Colt back for shot in Southwest
HOT SPRINGS — A colt named Sporting Chance grabbed Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas’ attention from the start.
Lukas first saw Sporting Chance, a son of Tiznow, at the Keeneland thoroughbred sales complex in Louisville, Ky., in the fall of 2016. He was there to shop for, among oth- ers, owners
Bob Baker and Bill Mack, men for whom he has trained horses since the mid-1990s.
“Sporting Chance was my No. 1 pick at the fall sales,” Lukas said. “I looked at about 3,000 head, and this was the horse I zeroed in on and got lucky, of course. He’s a good one.”
Luck is a relative term. Now in his 43rd season as a trainer, Lukas, 82, has trained a record 14 winners of Triple Crown races, including four winners of the Kentucky Derby. His trainees have won 20 Breeders’ Cup races, and he is a fourtime winner of the Eclipse Award for outstanding trainer. He was named to the National Racing Museum and Hall of Fame in 1999.
Sporting Chance is expected to start in the Grade III $500,000 1 1/16mile Southwest Stakes for 3-year-olds at Oaklawn Park on Monday. The Southwest is the second of four races at Oaklawn that offer points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby.
“He’s good right now,” Lukas said. “I think he’s going to show up. We’ll see what happens, but he’s a very good horse.”
Baker, chairman and chief executive officer of National Realty and Development Corp., said when he and Mack first looked for a trainer, Lukas topped their list.
“Wayne is the man,” Baker said. “Nobody’s done what he’s done.”
To this point, several horses owned by Baker and Mack have achieved at least Sporting Chance’s level of accomplishment. In his last race, Sporting Chance won the Grade I Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga Race Course on Sept. 4, 2017, the fourth Hopeful victory for horses owned by Baker and Mack and the eighth for Lukas trainees.
Sporting Chance had a bone chip removed from his left knee shortly after the
Hopeful and has not raced since, but Lukas remains convinced of the colt’s potential.
“His pedigree was more than adequate, very good,” Lukas said. “I’ve had very good luck with Tiznow offspring. I thought his balance and confirmation was what I like in a horse, an athletic horse. He was absolutely perfect.”
Baker and Mack have yet
to own a Kentucky Derby starter.
“Like any owner who’s been in it any length of time, the Derby is the one they want,” Lukas said. “Every year we buy two or three horses, usually two, and we concentrate on trying to get that classic horse. This one is already a Grade I winner, but we have to take that two-yearold form and push it into the three-year-old year and see if we can duplicate it.”
“We hope we can get there,” Baker said. “Let’s hope we can get started with a great performance in the Southwest. I know Wayne Lukas has him ready to go.”
Lukas has stabled Sporting Chance at Oaklawn since he arrived in December. He targeted the Southwest as the start of Sporting Chance’s three-year-old campaign from the beginning.
Since Jan. 9, Sporting Chance has six recorded workouts at Oaklawn, including 6 furlongs from the gate in 1:13.8o on Feb. 4; 5 furlongs in 1:00.40 on Jan. 22; and 4 furlongs in 47.60 on Jan. 15.
Lukas said all that is needed now is a race for which Baker and Mack will fly in jockey Luis Saez from Gulfstream Park in Florida. Saez rode Sporting Chance in the Hopeful.
The Southwest will be the first race around two turns or beyond 7 furlongs for Sporting Chance.
“I feel like I’ve got him as far as I can get him without a race under his belt,” Lukas said. “Obviously, there’s a gray area whether we’re where we want to be, but I don’t think we can do much more without a race. The next step has to be a race against good competition.”