For trainer D. Wayne Lukas, the focus of last Saturday’s Virginia Derby was not to allow its favorite, Getaway Car, to live up to his moniker going down the long backstretch of the dirt track at Colonial Downs. 

“The first concern was that Getaway Car horse of Bob Baffert,” noted Lukas. “If we don’t do anything about it, he’ll get loose on the lead. I told [jockey Nik Juarez] we’re probably the only horse in the race that can pressure him, so don’t let him loose on the lead. You’ve got to stay in contact with him and make a race of it.”

The race began as Lukas had feared with Getaway Car, with Irad Ortiz, Jr aboard, taking a quick two-length lead and threatening to start looking small to Juarez, who was aboard Lukas’ very big American Promise. Before they left the chute, Juarez reacted to implement the gameplan.

“My instructions were to be aggressive, and I knew I was going to try to put a little pressure there,” explained the rider. “When I got myself out and said I’m going to be the one to put the pressure on, then it was a different story.”

American Promise picked up his pace and drew even with Getaway Car. After a quarter-mile, Getaway Car’s lead was a half-length. After four furlongs, it was down to a head. Yet the effort it took to draw equal made even Lukas a little uneasy.

“I was a little concerned when they went 1:08 (1:08.39 for six furlongs), that :45 (45.20 for the first half-mile) concerned me and then the 1:08, that’s sprinter time,” observed Lukas. “I thought, this is going to be an acid test here. To go 1:08 and then try to finish, most of them can’t handle that.”

“Looking at the race, it didn’t look like there was a whole lot of pace to it,” Juarez recollected.

Yet, suddenly there was. Despite it, though, the closers made no significant inroads as American Promise won the first ever Virginia Derby run on dirt by over seven lengths while  setting a track record for nine furlongs. Maybe it was the sheer size of American Promise, a son of Baffert’s 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify.

“This is a big, big 17-hand horse and he’s filling out,” said Lukas, who pretty much invented the concept of the ‘now-horse.’ “He’s going through a growth spurt right now and he’s starting to fill out and with that is coming some coordination. He’s always indicated that he’s had some brilliance about him, but we had to be patient and let nature take its course.”

Colonial hasn’t run many mile-and-an-eighth races on the dirt course, so setting the track record isn’t quite as significant as it might be elsewhere. Coming out of the chute with one-turn around its mile-and-a-quarter outer dirt track, it could be said that the Virginia Derby starts in Sandston and finishes in New Kent. None of that diminishes what Lukas saw.

“Our horse finished beautifully,” the octogenarian trainer said. “I didn’t expect that margin of victory.”

American Promise has 55 points on the Derby trail, certainly enough to start in the Kentucky Derby. But that likely won’t be his next race if history and Lukas’ style of training are factors. It’s very likely that he will be entered at Keeneland for his next start, either in the Bluegrass or the Lexington Stakes.

“I don’t know if I’m good enough of a trainer to train him seven weeks and get a good performance in the Derby,” smirked Lukas, the dean of trainers with 15 Triple Crown race wins. “I might want to run him once more. There aren’t many options. That seven-week gap is a long gap to keep a horse sharp.”

Lukas thinks American Promise is just getting started.

“I think he’ll improve even in the next 30 to 40 days,” noted Lukas, with more than the Derby in mind. “He’s going to find out what he’s able to run like and he’s still learning it. He’s got a beautiful gliding efficiency of motion when he gets into full force. He might be a better Preakness horse than Derby horse depending on when the maturity factor kicks in.”

Jockey Nik Juarez who rides many Lukas horses in the mornings, including Seize the Grey and Caldera, said he considers the $500,000 Virginia Derby win the biggest of his career, topping even his his 2017 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes (G2) win with Actress, one of his 10 graded victories. Juarez likes the lineage and upside of his winning mount.

“If you guys follow Justify, his father,” responded Juarez just after the race. “There is not another one of his offspring that looks like the spitting image of him. He’s beautiful. He’s so well put together. He’s only three and he’s still improving, so he’s just figuring it out.”

Lukas has been an infrequent visitor to New Kent over the years. The former basketball coach had a philosophy while coaching to never allow his players see him shoot a basketball for concern that a miss would undermine his reputation among his players. Is he willing to take another shot at Colonial Downs this summer?

“We might with their summer meet see what their stakes schedule looks like,” said Lukas, who is already looking forward to next year’s Virginia Derby. “We don’t have the numbers that we used to. We’ve cut back to 40 head. If they had something I wouldn’t hesitate to go back.”