The first Kentucky Derby since the death of trainer D. Wayne Lukas has a different vibe‎

D. Wayne Lukas always talked up his latest crop of 2-year-old horses with an eye toward the next Kentucky Derby, telling his wife to get her dress for Oaks day. “This was what he lived for,” said Todd Pletcher, now an accomplished trainer himself after working for Lukas beginning in 1989. Lukas' eternal optimism about the future was an annual tradition that lasted until June, when the Hall of Fame trainer was hospitalized with a severe blood infection and died at age 89.