, which was also a mile. Python broke slowly in the Sorrento, and trainer Neil Drysdale believes that a better start should increase her chances Sunday.

The rest of Del Mar’s Labor Day weekend includes the $125,000 Del Mar Oaks today, with Drysdale’s Magnificent Lindy the likely favorite, and the $200,000 Del Mar Handicap Monday.

Monday’s race is expected to mark the quick return of First Norman, who went straight to his feed tub, without passing Go, after a convincing win in the Del Mar Derby two weeks ago.