TRIPLE THREAT

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — “Wayne Lukas is running five in the Derby because he used to coach basketball.”

“It’s a good thing he didn’t coach football.”

--A backstretch conversation at Churchill Downs.

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Nothing that Wayne Lukas does in the Kentucky Derby is ordinary. He hasn’t saddled as many Derby winners as Ben Jones, whose six winners started with Lawrin in 1938 and ended with Hill Gail in 1952, and included Whirlaway and Citation in between. Lukas had to run 12 horses in the Derby, over seven years, before he got his first of two victories. And 21 of Lukas’ 26 Derby starters have finished out of the money. Yet for this era, Lukas is Mr. Derby, if for no other reason than he’s always here. His mother called him Darrell, but anybody else would say that the initial in D. Wayne Lukas’ name stands for Derby.

On Saturday, when the Derby is run for the 122nd time, Lukas will outdo even himself and break another record: He will start five horses. The mark that will fall belongs to James Rowe Sr., who finished sixth, seventh, 15th and 20th with four horses in 1923.

Last year, when Lukas ran three horses, including the winner, Thunder Gulch, he upped his 15-year participation record to 26, breaking the record of 24 by the aptly named Derby Dick Thompson from 1920 to 1937. Among active trainers, the horseman second to Lukas on the total-starter list is the semi-retired Woody Stephens with 14.

Although Lukas nominated 17 horses to the Triple Crown series this year, it’s unthinkable that five of them--25% of the 20-horse field--will be running. In five previous years, Lukas has had more than 17 nominees--he had 29 horses eligible in 1991--but three has been the most he has run in the Derby.

“Wayne has changed the business of horse training,” trainer Charlie Whittingham said. “He’s a credit to the game.”

Whittingham, 83, has been training since 1934, the year before Lukas was born, and with a much more selective program has won as many Derbies as Lukas with only six starters. Whittingham will saddle the longshot Corker here Saturday.

Despite his high profile, Lukas sneaked up on the Derby both times he won it--with the filly Winning Colors in 1988 and with Thunder Gulch at 24-1 last year--and Saturday’s five horses are not highly regarded, either, not because they are stiffs, but because all were beaten in their Derby preps.

Victory Speech and Honour And Glory, who race for Michael Tabor, the owner of Thunder Gulch, finished third last time, in the Jim Beam Stakes and the Santa Anita Derby. Editor’s Note and Grindstone, who race for William T. Young, were third and second, respectively, in the Blue Grass and the Arkansas Derby. And Prince Of Thieves, whose following has swelled since a bleeding incident that contributed to a sixth-place run in the Santa Anita Derby, was narrowly beaten in the Lexington Stakes, a race he would have won with a better ride from Pat Day.

Last year, Lukas wore a “Timber Country” baseball cap at the barn all during Derby week, and when Thunder Gulch won and the other horse ran third, the press accused him of camouflaging Thunder Gulch. Lukas says that he didn’t talk much about Thunder Gulch before the Derby because not many questions were asked about him.

“This year, Victory Speech has been forgotten,” Lukas said. “But hit me with the questions, and I’ll talk about him. This isn’t a political campaign; I’m not pushing any of my candidates, but I think it’s a pretty good group.”

Timber Country, of course, was instrumental in keeping Lukas’ record streak of five consecutive Triple Crown victories alive. He won the Preakness, the middle race in the series, while Thunder Gulch was running third at Pimlico, and then Thunder Gulch completed the unique 1995 Triple Crown sweep with a victory in the Belmont Stakes.

“Somebody told me that I’m 5-1 in Las Vegas to win my sixth straight, and 4-1 not to do it,” Lukas said. “I guess you’d have to say that the odds are against me, because the Derby is the toughest of the Triple Crown races to win twice in a row.

“After all, only three guys have done it before.”

The three trainers with consecutive wins in the Derby have been H.J. Thompson with Burgoo King and Brokers Tip in 1932-33; Jimmy Jones with Iron Liege and Tim Tam in 1957-58, and Lucien Laurin with Riva Ridge and Secretariat in 1972-73.

Lukas’ unprecedented Triple Crown run started when Tabasco Cat won the Preakness and the Belmont in 1994. This year, his head wear is borderline generic: A black baseball cap with yellow lettering--Preakness colors, actually--has an arc of five stars with the number “5” in the center and the words “Triple Crown” at the bottom.

Mention the Lukas name to any trainer on the backstretch, and there’s a reaction, whether merely a roll of the eyes or an outright opinion.

“He’s a great recruiter,” Nick Zito said. “That’s the one thing I’d like to borrow from Wayne, his ability to recruit owners. Otherwise, I have more of a Charlie Whittingham philosophy toward the Derby--only bring a horse when he belongs. I wouldn’t push a horse into this race unless an owner overruled me after I said we shouldn’t run.”

Lukas has been led into the Derby by a number of overreaching owners. In 1989, a few days before entry time, William T. Young stuck his head inside Lukas’ stable office and quietly said: “Let’s run Shy Tom.” Shy Tom finished 10th.

In 1989, on the day that On The Line won the Derby trial, a week before the Derby, Lukas and the colt’s owner, the late Gene Klein, watched the race on television in California.

“I want him in the Derby,” Klein said.

“Gene,” Lukas said, “a mile’s not the same as a mile and a quarter.”

The two of them danced around for several minutes.

“In my heart,” Lukas said, “I knew the horse didn’t belong, but I also knew that I was losing the argument. So we ran him [and finished 10th], but this shows that some of my [losing] Derby statistics are not necessarily the horses I wanted to run here.”

There are also the horses that Lukas himself sent into the Derby with little chance. Capote was a brilliant 2-year-old while also racing for Klein, but he had gotten extremely sick before the start of his 3-year-old season, and Lukas was a prep race behind by the time the colt arrived at Churchill Downs in 1987. Woody Stephens, who finished ninth with Conquistarose, predicted that Capote would finish last, and actually the only horse he beat was Demons Begone, who bled from the nostrils on the backstretch.

This time, Lukas and his owners have concurred about running their horses in the Derby, and in a year when the contenders are scattered after Unbridled’s Song, there’s nothing ill-advised about sending out his quintet. Only Victory Speech is without a stakes win, but in the Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park in February he was third, right with Unbridled’s Song, as they were outrun by the longshot Built For Pleasure in the last sixteenth of a mile.

Because no one has ever run five horses in the same Derby, there is no blueprint for preparing this unwieldy herd for such an important day. When entries were taken late Wednesday, Lukas still hadn’t named a rider for Honour And Glory. He was holding out for Mike Smith, in the event Unbridled’s Song’s nagging hoof injury knocked him out of the race. But Unbridled’s Song is scheduled to run, and Thursday, a couple of hours before betting began on the Derby, Lukas named Aaron Gryder to ride Honour And Glory.

A crowd well over 100,000 will watch, and many of them will be Lukas employees in the busy Churchill Downs pre-race paddock. Lukas will be dashing from horse to horse, and he’ll be supported by assistant trainers, jockey valets and pony riders--25 people in all.

“It might be the Derby, but those valets come down [on the escalator] from the jocks’ room like it’s the third [race] at Finger Lakes,” Lukas said. “I’m going to ask them real nice if they might at least show up about two minutes early.”

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Wayne Lukas Profile

* Born: Sept. 2, 1935, in Antigo, Wis.

* Height: 6 feet 2.

* Weight: 215 pounds.

* Family: Son Jeff, 38, assistant trainer.

* Education: Master’s degree in education, University of Wisconsin.

* The early years: Coached high school basketball for nine years and was assistant coach at Wisconsin for two years.

* Introduction to racing: Became full-time quarter horse trainer in 1967. Became full-time thoroughbred trainer in 1978.

* National honors: Leading quarter horse trainer, 1967; leading thoroughbred trainer, 1983-92, 1994-95; won Eclipse award for best trainer in 1985-87, 1994.

* National champions: Althea, Capote, Criminal Type, Family Style, Flanders, Golden Attraction, Gulch, Lady’s Secret, Landaluce, Life’s Magic, North Sider, Open Mind, Sacahuista, Serena’s Song, Steinlen, Thunder Gulch, Timber Country, Winning Colors.

* Horses of the year: Lady’s Secret, Criminal Type.

* Triple Crown winners: Winning Colors, Thunder Gulch (Kentucky Derby); Codex, Tank’s Prospect, Tabasco Cat, Timber Country (Preakness); Tabasco Cat, Thunder Gulch (Belmont).

* Breeders’ Cup winners: Capote, Flanders, Gulch, Is It True, Lady’s Secret, Life’s Magic, Open Mind, Sacahuista, Steinlen, Success Express, Timber Country, Twilight Ridge.

* Records: Purses earned, one year--$17.8 million, 1988. Stakes races won, one year--92, 1987. Stakes races won, lifetime--811. Purses earned, lifetime--$160 million. $1-million races, lifetime--19.

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Track Record

How trainer Wayne Lukas’ 26 horses have finished in the Kentucky Derby.

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Year Horse Finish 1981 Partez 3rd 1982 Muttering 5th 1983 Marfa 5th Balboa Native 9th Total Departure 20th 1984 Life’s Magic 8th Althea 19th 1985 Tank’s Prospect 7th 1986 Badger Land 5th 1987 On The Line 10th War 13th Capote 16th 1988 Winning Colors 1st 1989 Houston 8th Shy Tom 10th 1990 Land Rush 7th Power Lunch 10th Real Cash 11th 1991 Corporate Report 9th 1992 Dance Floor 3rd Al Sabin 6th 1993 Union City 15th 1994 Tabasco Cat 6th 1995 Thunder Gulch 1st Timber Country 3rd Serena’s Song 16th

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