Ahead of Belmont, Hall of Fame trainer Lukas reflects on career

After more than 60 years in the business of horse racing, the same passion still runs through D. Wayne Lukas’ veins.

“It never has been a job,” Lukas said this week ahead of the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga Race Course. “If it gets to be a job, I’m gonna quit; that’s for sure.”

Lukas started his career at age 16 with quarter horses. He then charted his course in the late 1970s after switching full-time to thoroughbreds.

“I said ‘I’m going to win one of these in four years,’ and everybody started laughing and said ‘only you would say something like that,’ ” Lukas said of the lead-up to the 1980 Preakness Stakes. “I said ‘I’m gonna win one in four years, you watch,’ and the first one we had was 1980 with Codex and we won.”

More wins rolled in — to date, 14 Triple Crown race victories, including this year’s Preakness Stakes with Seize the Grey —  but the 88-year-old’s career isn’t without regrets.

“I was so intense and so competitive, I would win one and say to my son ‘what’s next?’ instead of enjoying that one and relishing it,” he said. “Now I look at it a little bit different.

“You eliminate all of the excuses if you have a passion. And I don’t think I’ll lose that. I think I’m too competitive because I enjoy the big arena more than anything.”

The big races, he said — including Saturday’s Belmont Stakes — are what keep him going.

“I’m gonna be 89 up here this year. That sofa, that recliner, it pulls at you pretty hard,” Lukas said. “Some mornings I feel like ‘wow, I’m really tired,’ but I never, never let that sofa pull me back every day. I get up at 3 a.m. every day.”

Lukas says that he’s more approachable than people think and more pensive. He says in quiet early-morning or evening moments, he writes poetry.

“I write poetry about my wife. I write poetry about life,” he said, then reading from “Out of Time,” one of his poems: “I know and realize at this time that I am running out of time, so treat and love everyone as if they were truly mine, because I’m running out of time.”