D. Wayne Lukas, Horse Trainer Who Saddled Champions From Coast to Coast, Dies at 89
Source: New York Times
D. Wayne Lukas, Horse Trainer Who Saddled Champions From Coast to Coast, Dies at 89
He earned purses of more than $300 million in a Hall of Fame career that revolutionized thoroughbred racing with a modern-day corporate approach.
D. Wayne Lukas in 2024 at Saratoga Race Course, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. He trained the winners of seven Preakness Stakes, four Kentucky Derbies and four Belmont Stakes. Julia Nikhinson/Associated Press
By Richard Goldstein and Melissa Hoppert
June 29, 2025
Updated 5:00 p.m. ET
D. Wayne Lukas, a Hall of Fame trainer who saddled the winners of 15 Triple Crown and 20 Breeders' Cup races and who revolutionized thoroughbred racing with a modern-day corporate approach in a career spanning nearly 50 years, died on Saturday at his home in Louisville, Ky. He was 89.
His family announced the death in a statement released by Churchill Downs, the Kentucky Derby racetrack. They had said in June that he had been treated for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a serious bacterial skin infection.
Lukas evoked the image of an Old West cowboy when he donned a white Stetson and leather chaps to survey his stables, often arriving at 4:30 a.m. or so to make sure his horses were fit and the grounds were groomed to the immaculate standards he insisted upon. When it was time for training, he would escort his charges on horseback.
But he was also an astute businessman who attended races in designer suits and aviator shades and had horses in training from coast to coast.
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Lukas, right, in 1995, after his horse Thunder Gulch won the Kentucky Derby. Al Behrman/Associated Press
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Alex Traub contributed reporting.
Melissa Hoppert leads The Times’s Express team, which focuses on breaking news and trending stories across the globe.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/29/obituaries/d-wayne-lukas-dead.html
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R.I.P. 