Santa Anita, Gulfstream stakes will be named for Lukas, Clement

The legacy of two of the top trainers of the last few decades will be honored by 1/ST with the announcement of graded-stakes races being renamed in their memories.

Beginning with the 2026 runnings, Santa Anita's Grade 2 Santa Monica Stakes will be known as the D. Wayne Lukas Stakes and Gulfstream Park’s La Prevoyante Stakes (G3) will be renamed the Christophe Clement Stakes. Both stakes races were pivotal to the two trainers when they were beginning their now-legendary careers. 

“D. Wayne Lukas and Christophe Clement were not just generational horsemen, they were top class people,” 1/ST president Aidan Butler said. “Santa Anita and Gulfstream were blessed to be their homes for many years. It is an honor to salute them for years to come at our tracks by renaming races that helped launch their success stories.”

Lukas saddled Flack Flack to win the 1980 Santa Monica, then run as a handicap. It was the trainer’s first Grade 2 race at Santa Anita and just his ninth graded-stakes win since transitioning to Thoroughbreds from quarter horses.

Lukas would go on to add five more Santa Monica’s to his extensive resume with Parsley in 1980, Bara Lass in 1984, Pine Tree Lane in 1987 and 1988 and the Hall of Fame filly Serena’s Song in 1996. Only Bob Baffert’s seven wins bests Lukas’s record in the seven-furlong race, which has been contested since 1957.  Lukas, who began his successful career based at Santa Anita Park in the 1970s through 1990s, died June 28, less than three months before his 90 birthday.

The 1992 La Prevoyante provided Clement with just the second graded-stakes win of his young career with Irish-bred Sardaniya for His Highness the Aga Khan, coming less than a month after his first graded win at Gulfstream Park. It was a fitting win for the world-traveling Frenchman, who apprenticed in both in the U.S. and England, as the La Prevoyante was named after a Canadian filly owned by a French Canadian.  Currently run at Gulfstream Park over 1 1/2 miles on the grass for fillies and mares, the 1992 running at Calder was the first of Clement’s six wins in the race, followed by Tampoli in 1994, Caretta in 1998 and 1999, Irish Mission in 2014 and Beautiful Lover in 2022. Clement died May 24 at age 59.