Trainer D. Wayne Lukas back at work after battling COVID. ‘I couldn’t get any air.’

D. Wayne Lukas, a four-time Kentucky Derby-winning trainer, is back at his Churchill Downs barn after recovering from COVID-19.

Lukas, who turns 85 on Wednesday, said he got “really sick.”

“I couldn’t get any air and I felt like I was drifting away,” he said. “You just wish you could get one breath.”

Lukas isn’t sure how he contracted the coronavirus; he said he took such precautions as wearing a face mask and practicing social distancing and avoided dining out. He said his wife was caring for him and she tested negative twice.

“You would’ve thought for sure she’d get it,” he said. “We rode it out and I feel better now than I did a month ago.”

Lukas urged others to take the pandemic seriously and to protect themselves.

“I see people taking it lightly and I think it’s a mistake, whether they’re my age or 20,” he said. “I’d wear my mask. I wouldn’t tempt fate.”

Lukas is based at Churchill Downs in the spring and summer, where he frequently accompanies his horses to the track atop a pony. He has won 14 Triple Crown races, most recently the 2013 Preakness with Oxbow. Lukas has 4,839 career victories and more than $282 million in purse earnings.

He has started 49 horses in the Derby — second-most in history — but doesn’t have an entrant this year. His last Derby runner was two years ago.

Birdstone to Old Friends

The 2004 Belmont Stakes winner, Birdstone, is retiring to Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement Center in Georgetown, the farm said.

Birdstone, who also won the Travers Stakes in 2004, retired from racing that year when a chip was found in an ankle.

He spent his stallion career at Gainesway Farm in Lexington, producing 2009 Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird in his first crop. The same year, his son Summer Bird won both the Belmont and the Travers.

Birdstone, who finished eighth in the 2004 Kentucky Derby, was owned by the late Marylou Whitney and trained by Nick Zito when he pulled out a surprise win in the Belmont to stop Smarty Jones’ shot at the Triple Crown.

He is a son of Grindstone, out of the Storm Bird mare Dear Birdie. Birdstone retired with five victories from nine starts and earnings of more than $1.5 million.

Favorite delayed

Tiz the Law, the expected favorite when Kentucky Derby entries are drawn Tuesday morning, has been delayed in his arrival to Churchill Downs.

“It’s not a big deal,” Jack Knowlton of Sackatoga Stable told Tim Wilkin of the Albany (N.Y.) Times Union. “The big thing was getting his last work in.”

Tiz the Law, who put in his final Derby workout Saturday at Saratoga Race Course in New York, was supposed to fly to Louisville on Monday along with fellow Derby contenders Ny Traffic and Money Moves. That flight is now scheduled to leave Albany International on Tuesday morning.

New shooter

Saturday’s Kentucky Derby field crept a little closer to a full starting gate Monday when the owners of Mr. Big News announced their colt will be entered in the race.

Mr. Big News, owned by Allied Family Stables and trained by Bret Calhoun, brings the expected field to 18 contenders, two short of a full field.

“I know we don’t have some of the numbers like Tiz the Law, Art Collector and Honor A. P. but this horse is improving,” owner Chester Thomas said. “I think he is absolutely going to love the distance and will make a big run late.”

Mr. Big News, winner of two of his seven career starts, most recently placed sixth in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland.

Final workout

Max Player on Monday became the last of the Kentucky Derby entrants to put in his final official workout ahead of the race, breezing an easy half-mile in 49.80 seconds.

“He’s continuing to do well,” Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen said. “I’m extremely excited about how he’s going to run in the Kentucky Derby.”

Could Max Player be one to watch Saturday? He’s finished third behind expected favorite Tiz the Law in his most recent two races — the Travers Stakes and the Belmont.

“That horse is the deserving favorite and a tall task,” Asmussen said.

This story was originally published August 31, 2020 at 4:08 PM.