Mara
I always thought that his son’s accident had a lot to do with his decline. It was such a total punch in the gut.
One of my favorite lines, “The good is never as good as the bad is bad” DWL’s reply after Tabasco Cat (i think) won a race. The reporter asked him if it was bittersweet since TC had also trampled his son.
Yes, he sure did burn his way through racing. Not even a decent trainer. Quote. he used to say to assistants, “” i will show you how to work the crowd" meaning stealing clients.
He pretty much ran out of paying clients.
If anyone that was there the day his son almost got killed, D.W.L. was more worried over the horse.
Don’t know or care what becomes of him, just wish the media would or could see the real side of him. He is a showman. Period. Had lots of money behind him.
I know lots of Veterinarians and married one Veterinarian that finally refused to work for him. As he wanted the Vets to give illegal things. So that the Vets would be ruled off and not him. Of course Vets, cannot tell about things. But, I can. He ran horses with high fevers. with drugs, anything to win. TErrible man.
I miss his fillies! Landeluce. Winning Colors. The guy trained some good fillies.
I watched Genuine Risk get her face whipped. She should have won the Preakness with that foul! What a great filly she was.
Genuine Risk’s Derby was the first race I ever saw on TV, and I was an instant fan. Even as a newbie kid fan, I thought I saw her clearly react in the Preakness 2 weeks later, and I didn’t like DWL’s comments about it. So he kind of got off on the wrong foot with me impression-wise right there. Not that that speaks to his training ability or anything else necessarily.
I once had kittens years ago named Genuine Risk and Ruffian.
Here you go. Has to be one of the very few pictures in existence in the world of Ruffian and Genuine Risk together. 
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk8/dressagetraks/RuffianandJenny072007.jpg
Cute!
Dressagetraks - Now that is one cute photo of Ruffian and Genuine Risk!
Cloudyandcallie - Glad you were at the Preakness that day and saw what happened. Everyone who was there that I interviewed for the book told remarkably similar stories.
Jeannette - I totally hear you. I had a vet tell me something very close to what you are saying.
Hallie
[QUOTE=fossiloverfences;6371560]
This is only speculation on my part, but I would say it’s simply a matter of aging. He’s in his mid-70s I believe and there are so many younger successful trainers – several of whom might have been his assistants at one time – that are competing for the top horses & top owners.[/QUOTE]
A very well known professor where I went to school had a lot of inside knowledge of this guy from having done some work in the equine industry (statistical stuff).
Anyway, he told me that people would pay DWL to be a shill bidder on their horses to jack up the price. Other people bidding would be encouraged to continue playing even if it were a crap horse simply because they believed if DWL were bidding then the horse must be good.
How would getting a vet to give it get a trainer off the hook? I thought fault always fell back to the trainer no matter how the drugs get in the system?
[QUOTE=SnicklefritzG;6373240]
A very well known professor where I went to school had a lot of inside knowledge of this guy from having done some work in the equine industry (statistical stuff).
Anyway, he told me that people would pay DWL to be a shill bidder on their horses to jack up the price. Other people bidding would be encouraged to continue playing even if it were a crap horse simply because they believed if DWL were bidding then the horse must be good.[/QUOTE]
This isn’t just a D. W. L. thing, it happens all the time, oldest trick in the book.
Oh I was thinking that Ruffian was dead before Genuine Risk was foaled. Then I looked at the picture.:lol:
[QUOTE=Angelico;6373348]
This isn’t just a D. W. L. thing, it happens all the time, oldest trick in the book.[/QUOTE]
Yep, half the time everybody knows EXACTLY what a (good)horse will bring before it goes in the ring. Everybody works it out before hand.
Not a DWL fan, had an ex who knew waaaay too much about him, but I admire him in the way I admire people like Martha Stewart, Hitler, Mussolini, most religious leaders and mega church pastors. Their PR power is absolutely amazing. The way they can make people believe in them, listen to them, follow them, defend them,die for them. Okay, maybe DWL never convinced anybody to die for him, but from a psychological standpoint, these folks fascinate me. In a creepy feeling kind of way.
One funny Lukas story. The shitpits at Belmont are literally pits in the ground, like a tractor trailer standing on it’s end. He had a horse get loose and fall in. They had to bring a crane in, and when they pulled the horse out, he didn’t have a scratch on him. Lukas sent the horse out the next day on th premise that any decent horse should have killed himself or broken something, and only a no hoper would emerge unscathed
Oh right the vet that would have seen him at the Preakness when he won.
As far as stallion shares and did he train anything of note. In Overbrook’s hayday, everything besides Storm Cat was trained by him. He had shares in Capote that I know of some others were Thunder Gulch and recently deceased Grand Slam.
There is not you all mention here that is not applied to every trainer out there and believe me there is worse. I see them mentioned here in how great they are and I laugh. Drugs, joints tapped until there’s nothing left, running sick, dead horses when joints get infected. But it’s all ok unless of course your name is D Wayne Lukas. I told you at the beginning he wasn’t a saint but painting him out to be the worst of the bunch? Well you all have no idea.
Have a great day
Terri
[QUOTE=Angelico;6373348]
This isn’t just a D. W. L. thing, it happens all the time, oldest trick in the book.[/QUOTE]
No need to restate the obvious. I think we all know that. Now if it makes you feel good to restate what everybody already knows, then fine.
DWL apparently did a lot more of this than most…
DWL is no worse and probably alot better than most. The auction stuff in silly, everyone does that. Does anyone think that they really paid $16m for The Green Monkey?
I know several of his former employees and they speak well of him. If others who have left don’t speak well of him it may be more circumstantial. His former assistants like Pletcher, McLaughlin and Maker and others have seen great success and every one of them that I have spoken to (and there are plenty) attribute their success to DWL.
I am not sure a vet telling his SO who turns around and tells everybody somehow ethically gets around the client-vet priviledge (I am assuming the vets have one of those?)
Well, he was certainly one of the first trainers not to mince words about the fiasco of the detention barn thing at Belmont, and you have to admire him a bit for doing that, spotlight or not.
My significant other, who by no means one to make these kinds of things up, lives in Saratoga. He saw D. Wayne at the track some years ago when a girl my boyfriend estimated to around 10 or 12 twelve years old approached Lukas with that day’s program in her hand to get his autograph. No one else around so not as though BigShot Trainer was being mobbed.
Lukas responded to this young girl’s request with “Get the [fudge] away from me.”
