Horse Racing

Schultz, Lukas Picking Horses for Shortleaf Stable


In a social media post late last month, Shortleaf Stable announced, “a revamp of our stables giving an old face and a new face.”

The old face is Hall of Fame coach D. Wayne Lukas, 87, who reunited with Shortleaf owner John Ed Anthony after they together won 10 at Oaklawn in 2008-2009. The new face is trainer Lindsay Schultz, 34, who now has three horses for Anthony.

“That’s really exciting for me,” Schultz said on Friday morning. “I mean, that was the first owner I had trying to breed a Derby horse.”

The shortleaf horses currently with Schultz at Oaklawn are The Heights, the 3-year-old son of the Nyquist champion and half-brother to runner-up Caddo River of the 2021 Arkansas Derby; Westover, Double Irish’s 3-year-old half Arkansas son; and Coromandel, Tekton’s 3-year-old half-Arkansas daughter. All three Shortleaf hybrids started at the Oaklawn 2022-2023 meeting. The Heights and Westover have previously worked with two-time Eclipse Award-winning coach Brad Cox. Coromandel previously worked with coach John Ortiz.

“That was great,” Schultz said of coaching Anthony.

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Schultz served as assistant to coach Shug McGaughey in the Hall of Fame before leaving on his own in the fall of 2021. Although McGaughey and his son, Reeve, have coached Anthony in the past, Schultz said knew she had no personal connection to the Arkansas woodworker and most victorious owner in Oaklawn history. Anthony has campaigned for three Eclipse Award winners, including purebred Vanlandingham (older male champion in 1985) with Shug McGaughey. Schultz said John Gasper, Anthony’s race manager, helped direct the famous breeder/owner to her.

“This fall, I knew John Gasper a little while I was in Kentucky,” Schultz said. “I think John’s son Ed (Ed) has heard of me too, but I went out to see Mr. Anthony at the ranch a few weeks ago.”

Schultz has had 16 victories in his coaching career. Seven people went to Oaklawn, including the first winner of her career, Capture the Glory, January 8, 2022, for major client Ten Strike Racing.

Schultz is 3-1-1 after 10 appearances this season at Oaklawn. Two of the wins were with Ten Strike-owned Tiger Moon, Oaklawn’s main goal for 2022-2023 is the 1 ¾-mile Trail’s End starter marathon, traditionally the race Final race of the meeting. Ten Strike won the last two runs of Trail’s End, which cost $125,000 last year, with Original Purpose now retired. Gelding was trained by Bentley Combs.

“Thankfully, we have Tiger Moon,” Schultz said. “He’s a superstar. There’s a long way to go (before the Trace is over).”

Schultz said she has 15 horses in Oaklawn. About half a dozen are for Ten Strike, the team that entered Saturday as Oaklawn’s top owner this season with eight wins in just 13 appearances.

Lukas currently coaches Caddo River, who previously worked for Cox. Under Cox’s care, Caddo River won $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes for 3-year-olds in 2021 in Oaklawn before finishing second in the $1 million Arkansas Derby (G1). Shortleaf switched its cross from Cox to Lukas after finishing second in the allowance race on January 21 in Oaklawn, which marked Caddo River’s debut at the age of 5.

Lukas said he’s pointing Caddo River to the $600,000 Razorback Handicap (G3) for older horses at 1 1/16 miles on Feb. 18. Anthony won the Razorback last year with Plainsman trained by Cox.

Caddo River, the man behind Hard Spun, has a 5-5-1 record from 16 starts in his life and makes $677,800. Anthony entered Saturday with 281 career wins over Oaklawn. Shortleaf still has a horse with Cox and Ortiz.

This press release has not been edited by BloodHorse. If you have any questions, please contact the organization that produced the release.

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