Lookin at Lucky

By Sid Fernando

One of WTC founder Jack Werk’s last claims to fame was the mating recommendation the company made to clients Gulf Coast Farms LLC (Jerry Bailey and Lance Robinson) to send its mare Private Feeling to Smart Strike. WTC will recommend up to 10 stallions for some mares and let the breeder choose the sire by fee and availability, also factoring in physical match, temperament, etc.; in this case, Smart Strike was WTC’s No. 1 pick, which Messrs. Bailey and Robinson agreed with by breeding to him in 2006. The next year, Lookin at Lucky was born, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Unsold as a yearling and purchased by a partnership headed by Mike Pegram for $475,000 as a 2-year-old in 2009, Lookin at Lucky was trained by Bob Baffert to an Eclipse championship at 2 with five wins and a second-place finish from six starts, including triumphs in such G1 races as the Del Mar Futurity, Norfolk at Santa Anita, and the CashCall Futurity at Hollywood Park. His only loss was the unlucky head that separated him from the prize of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

Over the winter, Jack became sick and eventually died on Feb. 14, 2010, but knowing he’d had a hand in a potential Derby contender for longtime clients Bailey and Robinson and the duo of Pegram and Baffert was particularly rewarding, especially because he felt the colt was the best he’d been associated with. Click here to read one of Jack’s last columns, posted on Jan. 18, 2010, on the mating that produced Lookin at Lucky.

Years back, WTC and Jack had combined with Pegram and Baffert in Real Quiet’s Derby and Preakness—and a Triple Crown bid that fell a photo short. Jack and the company had picked Quiet American as the No. 1 selection for breeder Eduardo Gaviria’s mare Really Blue, and the resulting foal, Real Quiet, had won the Hollywood Futurity, like Lookin at Lucky, on his way to Derby glory. Superstitious and pragmatic, Jack felt Lookin at Lucky’s loss in the Juvenile wouldn’t matter because he’d won the Futurity in the same Pegram colors and with the same blue Baffert shadow roll, and he was bullish on the colt’s chances against similar company on dirt.

Plagued with bad luck, Lookin at Lucky didn’t win the Derby, as we all know, but he ran one helluva race to finish sixth from a terrible draw and trip (Paddy O’Prado, a “Best of Sale” recommendation for WTC client Jerry Crawford’s Donegal Racing, was third, by the way!).

In his next start, however, Lookin at Lucky vindicated Jack’s beliefs and did prove that he was the best 3-year-old colt of 2010—as he’d been the best 2-year-old colt of 2009—with an emphatic win in the G1 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico.

A classic winner, Lookin at Lucky didn’t contest the Belmont Stakes, but he did come back to win the G1 Haskell and the G2 Indiana Derby before ending his career with a rousing run in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, where he was fourth. He was purchased at the end of the year by Coolmore and enters stud at Ashford in 2011 for a fee of $35,000, co-highest of all new sires with Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Blame and Quality Road.

Lookin at Lucky altogether won nine races from 13 starts and earned $3.3 million with five G1 races to his credit. He was a champion at 2 and will be one at 3 and is by a sire that led the General Sire List in 2007 and 2008 and led all US sires by US earnings in 2009. His dam, meanwhile, sold for $2 million in 2009 and is the dam of G2 winner Kensei. Add to the equation that Lookin at Lucky is a handsome, masculine colt who left it all on the track every time he raced and this very genuine colt becomes one of the most—if not the most—attractive new prospects for 2011.

Lookin at Lucky at the Derby with trainer Bob Baffert and Kris Werk, daughter of WTC founder Jack Werk.

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