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Lukas likes his trio's chances at No. 5
Associated Press
|  | | D. Wayne Lukas doesn't have the favorite, but his stable may still hold his fifth winner. |
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- D. Wayne Lukas has won four Kentucky
Derbys, giving him every reason to be confident.
And there's no one better at touting his own thoroughbreds than Lukas. After all, the Hall of Fame trainer has won three of the
last five Derbys, and is back for his 20th consecutive Run for the Roses with three horses, giving him a record 38 starters.
"I'll be going over with a pretty good little arsenal," Lukas said Thursday. "We're not exactly 30-1. If you're a gloom and doom
guy, you better get another profession."
Lukas singled out Blue Grass Stakes winner High Yield as his best chance to win Saturday's 1¼-mile Derby. High Yield, with four wins, four seconds and three thirds in 12 career starts, is among
the most consistent 3-year-olds in the 19-horse field.
"High Yield is doing the best of all the horses," Lukas said of yet another one of his horses by Storm Cat. "He's had only one
less than sterling performance (sixth in the Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs), but I wouldn't hold that against him."
High Yield, with Pat Day aboard, is part of a four-horse entry with Lukas' Commendable and the Todd-Pletcher-trained Trippi and
Impeachment. The entry is 5-1, third in the morning line behind 9-5 favorite Fusaichi Pegasus and 4-1 choice The Deputy.
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It's
a matter of letting them go out and seeing how it
all unfolds. Hollywood scripts don't always work out. As I've said, we may not cover the
spread, we just win the game. ” |
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— D. Wayne Lukas |
Exchange Rate, Lukas' other horse, is 30-1.
Lukas is convinced High Yield will win. Asked about Day being aboard, Lukas said: "He is absolutely the premier rider in
Kentucky and he's held his own in every other arena. But this is his arena. He won the Derby with a Pennsylvania colt named Lil E.
Tee and he's going to ride another one on Saturday."
And what about the fact none of his Storm Cat offsprings have won the Derby: "We'll put an end to that Saturday night."
Finally, there's the post position: Exchange Rate and High Yield will start from the auxiliary gate. High Yield leaves from the No.
17 spot, Exchange Rate from No. 16, and Commendable from No. 12.
"We're not worried, we've won from outside before," Lukas said.
Lukas won with Charismatic in 1999 and Thunder Gulch in 1995 from the No. 16 post; Grindstone in 1996 from the No. 15 post; and
Winning Colors in 1988 from the No. 11 post. The auxiliary gate holds the horses in posts 15-19.
Post positions were shifted Thursday when Globalize was scratched after being injured when kicked in the lower left hind
leg by his accompanying pony. Globalize, a 50-1 shot, was in the No. 1 post, meaning the other 19 horses move in a gate.
Anees, the 2-year-old champion and winner of the Breeders' Cup
Juvenile, now leaves from the rail.
Even with a large field, Lukas maintains getting too caught up
in strategy isn't always good.
"It's a matter of letting them go out and seeing how it all
unfolds," he said. "Hollywood scripts don't always work out. As
I've said, we may not cover the spread, we just win the game."
However, if a horse is to have a chance at winning the Derby,
"you better be able to be in position to do something in the
stretch."
The Lukas-Day combo has won its share of Triple Crown races, but
not the Derby. Day has won the Preakness three times for Lukas, and
the Belmont Stakes once. He rode Preakness winners Tank's Prospect
in 1985; Tabasco Cat in '94 and Timber Country in '95; Tabasco Cat
won the '94 Belmont.
Lukas, like just about everyone else, is impressed with Fusaichi
Pegasus, bought for $4 million by Japanese entrepreneur Fusao
Sekiguchi. Lukas, it turns out, was the underbidder when the Mr.
Prospector colt was sold at the Keeneland July yearling sales.
I don't know if we would have beat the guy," Lukas, who was
bidding for a group consisting of Satish Sanan, Michael Tabor and
Susan Magnier, said. "Heck, I might have been able to buy a whole
stable for $4 million. In hindsight, I'd like to have the horse."
Lukas' final bid was $3.8 million.
Fusaichi Pegasus lost his only start as a 2-year-old, finishing
second to David Copperfield in a 6½-furlong race at Hollywood Park.
He's won four in a row since, including a 4¼-length victory in the
Wood Memorial. He's also beaten Santa Anita Derby winner The Deputy
in the San Felipe.
In addition to Fusaichi Pegasus, trainer Neil Drysdale also
saddles War Chant, the 6-1 fourth choice.
Pletcher, in his first Derby, will send out four horses -- Graeme
Hall, Impeachment, More Than Ready and Trippi.
If all 19 starters go, the Derby will have a record $1,188,200
purse, with the winner taking home $888,200. Second place is worth
$170,000, third $85,000; and fourth $45,000.
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