Trainer D. Wayne Lukas has accomplished a lot in his Hall of Fame career, but winning at Colonial Downs had eluded him until American Promise almost certainly punched his ticket to Kentucky Derby 2025 with an emphatic 7 3/4-length in the $500,000 Virginia Derby on Saturday.
The win put an exclamation mark on a sun-soaked event that also featured a Kentucky Oaks (G1) prep race in the Virginia Oaks won by Fondly. It helped attract a sellout crowd of about 8,500 and generated $6,540,489 in handle, the second-highest total in track history and the best outside 2023 Arlington Million (G1) day.
“Lukas has a long history of winning races like this and getting his horses in position to run in the Kentucky Derby,” winning jockey Nik Juárez said. “I’m so thankful to have a relationship with the barn to get to ride horses like this.”
The Virginia Derby was a one-turn, 1 1/8-mile race. Odds-on favorite Getaway Car broke like a shot to establish a quick pace, but Juarez gave the Sunland Park Derby winner no breathers, pressing him through fractions of 23.12 and 45.20 seconds before American Promise took over through six furlongs in a blistering 1:08.39.
It was lights out from there. American Promise went a mile in 1:33.02 and drew off on the fast main track to a final time of 1:46.41, a course record.
Lukas, 89, who was not at Colonial Downs on Saturday, trains American Promise for Brian Coelho and John Bellinger’s BC Stables. The Justify colt was acquired for $750,000 at the 2023 Keeneland September yearling sale. Lukas got BC to the Kentucky Derby last year with Just Steel, who finished 17th. American Promise would be Lukas’s 51st Derby starter but Juarez’s first.
