Will the first Saturday in May ever be the same without D. Wayne Lukas?

"Which was unbelievable," Durbin said. "We walked over from the backside to the front side. We had great seats. I'll tell you who sat behind us was Hugh Heffner."

That year, Lukas did more than attend the races: He won all three legs of the Triple Crown with two horses — Thunder Gulch won the first two legs, taking the Derby and the Belmont, and Timber Country won the Preakness.

"It was a real treat," Durbin said.

Legendary horse trainer Wayne Lukas and his son Jeff in the paddock at Gulfstream Park in Florida for the 1992 Breeder's Cup. Gary Owen and his wife attended the championship and Gary, then an amateur photographer, captured this moment.

'If you have a passion for something, you eliminate all the excuses for not doing it'

The stories stretch beyond Louisville. Lukas was known for pulling young racing fans into the winner's circle, but who were those kids and where are they now?

It was an April day in 2014 at Oaklawn in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The Apple Blossom Stakes was the main event to run that day. Quinn Cates was just seven years old, but he had already developed a routine of walking toward the paddock entrance after each race to tell the jockeys good job.

"An older gentleman with dark Ray Bans on came up to my mom and I and asked if I could come with him," Cates told The Courier Journal. "I don't think my mom knew who it was at first. I knew right away."

Cates followed Lukas, whose signature style included his aviator sunglasses. They crossed the track toward the winner's circle on the infield.

"I got a high-five from (jockey) Jon Court right before he got off of his horse," Cates said.

D. Wayne Lukas was known for bringing children into the winner's circle. Arkansas-native Quinn Cates, then-age 7, was one of those kids. Cates met Lukas before the Apple Blossom Stakes in 2014 with his mom, Stacy. Cates is wearing jockey goggles given to him by riders. Today, at 19, he is a huge fan of horse racing.

Lukas placed the seven year old front and center and told Cates to help hold the trophy for the win photo.

"After the picture, he was interviewed on TVG," Cates said of the horse racing network. "I was shy and stood out of the frame, away from the interview. He motioned for me to come over. Lukas introduced me to the lady doing the interview. She asked me if I was having a good day and if I was excited to make a trip to the winner's circle."

As they headed back to the stands, Lukas took Cates to an elevator to the top of Oaklawn's race track, a non-ticketed location.

"After collecting the winner's circle picture, he shook my hand, told me to listen to my mom and to have a good day," Cates said.

Cates is 19 now. He visits Oaklawn nearly every weekend during spring races, even though he attends Arkansas State, about three hours away. He helps an Arkansas thoroughbred owner scout which horses to claim.

Cates now has his eyes set on the Derby: "One million percent."

'I will love each and every one as if they were mine'

Years ago, Mark Perelmuter, a longtime Louisville orthodontist, took his staff to Churchill Downs for a day at the races.

At the time, a sister of one or his orthodontic assistants was dating Lukas. She introduced Perelmuter and his staff.

"He graciously suggested that I bring my staff into the paddock before one of the races as he was saddling his horse," Perelmuter told The Courier Journal. "At that point in his career, he was a larger-than-life celebrity, in my view. He posed for a photo with me, and I told him I planned to print it and bring it back for his autograph.

"He said to bring a second so I could autograph it for him. He was not joking. That's the kind of person he appeared to be — unassuming, kind and humble — qualities that surpass those of a record-breaking horse trainer."

'Demand excellence in every single thing you do'

Scotty Davenport loved horses. He also coached basketball for 46 years in Louisville, from high school to the University of Louisville and Bellarmine University.

Lukas loved basketball. The former high school basketball coach could captivate one person, a media gaggle or a room of thousands with his tales. His barn plaques included quotes and Lukas himself had inspirational one liners (several of which are included in the section breaks of this article).

"I listened to him hold court with the media starting in 1984 when I was a graduate assistant at UofL," Davenport told The Courier Journal. "In 1986, I became the head coach at Ballard High School. Instead of just listening, every year I wrote a two-page letter and mailed it to the stable office at Santa Anita, California. He arranged a meeting when he came to Louisville that year in the spring."

"Our basketball program, like all high school programs, relied on fundraising," Daveport said.

So they created an event on a Sunday during the fall meet: "A Day at the Races with D. Wayne Lukas."

The 80 tables of eight sold out five years in a row.

"One day financed our entire program: equipment, travel and all necessities because of D. Wayne Lukas," Davenport said.

Former Ballard High School, as well as Bellarmine and UofL basketball coach Scott Davenport and D. Wayne Lukas talked hoops and horses, becoming good friends since the early 1990s.

Lukas' only request was that he get 30 minutes to talk with just the team. Then, as the event neared its end, he'd tell the elevator attendants to hold the elevators.

"I'm in the next race," Lukas would tell the crowd, according to Davenport. "If you donate to this program right now and I win, you can join me in the winner's circle."

The winner's photo of Fort Laramie's victory on Nov. 6, 1994, complete with basketball players who appear almost as tall as the horse, is proof.

Davenport laughed. "It was unbelievable. Everything he did, he did with passion."

The stories of Lukas come pouring out of Davenport. How Lukas had his barn staff clean the white halters with a toothbrush and soap to get the dirt out of them.

"'If you demand excellence, it'll get the best out of your team,'" Davenport recalled Lukas saying.

Before every home game, the then-Bellarmine coach pulled out a ladder and wiped down the backboards with Windex, until they were spotless.

It's another lesson that Lukas taught him.

"Why would you rake your dirt in the barn the entire day the same way? It won't make your horses run any faster, but if you demand excellence in every single thing, if you show them you think it's important, then every little thing you teach them, will become important," Davenport said.

Former Bellarmine coach Scott Davenport, Mike Hargrave (the former director of stabling at Churchill Downs), thoroughbred trainers D. Wayne Lukas and Dallas Stewart, legendary UofL basketball coach Denny Crum and UofL women's basketball coach Jeff Walz outside Lukas' famed Barn 44 at Churchill Downs in the late 2000s.

∎∎∎

A half-century from now, who knows what horse racing or the Kentucky Derby will look like. Will computer-assisted wagering impact betting?  Or will one multi-billion dollar company buying up racetracks and tearing them down shrink the sport?What will stand the test of time, though, is the stories of one horseman who left a legacy on the first Saturday in May because he lived by a Cowboy Code.Durbin, Lukas’s barber, sits just beyond the noise of the hairdryers and sinks in the salon in between appointments a week before this year’s big race day.“I've got a lot of stories about Wayne," Durbin said.He paused, then his lips cracked into a grin. "I can't tell you all of them, though.”

Stephanie Kuzydym is an enterprise and investigative sports reporter, with a focus on the health and safety of athletes. Reach her at skuzydym@courier-journal.com or@stephkuzy.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: First Kentucky Derby since D. Wayne Lukas' death in 2025