Lukas, Baze Inducted Into the Hall of Fame

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. —  “Lucky” Lukas? No way.

Wayne Lukas has conditioned more champions than any other thoroughbred trainer, won a record 13 Breeders Cup races and amassed more than $200 million in career purse earnings--but don’t call him lucky.

“I don’t believe in the luck factor,” Lukas said Monday, moments after being inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame. “If you have to depend on luck in this game, you’re gonna get beat a lot.”

Also inducted were jockey Russell Baze and thoroughbreds Exceller, Miesque and Gun Bow.

Lukas has received the Eclipse Award as the nation’s top trainer four times, won the Belmont Stakes three times and won 12 Triple Crown races. His most recent Triple Crown victories came this year, when Charismatic won the Derby and the Preakness.

Lukas, 63, has led the nation in earnings 14 of the last 16 years, and his 1998 mark of $17.8 million is a record that still stands.

Lukas chose to share the glory with a half-dozen assistants who gathered around him onstage.

“So many things have changed in our industry because of Wayne Lukas,” said former assistant Mark Hennig. “So many trainers never run multiple divisions, and he’s shown us the reality that any race is just one flight away.”

Baze has ridden 6,662 winners and earned more than $94.5 million in purses in his 25-year career. He has also been the only rider to record 400 or more wins in each of the last seven years.

Exceller, who raced from 1975 to 1979, came from 22 lengths back to beat two Triple Crown winners in the 1 1/2-mile Jockey Club Gold Cup in 1978. Exceller won by a nose over Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew and Affirmed.

Miesque, based in Europe for her entire racing career, made two starts in the United States, won two Grade I races and was voted two Eclipse Awards.

Gun Bow defeated Kelso by 12 lengths at the Brooklyn Handicap in 1964, setting a track record of 1:59. Gun Bow raced from 1963 until 1965 and earned $798,722.