BALTIMORE — D. Wayne Lukas yesterday fired a broadside at three Kentucky Derby winning trainers whose actions, he said, embarrassed him and the sport.
In a rare break with the code of silence found at the track, he singled out Doug O’Neill, who won the Derby two weeks ago with I’ll Have Another, Richard Dutrow Jr., who won the 2008 Derby with Big Brown, and Chip Woolley, whose huge long shot Mine That Bird won it in 2009.
O’Neill is challenging a charge in California that he “milkshaked” a horse (illegally dosed it with bicarbonate of soda, sugar and electrolytes to reduce fatigue), Dutrow is appealing a 10-year suspension for numerous drug violations, and Woolley was banished from an Iowa casino for allegedly urinating on its slot machines.
“As a trainer, at this stage of my career, I am embarrassed by all this stuff,” Lukas said. “I wish we could get more positive publicity for the sport, but we have to deal with these things, they’re right there in front of us.
“We can’t be judge and jury, but after 50 years in the game, I would like to give some advice to some of these younger guys. You are good enough, you’re talented, you’ve got good clients, you’re dealing with good horses, you can do it the right way, and it will work for you. You don’t need to push the envelope.
“We’ve got Rick Dutrow under suspension, Chip Woolley [urinating] on slot machines and now Doug O’Neill has some gray areas hanging over him. That bothers me. I’m not the savior of this game, but I’d like to proudly go to a cocktail party and say I’m a horse trainer.”
Lukas said he did not know O’Neill beyond saying hello. “But everybody who gets a [drug] positive of any kind is in denial,” he said.
Addressing the controversial use of Lasix, an anti-bleeding medication, on horses, Lukas said, “We’ve got a sport that needs cleaning up. That’s the perception. The reality is it is not that bad. I don’t know whether Doug O’Neill is guilty, but the perception is that he is not as pure as the driven snow and he has the Derby winner.
“Dutrow wins a Derby and we’ve got a hearing going on with him, Chip Woolley wins a Derby and he goes around [urinating] on slot machines. … We don’t need that. C’mon.”
O’Neill repeatedly has denied milkshaking his horses. Questioned about it again yesterday, he said, “We play by the rules. All our horses go through an intense physical exam and blood and urine tests. We run pure horses. If I didn’t win the Derby, you wouldn’t be asking these questions.”