Lukas Is Warming Up to Santa Anita

Wayne Lukas’ presence in California has lessened in recent years.

The Hall of Fame trainer now has a home in Louisville and spends most of his time in Kentucky and New York.

Lukas, who became a force in thoroughbred racing all those years ago while locally based, is back. With a string of 30 horses, including Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner and soon-to-be 2-year-old filly champion Folklore, Lukas will be at his familiar Barn 66 for most of Santa Anita’s winter-spring meet, which begins today.

How Lukas, 70, fares during the upcoming season remains to be seen, but he already has had plenty of success in Arcadia. He has twice led the trainer standings, most recently with 38 victories in 1989-90.

A four-time winner of the Kentucky Derby, Lukas ranks eighth on the all-time list at Santa Anita with 470 victories, and only Charlie Whittingham, Bobby Frankel and Ron McAnally have more local stakes wins than Lukas’ 106.

Still passionate about his occupation, Lukas also will have a 30-horse stable at Oaklawn Park, which begins its meet in Hot Springs, Ark., next month. He plans to stay at Santa Anita until April 1.

Then, he’ll go back to Kentucky, and that clearly is where his heart is now.

“I feel really comfortable and like racing in Kentucky,” he said. “When you take the meets at Keeneland and Churchill and slip Saratoga in the middle, that’s a very, very attractive circuit for me.

“I like the lifestyle so much better in Kentucky. I have a beautiful home, and I love the community. The people revere the horse and racing itself. It’s a different atmosphere and different feel. You go into restaurants or go shopping and you just see how people put racing on such a higher plane.

“In California, racing is on the back pages with limited space. The [Louisville] Courier-Journal will have a front-page story on racing about three times a week.

“The fields are good, the riding colony back there has improved a great deal and the competition is so great.”

For Lukas, however, Santa Anita remains the best option in the winter.

“Of all the meets in California during the year, this is probably the most competitive,” he said. “You have to go somewhere in the winter to develop some quality horses, like Folklore for the Kentucky Oaks or whatever.

“Oaklawn Park is a good option because it lets me start a few horses who might not be good enough to cut it out here. I also keep a few in New York just because I need to support New York if I am going to be involved at Saratoga.”

A self-described optimist, Lukas does see some positive signs in regard to racing’s future but believes some areas need to be addressed.

“I think if you talked to every trainer on the grounds at Santa Anita, they would tell you the No. 1 problem is the clientele isn’t out there,” he said. “The Bob Lewises who have a passion for the sport and are willing to step up and support it so that you can be competitive year-round with two or three divisions simply are not out there.

“Purse structure is better than ever, but the costs are higher than they have ever been and I don’t think we can keep passing on the added expenses to the clientele. They can only stand so much.

“I do think the game is better from some standpoints, but needs adjustment in others. Everybody sits around round tables and talks, but, in my opinion, we don’t have a lot of visionaries in the game. We keep getting retreads.

“All of us in the game have a passion and a love for it and we all chase the dream, but I don’t think we’re going to bring racing full cycle until we take an NBA, NFL, NASCAR or PGA approach and have a czar or a governing body that has some teeth.

“We need a strong commissioner, somebody that can say that if a guy has 10 drug suspensions that he can’t ride just like an NBA player with drug positives can’t play.

“We also need a central lab. You can’t have any glitches when the entertainment dollar is being pulled in so many different directions. People have to have confidence.”

Lukas, who has won the Santa Anita Oaks a record seven times, hopes to add another in 2006 because the Grade I, which will be run for the 67th time on March 12, is on Folklore’s radar.

A daughter of two-time Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Tiznow, Folklore, who is owned by Bob Lewis and wife Beverly, is scheduled to make her 3-year-old debut in the $150,000 Santa Ynez Stakes on Jan. 16.

“She’s improving all the time,” Lukas said. “She was good at Saratoga, but she got great in the fall. I think she is better right now than she has been. It would not surprise me to see her come back better as a 3-year-old than she was as a 2-year-old. She’s a good one.”