He Hopes They Can’t Catch Her

LOUISVILLE, Ky. —  The sun wasn’t shining bright in my old Kentucky home. A gelid wind rattled down the backstretch at the racetrack that was old when Grant was President. Out on the track, the exercise riders were bundled to the chin as they worked or galloped the flower of the American turf, the favorites in the 1995 Kentucky Derby.

But under the shed roof of Barn No. 44, where the Roger Penske of horse racing, Wayne Lukas, was holding court, all anybody wanted to talk about was a horse who had the day off, the filly, Serena’s Song.

Now, it is the considered opinion of the hardboots of Kentucky, those who consider themselves the Supreme Court of racing, that a filly’s place, so to speak, is in the home. She should be getting ready to have babies.

She should have her mind on other things in the spring of the year. She should not be busting on the all-male cast at the track here.

Lukas begs to differ. He usually does.

Lukas has trained one of the only three fillies ever to win this hallowed race. He has entered more fillies in it, four, than any trainer. Of course, he has entered more horses of all kinds--26.

Lukas likes to buck a trend. It’s what you like about him. He is that rarity around a racetrack, an outspoken advocate. Racetracks are ordinarily the despair of journalists. Horses can’t talk. And trainers won’t. They are as close-mouthed and secretive as Russian spies. Not Lukas. He works his horses in daylight. He voices his opinions there too.

Lukas gets lots of advice. Particularly about running fillies in the Derby. Don’t do it, is the basic thrust.

When he first ignored the advice, in 1984, he characteristically entered two. And one of his fillies finished 19th.

Most people would get the message. Not Lukas. He gives messages, he doesn’t get them. Four years later, he entered another filly, Winning Colors--and won.

Lukas has always had a way with the ladies. His name probably should be Don Wayne. Or Porfirio. From the days he conditioned Landaluce, he has probably put the most fit females on the track of any trainer who ever saddled.

A 19-horse Derby would seem to be no place for a lady. And training a filly is no place for a male chauvinist pig. “If you got a rough groom and he jerks a horse around and bullies him, it probably won’t affect a stud,” Lukas said. “But a filly might get intimidated. You might damage her self-esteem. You pamper all your horses, but fillies respond more to it.”

Lukas doesn’t come singing underneath their balcony with a rose in his teeth, but he treats women the way they like to be treated. He, so to speak, opens doors for them, pulls back their chairs, pats them a lot, smiles a lot. Does everything but get down on one knee to propose.

Of course, it works. Flattery will get you everywhere.

Will it get you in the winner’s circle Saturday under a blanket of roses?

Serena’s Song is a little horse--15 hands. She weighs 900 to 1,000 pounds. But she runs as if someone were shooting at her. She can run all day. She expects less. She can corner like a rabbit. “She has a great turn of foot,” Lukas brags. “She can leave you standing there like guy waiting for a bus.”

“She comes from a large family--12 horses,” he grins. “So you know she doesn’t discourage easily. You have to beat her. You can’t wait for her to come back to you. You have to go get her. Then, you have to get by her.”

Winning Colors was an Amazonian by comparison. “She was muscled to the point where, if she was human, you’d swear she was on steroids,” Lukas said. “She outweighed every colt in the race with her.”

Serena’s Song is as feminine as a ballerina, Lukas says. She should run in a tutu.

Of course, the race has to be run like Swan Lake. Lukas doesn’t delude himself. If it turns into a cavalry charge or a dock brawl, she’s not Dempsey. She’s Chris Evert. She has to beat you from the baseline.

She’ll be on the front end Saturday, Lukas promises. “They better keep her in view.”

Winning wire-to-wire is standard strategy for fillies in the Derby. Regret, the first ever, won that way in 1915. So did Winning Colors in 1988. Genuine Risk took over at the half.

Can Serena’s Song get the mile-and-a-quarter? Lukas is asked. “That’s the mystique of the Kentucky Derby,” he says quickly. “Nobody knows. Nobody in here’s done it.”

But will the boys be gallant? Or will they gang up? If so, 18-1 may be insurmountable odds.

Lukas is not intimidated. What about Talkin Man, winner of the Wood Memorial by seven widening lengths? “That’s like North Carolina beating Southwestern Baptist,” disclaims Lukas, the ex-basketball coach. “So Talkin Man had a good game. But who was guarding him?”

You have to run a filly who has won five consecutive races, six out of seven and was second in the other, Lukas feels. “It’s her chance for greatness,” he explains. “You gotta dare to be great. Do you give her a chance to be a statue or do you just send her out to win six Grade 1 races nobody ever heard of?”

If you’re Wayne Lukas, do you try to win the distaff championship Kentucky Oaks with her? Or do you try to became the first trainer in history to win the Kentucky Derby with fillies twice? The betting around the track is, the argument didn’t last long.