Call Them the Graduates

Unless trainer Wayne Lukas has a surprise, he’s not going to have a starter in this year’s Kentucky Derby. The irony is, Lukas’ former assistants, Todd A. Pletcher and Mark A. Hennig, are knocking on the Derby door with contenders.

In fact, Pletcher, who left Lukas in 1996 after an eight-year relationship, could have four starters at Churchill Downs on May 1.

Pletcher, 36, is running three of his contenders Saturday -- Value Plus, the 7-2 third choice at Aqueduct in the $750,000 Wood Memorial; Limehouse in the $750,000 Blue Grass at Keeneland, and Purge in the $1-million Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park.

Pletcher’s Pollard’s Vision, who won’t run again before Kentucky Derby day, earned his way into the race with a victory Saturday in the Illinois Derby.

Hennig, who’ll turn 39 Saturday, overlapped with Pletcher, working for Lukas for almost six years before taking out his trainer’s license in 1992. Hennig will saddle Eddington, the 3-1 morning-line second choice in the 1 1/8-mile Wood. Master David, in from Hollywood Park in the care of trainer Bobby Frankel, is the 5-2 favorite in the Wood.

Lukas, 68, who was enshrined in the Racing Hall of Fame in 1999 and doesn’t need to win another race to be remembered for an extraordinary career, is enduring one of his worst years. He didn’t win a race all winter at Santa Anita and moved his horses out of California last week.

He never gives up on the Derby, though, because you can’t win if you’re not in. This year, more than ever, trainers with longshots won’t be accused of filling the starting gate, because the Derby is so open that it would be a surprise if a longshot didn’t win.

With that in mind, Lukas is hanging on to the hopes of two undistinguished colts -- Hasslefree and Race For Glory -- owned by Bob and Beverly Lewis. Hasslefree is running in the Arkansas Derby and Race For Glory is scheduled to run in the Lexington Stakes at Keeneland on April 17.

There’s a long list of Lukas “graduates” who have prospered. Besides Pletcher and Hennig, it includes Bobby Barnett, who has won a Breeders’ Cup race; Dallas Stewart, who has had a couple of Derby starters, and Kiaran McLaughlin, who has been winning at a 40% clip this season at Gulfstream Park.

For Lukas, who has started a record 41 horses in the Derby and won it four times, the only thing close to as satisfying as winning the Derby would be seeing one of his former assistants in the Churchill winner’s circle.

Pletcher was routinely credited with being the man behind the man when Thunder Gulch won the Derby in 1995, but he went out of his way this week to temper the credit.

“When Thunder Gulch was a 2-year-old, [Michael Tabor] had made a pre-race deal to buy the horse,” Pletcher said. “Then he didn’t run especially well in a stake at Aqueduct, and we didn’t feel particularly good when we led the horse back to our barn.”

Pletcher and Jeff Lukas, who was his father’s No. 1 assistant, took over the training of Thunder Gulch in New York. The younger Lukas was forced out of Wayne’s mainstream operation after suffering near-fatal injuries when he was run over by Tabasco Cat in a training-hours accident at Santa Anita in 1993.

Thunder Gulch crisscrossed the country after that, winning the Hollywood Futurity in California and, in his first starts as a 3-year-old, the Fountain of Youth and the Florida Derby at Gulfstream. He was a 24-1 overlay in the Kentucky Derby.

“Yes, I had a lot to do with Thunder Gulch,” Pletcher said, “but there should be no mistake about it, this was a Wayne Lukas horse.”

Last year, Pletcher’s barn earned $12.3 million, second nationally to Frankel’s record $19.1 million. He has grown a seven-horse stable into a 200-horse operation, using the same organizational skills that Lukas is known for. Tuesday, it was 10 a.m., 5 1/2 hours after he had arrived at Belmont Park, when Pletcher ordered breakfast.

Pletcher and Hennig have been to the Derby before. In 2000, Pletcher ran four horses, finishing third with Impeachment and fourth with More Than Ready. Hennig’s experience came in 1993 and resulted in a fourth-place finish by Personal Hope.

The Derby that Hennig likes to talk about is the 1988 running, won by Winning Colors for Lukas. Hennig and Jeff Lukas were close to that filly during much of her development.

“I made an [early] future-book bet on Winning Colors [in Nevada], and she paid a nice price,” Hennig said. “It came during a time when I could use the money. So that Derby helped me out financially as well as professionally.”

Does he have a future-book bet on Eddington?

“No,” Hennig said. “I’ve got a big enough investment in the colt, just trying to win some of these races.”

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Rain was in the forecast for early today, but a clearing trend will follow and a fast track is probable for Saturday’s Wood Memorial.