D. Wayne Lukas, a UW graduate and UW assistant basketball coach-turned-horse trainer sent two of his horses to the Kentucky Derby on Saturday.

Lukas, who graduated with the undergraduate class of 1957 and graduate class of 1960, has won the Kentucky Derby four times, in 1988, 1995, 1996 and 1999, according to Wisconsin Alumni Association Managing Director Kate Dixon.Lukas’ Chestnut Colt, Will Take Charge, and Bay Colt, Oxbow, both raced at the Churchill Downs racetrack in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby.

He has also won multiple other races with his horses through the years, including the Preakness, Belmont and several Breeders’ Cups. Between 1980 and 2012, Lukas’ horses have won 32 major races, Dixon said.

Dixon cited past WAA research showing Lukas was the top trainer in the U.S. in terms of victories between 1987 and 1990, and in terms of earnings each year between 1983 and 1997 with the exception of 1993. 

Victories for three-year-old Oxbow and Will Take Charge, however, were “a bit of a long shot,” Churchill Downs Public Relations Assistant Mark Mulloy said.

Because the only horses allowed to race in the prestigious Kentucky Derby are those who are three years old, this was both horses’ first and only year racing it. Oxbow’s early odds were 30 to one and Will Take Charge’s, 34 to one, Mulloy said, which were not very favorable predictions. 

At age 77, Lukas missed out on becoming the oldest trainer to win the Kentucky Derby, Mulloy said. Oxbow, ridden by 50-year-old Gary Stevens, who is making a comeback after seven years in retirement, placed sixth out of 19 and Will Take Charge placed eighth.

Oxbow has run before at Churchill Downs, the racetrack known for hosting the Kentucky Derby, in its November “Maiden Race.” Once a horse wins, Mulloy said, that horse is no longer considered a “maiden.” Oxbow won this race at Churchill Downs Nov. 25.

Will Take Charge recently won the Rebel Stakes horse race in Hot Springs, Ark., in March, narrowly beating Oxbow for a prize of $600,000, Mulloy said. He also won the Smarty Jones Stakes in January, getting the best out of eight other three-year olds to win $150,000.

Lukas was also inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1999 after winning the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer four times. In 2007, Lukas was also inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame, marking him the first in both the thoroughbred and quarter horse halls of fame, Mulloy said.