If there’s one factor that’s much more sure than a 1-20 shot at a racetrack, it’s the inevitability of dying.
It involves all of mankind, and animals as properly.
But it stays immensely troublesome to just accept, particularly when it comes far too early in somebody’s life, such because it did for one of many biggest 2-year-old fillies of the twentieth century.
Landaluce appeared invincible on the racetrack.
She gained her 5 begins in dominant trend, by a mixed margin of 46 ½ lengths, together with her first graded stakes victory, during which she romped house by 21 lengths.
“It was mind-boggling how briskly she was, and the way gifted she was along with her effectivity of movement …” — Corridor of Fame coach D. Wayne Lukas
The Eclipse Award winner as the very best 2-year-old filly of 1982, she was the primary champion skilled by D. Wayne Lukas, who would grow to be maybe the game’s biggest coach with 25 particular person champions to his credit score.
But that award would come posthumously in heartbreaking trend as Landaluce fell sufferer to a lethal virus and tragically died after simply 5 unforgettable races.
“By way of sheer brilliance in a brief profession, there was most likely nobody like her,” mentioned Lukas, who died June 28, 2025.
It wasn’t all that stunning that Landaluce was gifted with superb expertise.
She was, in any case, a daughter of at least a Triple Crown winner, 1977 champion Seattle Slew, who additionally proved to be a extremely profitable sire.
Out of the Daring Bidder mare Strip Poker, the darkish bay or brown filly caught Lukas’ eye on the 1981 Keeneland July yearling sale and he satisfied Lloyd R. French and Barry Beal — who had beforehand owned Lukas’ multiple-stakes successful filly Terlingua — to make a successful bid of $650,000 for her.
A 12 months later, when she shipped to Lukas’ barn at Hollywood Park to start her 2-year-old marketing campaign, it didn’t take lengthy for her to show she was price each nickel and dime of that price ticket … after which some.
“As a coach again then, you’d get up day-after-day and hope you’ve a kind of nice Seattle Slews or Spectacular Bids fall into your lap,” Lukas mentioned in a 2016 interview with America’s Finest Racing. “When Landaluce got here alongside, we realized we actually had an excellent filly.”
The great vibes Lukas had about Landaluce appeared to develop by leaps and bounds with every passing day, highlighted by her first half-mile exercise, which satisfied Lukas he had a filly with boundless potential.
“I had a stakes horse in New York and [jockey] Angel Cordero [Jr.] and I caught an evening flight to California,” Lukas recalled. “We received in about 6 a.m., and I informed him we had been going to work a horse that morning named Landaluce that was actually particular and he mentioned, ‘Don’t work her too early and I’ll come out and work her.’
“I mentioned I’d maintain off till 8:30 or 9. So Angel will get there and I inform him she will be able to actually run and I didn’t need him to overdo it. I mentioned, ‘Don’t let her run as a lot as she desires as a result of it’s her first half-mile. Possibly work her in 48 or 49 [seconds], as a result of she’s actually gifted.
“Effectively, he works her and I’m on a saddle horse and I decide them up after it and I ask Angel what he thinks. He mentioned, ‘Boy, she actually strikes good.’ I mentioned ‘What do you suppose you went in?’ He mentioned, ‘Possibly 48 4/5 or 49.’ We rode by the clocker’s stand and I mentioned, ‘What’d she do?’ They mentioned, ‘44 4/5.’ ”
To that, Lukas regarded over on the future Corridor of Fame rider and mentioned, “You missed her a bit, Angel.”
Information of the uncooked velocity Landaluce flashed in her preliminary exercises unfold alongside the Hollywood Park backstretch like gossip within the Tinsel City rumor mill, and on July 3, 1982, when she appeared on the races for the primary time, she was despatched off as an odds-on 4-5 favourite.
Backing a racehorse at odds that low in its debut could possibly be a dangerous enterprise, however Landaluce was the actual deal.
She broke rapidly within the six-furlong maiden race beneath common rider Laffit Pincay Jr. and by no means gave her rivals an opportunity. Forward by three lengths after a gap half-mile in :44 3/5, she then drew off within the stretch to guide by six lengths on the eighth pole and 7 lengths when she crossed the end line in a blazing 1:08 1/5.
“She tipped her hand early,” Lukas mentioned. “It was mind-boggling how briskly she was, and the way gifted she was along with her effectivity of movement and the way in which she received over the bottom.”
Every week later, Lukas ran Landaluce within the Grade 2 Hollywood Lassie Stakes and a celebrity was born.
What appeared like a aggressive race in its early levels became a mismatch of epic proportions.
Second by a half-length via a gap quarter-mile in 21 3/5 seconds, the fleet filly grabbed a 1 ½-length lead on the quarter pole after a half-mile in a blistering 43 4/5 seconds.
What occurred after that grew to become part of racing lore. As soon as she entered the stretch, Landaluce pulled away from her rivals with each swift and fluid stride. By the eighth pole, she owned an insurmountable nine-length lead via 5 furlongs in 56 seconds.
But that margin was akin to a white-knuckler in contrast with a breath-taking last furlong that noticed Landaluce draw back in an astonishing method. She crossed the end line 21 lengths forward of her overwhelmed rivals.
“The Lassie, you watch that on YouTube, and also you’ll simply say, ‘Wow,’ ” Lukas mentioned. “On the prime of the stretch there are 4 horses collectively. There have been a number of different stakes winners in there, nevertheless it seems to be like they stopped operating and she or he opened up 21 lengths. The cameras stays along with her and stays along with her after which lastly the remainder of the sphere comes into the image.
“To me, that was much like Secretariat’s Belmont. It was a kind of races you’ll always remember.”
If anybody doubted Landaluce’s brilliance, they had been fairly arduous to search out after the Lassie.
Given a relaxation till Sept. 5, she stretched out to a mile for the Grade 2 Del Mar Debutante and as soon as once more she pulverized her foes within the stretch. Forward by simply 1 ½ lengths on the eighth pole, she pulled away with consummate ease in that last furlong to win by 8 ½ lengths in a time of 1:35 3/5.
A ten-length victory within the Grade 3 Anoakia Stakes adopted, after which on Oct. 23 she grew to become a Grade 1 winner when she posted a two-length rating as a 1-20 favourite within the Oak Leaf Stakes at Santa Anita, protecting a mile and a sixteenth in 1:41 4/5.
The subsequent goal was the $518,850 Hollywood Starlet on Nov. 28, which on the time was the richest purse for fillies in Thoroughbred historical past. But Lukas knew that his superb 2-year-old was additionally able to dealing with males and focused the Hollywood Futurity, one other $500,000 stakes, for her 1982 finale.
“We knew she may run towards the boys,” Lukas mentioned. “We thought the sky was the restrict for her. We may run her towards anybody.”
However within the week main as much as the Starlet, Landaluce grew to become unwell with a fever of 103. At first Lukas and veterinarians believed it will be a minor sickness, nevertheless it turned out to be a pressure of Colitis-X, the identical virus that a number of years earlier almost killed Seattle Slew, her sire. Landaluce’s state of affairs worsened by the day and the docs treating her had been unable to assist her.
“We stored considering we may flip it round, however in fact we didn’t and we didn’t have an opportunity to do it,” Lukas mentioned. “It was a virus that attacked all of her very important organs. We had no probability to avoid wasting her.”
Lastly, within the early morning hours of Nov. 28 — the day the Starlet could be run — Lukas noticed that Landaluce was rising unsteady and he entered her stall to assist and luxury her.
“I had gone within the stall, considering she had taken a flip for the more severe. I may see she was getting weak and she or he began to stagger and fell towards the wall,” Lukas mentioned.
When Landaluce fell to the bottom, she knocked over Lukas and her head landed in his lap. As he tried to assist her up, Landaluce died along with her head in Lukas’ arms.
“It was so arduous to deal with after we misplaced her so rapidly,” Lukas mentioned. “It took me a very long time to recover from it, and I by no means let myself get in that place once more with too many horses. It was troublesome and it was early in my profession, and I didn’t deal with it properly.”
Lukas wasn’t alone in his sorrow. He remembers having to rearrange psychological assist for one among Landaluce’s grooms who was discovered days later sobbing within the horse’s stall.
The lack of Landaluce was a shock to the whole racing trade. Not solely did the game lose a dynamic champion, however along with her bloodlines she would have been a prized broodmare.
Although she raced solely 5 occasions, she had already captured the creativeness of numerous racing followers who mourned her loss. Lukas recalled seeing stories of Landaluce’s dying on community information reveals, one thing, he mentioned, “you had by no means seen for horse racing on the time.”
Landaluce was buried at Hollywood Park. When the monitor was closed in 2013, her stays had been moved to a last resting place on the farm the place the filly was born, Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, Ky., and the place her legend lives on.
“I’ve skilled [many] champions and Landaluce is correct up there with the very best of them,” Lukas mentioned. “She was one of many very particular ones.”
NOTE: This story was initially printed in 2016 and has been up to date. Corridor of Famer Lukas died June 28, 2025.
Notable Information about Landaluce
- The very best value she paid to win in her 5 victories was $2.70 in her debut.
- She was named in honor of Francisco Landaluce, a looking information French and Beal met throughout a visit to a Spanish farm.
