While I am a big fan of Lukas and much of that comes from the fact that when I first got into racing through books and articles many of them extensively chronicled Lukas including the book Three Strides Before the Wire about his quest for the Derby with Chris Antley and Charismatic. While he is not the trainer he once was, he is an all-time great who ran into the problem of losing his best clientele and probably his most crushing loss, his son Jeff from his stable which clearly affected Lukas and his stable.
Losing clients like Eugene Klein, The Lewis's, Overbrook downsizing, and The Thoroughbred Corporation hurts. On the other hand some of his clients now are willing to spend and getting him better horses (Westrock and Baker and Mack).
He'll never get back to where he was but to heap praise on a cheat like Pletcher and knock Lukas is wrong. And while certain trainers may not like guy or the way he trained his horses plenty of trainers I have spoken with respect Lukas and his impact on the game.
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