Keith Asmussen set to make Kentucky Derby debut with longtime trainer D. Wayne Lukas

Tucked away in his tack room at Barn 44 at Churchill Downs, D. Wayne Lukas intermittently makes and receives phone calls from his flip phone.

“I just want hello and goodbye,” he said when asked about getting a smartphone.

Lukas is getting ready for his first Kentucky Derby appearance since 2018 with Just Steel next month. Despite his resistance to modern phones, Lukas’ horse racing legacy spans decades. Derby preparations are routine after training four Derby-winning horses between 1988 and 1999.

Although Lukas is used to the hustle and bustle, jockey Keith Asmussen will be aboard Just Steel in his first Kentucky Derby.

“He's not the first young guy that I've helped a little bit from a trainer standpoint or a rider standpoint,” Lukas said of Asmussen. “That might be our legacy.”

Staying active

Lukas raised hell earlier this month.

On Sunday, he was the first one to his stable, but to his dismay, the door wasn’t open. Not everyone gets up at 3:30 a.m. to get to work — and certainly not someone who is going to turn 89 in early September.

The longtime trainer can keep up with younger men in the sport but with some concessions. When getting on a horse to train, Lukas uses a step for assistance.

“I used to think I was John Wayne. I'd just step up and swing over,” Lukas said. “Now it's getting very difficult to get my leg over the back. I'm not embarrassed. I have a couple of guys to make sure I get out, and once I'm on, I'm fine. And, I ride good horses.”

Retirement isn’t an option anytime soon. Lukas’ competitive nature won’t let him walk away. He’s also taken the approach of if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it.

“I'll tell you what I found: I think that if I don't do this, I think my health and everything will slip fast,” Lukas said. “I think it stimulates me. I had to take one day off to get here. I felt terrible. That sofa and that TV pulls at you pretty strong, but I don't let it.”

After training quarter horses in the 1960s, Lukas switched to thoroughbreds.

The inaugural Kentucky Derby Museum Lifetime Achievement Award winner has 14 Triple Crown race victories. He jokes that he stopped working on his resume a long time ago. What keeps him motivated now is selflessness.

“My whole focus is to try to get my clients in that position to enjoy and have that experience of the winner's circle and have a Derby horse,” he said. “Everything that we do now — and I've preached this to the help and everything else — is to put our clients in a position of prominence or enjoyment. I've been there, sung ‘My Old Kentucky Home,’ done it all. I want to win another one, but I want to win it for my people.”

Containing the excitement

Asmussen won’t allow himself to get too riled up.

He’s been to the Derby before as a spectator, but being a jockey on the biggest stage in horse racing will be a new experience. Derby 150 takes it to another level.

Asmussen must maintain a careful balance of excitement and focus leading up to the big day. It’s something Jareth Loveberry, who rode Two Phil’s to a runner-up finish behind Mage in the 2023 Derby, reiterated to him.

“He was like, for these big events, big races, it's so easy to just go tunnel vision, just kind of get fogged by the nervousness of it and you're worried about this,” Asmussen recalled Loveberry saying. “You don't want to do a bunch of interviews, and you're kind of keeping to yourself because you're so nervous. He's like, at the end of the day, it's something that's so spectacular to experience. So, just try to get it all in.”

Asmussen's Derby debut comes nearly four years after his first career victory at Lone Star Park in Texas, his home state. He took a two-year hiatus from racing to finish his master’s degree in business from the University of Texas.

His first win of 2023 was with Papa Rocket, trained by Lukas, at Oaklawn Park. In December at Oaklawn, he surpassed his father and Hall of Fame trainer, Steve Asmussen, who is training Derby contender Track Phantom, with 64 career wins.

The Asmussen family legacy also includes Keith Asmussen's uncle, Cash, a five-time champion in France, Eclipse Award winner and currently a bloodstock agent. And his grandfather, also named Keith, was a jockey and friends with Lukas.

Being around horses his whole life and having that family pedigree is what helps the third-generation jockey ahead of the biggest race of his budding career.

“Someone asks you what do you do for fun? I'm like, um, watch replays,” Keith said. “I'm so all in. I'm 100% jockey.”

Derby 150

Lukas didn’t choose Asmussen to ride Lemon Muffin in the Oaks and Just Steel in the Derby because they both have master's degrees. They likely would be the first trainer-jockey with master's degrees if they win the Derby, though.

Lukas chose Asmussen because of his upbringing, calling the 25-year-old “polished” and “gracious.” Lukas also believes the up-and-coming jockey is a good fit for him.

“One thing I like about it is if we win it or not win it, he's not going to embarrass us,” Lukas said. "He's classy. I always worry about some of the riders when they get to prominence. Being a Derby-winning rider, they sometimes get off the beaten path.”

Having an iconic family legacy and the backing of an esteemed trainer means the world to Asmussen, who admittedly can get emotional thinking about it.

“I obviously haven't been in this role for very long,” Asmussen said, “and to have someone like Wayne Lukas, who has literally made the sport what it is and been in it for longer than we've been alive, for him to put his faith and confidence in you at the biggest stage there is, it's beyond invigorating.”

Reach Louisville football, women's basketball and baseball beat writer Alexis Cubit at acubit@gannett.com and follow her on X at @Alexis_Cubit.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: D. Wayne Lukas selects Keith Asmussen to ride in first Kentucky Derby