For anybody writing sports in Kentucky today, it would be remiss to fail to note the passing of a giant – maybe the giant – in the entire thoroughbred racing industry not to mention the Kentucky Derby and Keeneland Sales.
It was my good fortune to catch up with the former basketball coach from Wisconsin the first time I made it to the Derby Draw at the Kentucky Derby Museum more than 40 years ago. D. Wayne Lukas was there with another basketball coach that day – his good buddy Bobby Knight.
And since I’d known Coach Knight from all the college basketball coverage I’d been able to do, I got to meet the trainer who changed thoroughbred racing with horses winning more than $300 million and earning himself the title of “Coach,” like Knight. He earned that after having mentored so many of the top thoroughbred trainers over the years as he won 15 Triple Crown races, second only to Bob Baffert’s 17.
No one will ever look better in the saddle and a Stetson than D. Wayne, even at the age of 89 this past spring at Churchill Downs as he readied for his 51st and final Run for the Roses. Or have a better-looking barn on the backside. Nor will anyone be able to say it better about what D. Wayne meant to racing than his best pupil – and rival – Baffert — did on X Sunday.
“Wayne was a game changer, transforming horse racing for the better,” Baffert said. “He made it so the horse’s bloodlines were more important than the owner’s. He created a system of flying his horses coast to coast, establishing a presence at every major racetrack in America. And Wayne didn’t just show up. He dominated. He won so much he became known as ‘D. Wayne off the plane.’ He developed the blueprint the rest of us still follow. He was a true visionary.”
He was, indeed. But D. Wayne didn’t just see the future, he lived it, took us to it. Conquered it, really.
Steve Flesch… again
Not that we should ever be surprised about anything the 58-year-old lefthanded golfer from Union by way of Covington Catholic and the University of Kentucky ever does. But heck of an effort by Steve Flesch to finish sixth at the U.S. Senior Open Sunday at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, winning $132,039 with a four-under-par 276 for the four-day event.
That finish just adds to what Flesch, a 10-time winner on all three pro golf tours in his 35-year pro golf career, with time off as a commentator on the Golf Channel, has accomplished with official earnings of more than $25 million ($25,412,682 to be exact).
Two here on UK depth chart
Less than two months to go before the first kickoff for UK football and the Wildcats’ depth chart going into preseason practice has one Northern Kentucky second-year guy as a starter and a redshirt freshman as a first backup.
The starter is 6-foot-4, 251-pound tight end Willie Rodriguez, out of CovCath and Taylor Mill, who started three games and played in all 12 last fall as a true freshman with five catches averaging 18.8 yards a catch. According to The Cat’s Pause, Rodriguez, No. 81, “had a strong 2024 true freshman season and great spring.”
The backup as the No. 2 right guard on offense is 6-4, 303-pound Aba Selm out of Simon Kenton and Independence. Selm, who will line up behind 6-5, 314-pound Jalen Farmer of Covington, Ga., played in two games in his redshirt season last year and will be listed as a freshman this fall.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.