Jerry Bailey pays tribute to D Wayne Lukas

He was forced to retire last Monday because of serious health issues and passed away at his family home in Louisville on Saturday night, aged 89.

Lukas was inducted into the Hall Of Fame in 1999 and had four Kentucky Derby winners, as well as 20 victories at the Breeders’ Cup during his iconic career.

Speaking on Monday’s Nick Luck Daily Podcast, Bailey said: “You can pick out any number of words; iconic, one of a kind, those are the kind of things that would define him. But I think my most vivid memory of him will be how much he wanted to give back to the game in the form of always being available.

“I’ve been a broadcaster for 20 years now and even aside from all the success on the racetrack with him, I always needed some background information either on the horse or the owner, and he always said yes.

“When I needed an interview on camera, and it always took twice as long as I told him it would take, it was always yes, without hesitation and always with a smile. He was always willing.

“And I think that’s what I’ll remember most about Wayne, even in the later years when it was harder for him to do stuff compared to others, he was always willing.”

And Bailey said that outlook was one of the main driving forces behind the trainer’s remarkable success.

“To me it’s crystal clear, he was one of the most positive people I’ve ever been around in my life. I think he used that in his own personal life as well," he said.

“I got off a horse one time when I was riding and he was not a very fast horse, when I got off him Wayne met me, and we had maybe a four-minute walk back to the jockeys’ quarter.

“And I told Wayne 'I don’t want to ride this horse again, he’s not good enough to compete with these kind of horses'.

"In those four minutes that it took us to walk back to that jockeys’ quarter, by the end of it, I was asking him for the mount again. That’s how persuasive he was, how positive a man he was.”

Lucas was a key advocate for racing in recent years when the sport has been under pressure in America.

“I think he’s somebody who everybody looked up to, not just because of his record but his longevity too. A man that stayed that successful for that long over the course of time, you have to take seriously,” Bailey continued.

“Often, he had a different perspective on things and a lot and it showed the broad spectrum by which he viewed the sport. He saw it through a wider lens than many. To me it showed how much he studied our sport."

And despite their long association on and off the track, the former jockey never stopped learning about the remarkable man.

“I thought I knew I him pretty well before Randy Moss and I sat down with him at the Preakness and did a little interview with him and Bob Baffert, and that’s when I first learned that he wrote poetry,” he added.

“I had known him pretty much 50 years and never knew that about him. I really don’t know how deep Wayne ran, I don’t think a lot of us ever knew how deep he ran, but he was certainly consequential, certainly one of a kind.”

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