Columnist Ralph Siraco: Trainer Walden pulls off a Sunday sweep

Ralph Siraco's horse racing column appears Monday, and his Southern California selections run Tuesday through Friday. Write to him c/o Las Vegas Sun, 800 S. Valley View Blvd., Las Vegas, NV, 89107.

A pair of trainers grabbed the spotlight in racing this week.

One stepped front-and-center with achievements on the track over the weekend, the other with a lifelong achievement that finally led to ultimate recognition in the shrine of the sport of kings.

One as the latest inductee into the sport's Hall of Fame and the other destined to be there in the future. And, for a change, neither was named Baffert.

Usually when a trainer has a pair of nice horses entered in a stakes race he counts his blessings twofold, having twice the chance to win the big race, or maybe even finish 1-2. That is, of course, unless you're one Elliott Walden.

Walden had the luxury of having those two horses in the form of Ecton Park and Menifee ready for the $1 million Haskell Invitational Handicap at Monmouth Park on Sunday. Both were entered to run in the Grade I centerpiece of the New Jersey Shore racing season.

However, the "lesser" Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga also featured the glamor group of the equine set on this same Sunday afternoon. So, Walden deduces it is better to enter one horse per race than put all his eggs in one Garden State basket. After all, the upstate New York version was worth $300,000 in purse money and is the traditional prep for the $1 million Travers Stakes, known as the Midsummer Derby, to be held at the Spa three weeks hence.

The only thing Walden couldn't do on Sunday was what his two horses could do -- be in both places at the same time. Walden had 700,000 more reasons to accompany Menifee at Monmouth Park rather than Ecton Park, who was scratched in New Jersey to compete in New York. And, maybe the betting public was reading his intentions wrong when they sent Ecton Park, who had just finished a game second in the recent Ohio Derby, off at 6-1 odds to win the Jim Dandy.

They misjudged the 36-year-old Kentucky native, but jockey Alex Solis -- who flew cross-country to ride Ecton Park -- didn't and together they ran off with the Jim Dandy on a sloppy Saratoga track, leaving Belmont Stakes winner Lemon Drop Kid and Belmont Stakes runner-up Vision and Verse in their wake.

After Walden watched the Jim Dandy, it was time to saddle Menifee for the main event. The Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes runner-up hadn't raced since his disappointing eighth in the Belmont Stakes, but Walden hoped he had the son of Harlan back to the form that brought him a striking victory in the Bluegrass Stakes earlier this year. He was and he did.

Menifee, with Pat Day aboard, launched his winning move on the turn for home and outdueled the D. Wayne Lukas trainee Cat Thief and the Bob Baffert-trained Forestry to sweep the sweet weekend double. Now Walden may have at least a double threat for the November 6 Breeders' Cup Classic at Gulfstream Park. Along with Menifee he has recent Whitney Handicap winner Victory Gallop going strong, and one can only wonder if Walden will opt for another split on Breeders' Cup Day with Ecton Park, Menifee and Victory Gallop now in the arsenal. If he does, one would be wise not to second-guess the future Hall of Famer.

One who will be taking the young Walden seriously is Lukas, who knows a good trainer and a good horse when he sees one. Lukas has been the mentor of some of the best trainers in the business today. Those who have served apprenticeships under the Team Lukas banner include Todd Pletcher, Mark Hennig, Kiaran McLaughlin, Dallas Stewart, Bobby Barnett and Randy Bradshaw, who are all accomplished conditioners today.

Lukas not only shaped the best of human talents in racing, but has shaped some of the best equines in the sport for over two decades, and with it redefined the landscape of his profession.

The 63-years-young thoroughbred conditioner becomes the 72nd trainer enshrined into racing's Hall of Fame today.

He has trained 13 Breeders' Cup winners, 12 Triple Crown winners -- with six in a row from the 1994 Preakness Stakes with Tabasco Cat through Grindstone's victory in the 1996 Kentucky Derby --and was the nation's leading money-winning trainer 14 times. Lukas is closing in on career victory 3,800 with more than 1000 of those wins coming in stakes race competition. Earlier this year he became the first trainer in the history of the sport to surpass the $200 million mark in career earnings.

Lukas enjoyed his best year in 1987 when he won a record-setting 92 stakes races in 343 victories.

He has paid the price of his fame and is not without his critics or controversy -- both by-products of such success. He has -- as all champions have -- fought back from adversity as well. In 1993, after the death of his biggest client -- Gene Klein -- and the backruptcy of another -- Calumet Farms -- he overcame the near-fatal death of his son Jeff in a stable accident.

Through it all Lukas has held the standards of his profession without parallel.

As Lukas accepts his place in the Hall of Fame today, a place which the sport has held him for years, he can reflect on his recent Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes victories with Charismatic and his current stable star Cat Thief, with the hopes that the next classic winner is sitting in a Team Lukas shedrow waiting his turn.

Lukas is not ready to pass the torch to the next generation yet, but the young guns like Walden can certainly put a few more gray hairs on the head of Lukas, a 10-gallon Hall of Famer.

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