Mystik Dan among challengers to defending champ Hit Show in Lukas Classic

Saturday’s $500,000 Lukas Classic (G2) will be particularly poignant, as the first edition to be held after the passing of its namesake, Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, in late June. Adding to the memorial nature of this renewal, his widow, Laurie, will make the trophy presentation at Churchill Downs. 

The 1 1/8-mile contest with potential Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) implications has attracted a field worthy of the occasion. Last year’s Kentucky Derby (G1) winner, Mystik Dan, is among the challengers to defending champion Hit Show, who has since enhanced his status by capturing the $12 million Dubai World Cup (G1). 

Hit Show is aiming to become the first two-time winner in the 12-year history of the Lukas Classic. If he succeeds, he would make Brad Cox the race’s most successful trainer with three wins. His first came with Knicks Go (2021), the eventual Breeders’ Cup Classic victor and Horse of the Year. Cox is himself a protégé of the Lukas philosophy, having learned the craft from one of the Hall of Famer’s former assistants who made good on his own – Dallas Stewart.

Although Hit Show was only fifth in the June 28 Stephen Foster (G1) over this track and trip, that was his first start back from his Dubai heroics. The Wathnan Racing colorbearer returned to form in his latest, a repeat score in the Aug. 3 West Virginia Governor’s S. at Mountaineer. 

Hit Show ranks as the co-highweight at 125 pounds along with David Jacobson’s Banishing, who comes off his biggest career win in the Charles Town Classic (G2). The re-opposing runner-up from Charles Town, Willy D’s, represents Lukas protégé Mike Maker. 

Mystik Dan has won just once since his Derby upset, but that victory notably came in the course-and-distance Blame (G3) on May 31. The Kenny McPeek pupil was subsequently fourth in the Stephen Foster behind the likes of Mindframe and Sierra Leone, both leading Breeders’ Cup Classic contenders. Switched to turf for the Arlington Million (G1) at Colonial Downs, Mystik Dan checked in a one-paced fourth, like a dirt horse. McPeek is firing at 21% with the turf-to-dirt angle. 

Grade 1-winning stablemate Rattle N Roll will be making his third straight appearance in the Lukas Classic. Fourth as the favorite in 2023, the McPeek veteran was sidelined for a year and returned with an excellent third in the 2024 edition. Rattle N Roll is resuming from a less daunting layoff this time. Last seen finishing eighth behind Hit Show in Dubai, Rattle N Roll sports fine course-and-distance form as the hero of the 2023 Blame and 2024 Clark.

Disarm, fourth as the favorite in last year’s Lukas Classic, has not expanded his resume as might have been hoped by now. Yet the son of Hall of Famer Gun Runner did turn in one of his better efforts when third to Sierra Leone in the Whitney (G1) two back at Saratoga. Most recently, a hampered sixth (promoted to fifth) in a wild Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1), Disarm could yet have more to offer for Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen. Note that he gets Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard for the first time. 

Rounding out the field is Prince of Power, whose best stakes result is a near-miss to Tumbarumba in the Aug. 10 R.A. “Cowboy” Jones S. at Ellis Park.

Tumbarumba will be in action two races earlier on Saturday’s card in the $400,000 Ack Ack (G3). Second to Three Technique here a year ago, Tumbarumba enters in sharper form than the defending champion.

But a few rivals have strong claims in the Ack Ack, including Cox’s Most Wanted, runner-up to track record-setting Fierceness in the Alysheba (G2) earlier this campaign; Stewart’s Will Take It, last seen denying Banishing in the June 29 Hanshin S. around this same one-turn mile; consistent Ohio-bred Who Dey; and California shipper Indispensable, who shortens up from a fourth in the Pacific Classic (G1). 

The Ack Ack, which could yield candidates for the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1), is carded as the eighth race at 4:26 p.m. ET. The Lukas Classic, the 10th race, is scheduled to go off at 5:29 p.m. ET.