HOT SPRINGS -- Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas suffered a serious fall from a horse in the stable area of Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort on Thursday, the morning before the first day of the racetrack's 2022-23 meet.
Lukas, 87, broke five ribs in the fall. He was hospitalized Thursday but was released before nightfall, Lukas said. He has since remained housebound.
"There was a new horse, and he was fed up and not doing much," said Lukas as he spoke from his Hot Springs home on Monday. "I have two gray horses, and I told them to saddle the gray horse. They saddled the other one, so I said, 'Well, I'll just ride this one.' I rode him about seven seconds. I caught him with my spurs to try to stay on him and that really exaggerated the thing."
Lukas said the horse flipped him straight up, 7 or 8 feet further in the air.
"I came down on my back, and that was it," he said.
Lukas said the fall knocked the air from his lungs. He was taken to an emergency room at CHI St. Vincent-Hot Springs.
"They scanned it and found out my ribs were broken, but I didn't break my hip or anything," he said. "They said, 'We'll get you a room,' and I said, 'No, I think I'll just go home and recover there.' It's been a little bit painful, but I'm getting along fine."
Lukas said he had not yet returned to the racetrack.
"I'm going to go as soon as I can," he said.
Lukas, inducted in 1999 to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, has trained 4,885 winners from 29,755 starters since he first raced a thoroughbred in 1974. Winners for Lukas include four colts in the Grade I Kentucky Derby. Lukas has trained a total of 14 winners of Triple Crown races. He is also the trainer of a record 20 Breeders' Cup champions.
Last season, Lukas trained 3-year-old filly Secret Oath to two wins in Kentucky Oaks qualifiers at Oaklawn. After she finished third in a field of nine in the Grade I Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn on April 2, Secret Oath won the Grade I Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., in a field of 14 on May 6.
Secret Oath, housed in Lukas' Oaklawn barn with approximately 40 racehorses, is currently targeted toward Oaklawn's Grade II $350,000 1 1/16-mile Azeri Stakes for fillies and mares 4-years-old and up on March 11, and the Grade I $1 million 1 1/16-mile Apple Blossom Handicap for fillies and mares 4-years-old and up on April 15.
"We're glad to have her back," Lukas said. "She will be much better as a 4-year-old than as a 3-year-old. She's going to be one of the good ones. I'm anxious to run her through this season."