Lukas and Klein Each Win Two Eclipse Awards

Trainer Wayne Lukas, who entered the thoroughbred business full-time in 1978, and owner Gene Klein, who began buying horses as the result of his wife Joyce’s interest in 1982, won four 1985 Eclipse Awards Tuesday--two for themselves and two for horses they raced.

Lukas, whose coast-to-coast stable set records with 70 stakes wins and $11.1 million in purses, was voted the Eclipse as the year’s outstanding trainer. The Kleins, whose horses earned a record $5.4 million, won the Eclipse as best owners. The Kleins’ major victories were Tank’s Prospect’s in the Preakness Stakes and Life’s Magic’s and Twilight Ridge’s in the Breeders’ Cup series.

The Lukas-Klein tandem won divisional championships with Family Style, who was voted best 2-year-old filly, and Life’s Magic, who was picked as best older filly or mare.

Besides the Lukas-Klein awards, 11 other Eclipse winners were announced Tuesday after voting by more than 200 turf writers, track racing secretaries and staff members of the Daily Racing Form.

The complete list:

2-year-old colt--1. Tasso. 2. Storm Cat. 3. Ogygian.

2-year-old filly--1. Family Style. 2. I’m Splendid. 3. Twilight Ridge.

3-year-old colt--1. Spend a Buck. 2. Proud Truth. 3. Chief’s Crown.

3-year-old filly--1. Mom’s Command. 2. Lady’s Secret. 3. Fran’s Valentine.

Older colt, horse or gelding--1. Vanlandingham. 2. Precisionist. 3. Gate Dancer.

Older filly or mare--1. Life’s Magic. 2. Dontstop Themusic. 3. Heatherten.

Turf male--1. Cozzene. 2. Win. 3. Zoffany.

Turf female--1. Pebbles. 2. Estrapade. 3. Videogenic.

Sprinter--1. Precisionist. 2. Mt. Livermore. 3. Track Barron.

Steeplechaser--Flatterer.

Trainer--Wayne Lukas.

Jockey--1. Laffit Pincay. 2. Jorge Velasquez.

Apprentice jockey--Arthur Madrid Jr.

Owners--Mr. and Mrs. Gene Klein.

Breeder--Nelson Bunker Hunt.

The only Eclipse Award still to be announced for ’85 is the one for horse of the year, and that will be revealed in early February. There was no dominant horse throughout the entire year, but based on the divisional voting, the favorite is Spend a Buck, winner of the Kentucky Derby and five of seven starts. In tough competition against Proud Truth and Chief’s Crown for the 3-year-old title, Spend a Buck was the clear-cut winner.

While Hunt was winning his second breeder award, Pincay was voted outstanding jockey for an unprecedented fifth time. The 39-year-old Pincay won his first award in 1971 and added Eclipse honors in ‘73, ’74 and ’79.

In a year that began with his wife Linda’s suicide death in January, Pincay rebounded to win 289 races and a record $13.4 million in purses. Pincay’s stakes winners included Spend a Buck, Tasso and Family Style.

Velasquez, who won a record 56 stakes and finished second to Pincay in the purse standings, was second in a close Eclipse vote. The turf writers and the Racing Form favored Pincay, but Velasquez led the voting by the racing secretaries.

Madrid, a 17-year-old Panamanian who did most of his riding in New Jersey and Philadelphia, won 188 races and totaled $1.5 million in purses.

Hunt, the Dallas wheeler-dealer whose fortune is estimated at $900 million by Forbes magazine, bred the winners of 15 stakes, including major winners Estrapade, Dahar and Triptych.

Among the equine winners, Life’s Magic is the only repeater, having also won an Eclipse as top 3-year-old filly in 1984. Life’s Magic, who has been retired to be bred in Kentucky to Mr. Prospector this year, is owned in partnership by Gene Klein and Melvin Hatley of Norman, Okla.

Lukas, 50, and Klein, who will be 65 later this month, both came into racing from other sports, Lukas having coached high school and college basketball in Wisconsin, and Klein having owned the San Diego Chargers until he sold out in 1984. Klein met Lukas through his football general manager, Johnny Sanders, and Dick Butkus, the former Chicago Bear star who owned an interest in a horse trained by Lukas.

The Kleins now own 186 horses, keeping many of them at their 220-acre ranch in Rancho Santa Fe when they aren’t in training.

Despite the Lukas-Klein Eclipse haul, Lukas was disappointed that they hadn’t won the 3-year-old filly title with Lady’s Secret and the trainer was critical of the voting system.

Lady’s Secret won eight straight stakes before she ran second to stablemate Life’s Magic in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff Stakes at Aqueduct Nov. 2. In head-to-head competition with Mom’s Command, each filly won a race.

“Lady’s Secret had all the credentials,” Lukas said. “I question some of the people who vote for the Eclipse. They don’t really have a stake in the outcome. It would be better if the awards were determined by just a handful of the top racing officials--people like Mr. (Jimmy) Kilroe (of Santa Anita), Tommy Trotter (Arlington and Gulfstream Parks) and Lenny Hale (the New York tracks)--who could sit down and settle the championships.”

The turf writers and Racing Form majorities favored Mom’s Command, and she and Lady’s Secret tied in balloting by the racing secretaries. In order to win, a horse or person must be supported by at least two of the three voting groups.

Lady’s Secret’s non-title and Life’s Magic’s championship underscore the instant impact of the Breeders’ Cup, a one-day series of million-dollar races that began in 1984. Lady’s Secret’s loss in the Breeders’ Cup hurt her in the voting, and Life’s Magic had had a mediocre year, winning only one race, until her victory in the Distaff.

Five of the 1985 champions won races on Breeders’ Cup day--Tasso, Life’s Magic, Cozzene, Pebbles and Precisionist.