D. Wayne Lukas riding high after snagging Preakness win heading into Belmont Stakes

SARATOGA SPRINGS — D. Wayne Lukas is known in horse racing circles as “Coach,” but just after sunrise on a Wednesday morning ahead of the 156th running of the Belmont Stakes and first at Saratoga Race Course, the Hall of Fame trainer more resembled a king.

To find him, a visitor had to traverse a long, dusty road, across Union Street from The Spa.

On the right side was a conglomeration of barns and on the left was the Oklahoma training oval, its signature thick white mist blanketing the dirt and looking almost like a moat.

In the distant left corner of the property, the 88-year-old Lukas sat in a modest office chair in front of Barn 83, recognizable by its weather marks and chipping blue and green paint.

But for him it may as well have been a palace throne, perched next to the stall of his reigning Preakness champion.

As the exercise rider prepped Seize the Grey for his workout, Lukas invited The Post over for a quick chat.

Seize the Grey’s victory three weeks ago at Pimlico had given Lukas his record 15th Triple Crown championship — four in the Kentucky Derby, seven in the Preakness and four in the Belmont Stakes — but at this moment the legend wanted to start at the beginning.

“The first one, you think it’s you,” he said. “You’re all pumped up and you say, ‘Man, I won the Preakness!’ or ‘I won the Derby!’ After that, you get kind of a reality check and you [focus on] the clients that supported you, purchased the horse, [have] been involved, [stepped] in and [backed] you.

“So after the first one you’re thinking, boy, this is great for them, and you … push them forward and try to give them an opportunity to feel that same thing that you felt on the first one.”

This time around, there is no shortage of clients for Lukas to care about.

Seize the Grey is owned by a reported 2,570 shareholders via MyRacehorse, which purchased him for $300,000 at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton yearling sale at Saratoga.

At Pimlico, the owners certainly were pleased.

“I thought I was at a football pep rally. Cheering, tugging and jumping up and down and there were so many of them. They were everywhere,” Lukas recalled with a subtle smile. “They all showed up in that long lane going into the winner’s circle. … The state troopers were having [trouble] getting them parted, they couldn’t get the horse into the winner’s circle. It was chaotic.”

To the victors go the spoils, though, and Lukas is being showered with roses at this Belmont Stakes at Saratoga mini-meet from all different directions — friends, competitors, friends who are competitors.