It concerns all humanity, and also the animals.
Yet it remains extremely difficult to accept, especially when it comes far too early in one’s life, as it did with one of the greatest two-year-old fillies of the 20th century.
Landaluce seemed invincible on the track.
She won her five starts in dominant fashion, by a combined margin of 46 ½ lengths, including her maiden stakes win, in which she romped home by 21 lengths.
“It was mind-blowing how fast she was and how gifted she was with her efficiency of movement…” – Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas
Winner of the Eclipse Award as the best two-year-old filly of 1982, she was the first champion to be trained by D. Wayne Lukas, who would become arguably the sport’s best trainer with 25 individual champions to his name.
Yet that award would be presented posthumously in heartbreaking fashion when Landaluce fell victim to a deadly virus and tragically died after just five unforgettable races.
“In terms of sheer brilliance in a short career, there was probably no one like her,” said Lukas, who died on June 28, 2025.
It was not surprising that Landaluce had tremendous talent.
After all, she was a daughter of none other than Triple Crown winner, 1977 champion Seattle Slew, who also turned out to be a very successful sire.
Out of the Bold Bidder mare Strip Poker, the dark bay or bay filly caught Lukas’ attention at the 1981 Keeneland July Yearling Sale and he convinced Lloyd R. French and Barry Beal – who previously owned Lukas’ multi-stakes winning filly Terlingua – to make a winning bid of $650,000 for her.
A year later, when she headed to Lukas’ barn in Hollywood Park to begin her two-year campaign, it didn’t take long for her to prove she was worth every penny of that price tag… and then some.
“As a trainer back then you woke up every day and hoped that you would get one of those great Seattle Slews or Spectacular Bids in your lap,” Lukas said in a 2016 interview with America’s Best Racing. “When Landaluce came along, we realized we really had a brilliant filly.”
The good vibes Lukas had about Landaluce seemed to grow by leaps and bounds every day, which was highlighted by her first half-mile workout, which convinced Lukas that he had a filly with limitless potential.
‘I had a horse on the post in New York and [jockey] Angel Cordero [Jr.] and I took an overnight flight to California,” Lukas recalls. “We arrived around six in the morning and I told him that we were going to work with a horse called Landaluce that morning and that was very special. He said, ‘Don’t work her too early, I’ll come out and work her.’
“I said I’d wait until 8:30 or 9. So Angel gets there and I tell him she can really run and I didn’t want him to overdo it. I said, ‘Don’t let her run as much as she wants because it’s her first half mile. Maybe let her work in 48 or 49.’ [seconds]because she is really talented.
“Well, he’s working her and I’m on a saddle horse and I pick them up afterwards and I ask Angel what he thinks. He said, ‘Boy, she moves really good.’ I said, ‘What do you think you went in?’ He said, ‘Maybe 48 4/5 or 49.’ We drove past the clock stand and I said, “What has she done?” They said, ’44 4/5.’ ”
With that, Lukas looked at the future Hall of Fame rider and said, “You kind of missed her, Angel.”
News of the raw speed Landaluce flashed around Hollywood Park during her first training sessions, like gossip in the tinsel town rumor mill, and on July 3, 1982, when she first appeared at the races, she was sent off as a 4-5 favourite.
It could be a risky venture to back a racehorse ranked so low on his debut, but Landaluce was the real deal.
She broke quickly in the first six-furlong race under regular rider Laffit Pincay Jr. and never gave her rivals a chance. Three lengths ahead after an opening half mile in :44 3/5, she then pulled away in the stretch to lead by six lengths on the eighth pole and seven lengths when she crossed the finish line in a lightning fast 1:08 1/5.
“She tapped her hand early on,” Lukas said. “It was mind-blowing how fast she was and how gifted she was with her efficiency of movement and the way she got across the ground.”
A week later, Lukas led Landaluce in the Grade 2 Hollywood Lassie Stakes and a superstar was born.
What seemed like a competitive race in the early stages turned into a mismatch of epic proportions.
Second by half a length through an opening quarter mile in 21 3/5 seconds, the fleet filly took a 1 ½ length lead at the quarter pole after half a mile in a blistering 43 4/5 seconds.
What happened next became part of racing history. Once she entered the stretch, Landaluce pulled away from her rivals with every quick and fluid step. At eighth pole she held an insurmountable lead of nine lengths through five furlongs in 56 seconds.
Yet that margin looked like a slugfest compared to a breathtaking final furlong in which Landaluce pulled away in astonishing fashion. She crossed the finish line 21 lengths ahead of her overwhelmed rivals.
“The Lassie, when you watch that on YouTube, you just say, ‘Wow,’” Lukas said. “At the top of the stretch there are four horses together. There were a few other stakes winners but it looks like they’ve stopped running and she’s opened 21 lengths. The cameras stay on her and stay on her and then eventually the rest of the field comes into view.”
“For me, that was similar to Secretariat’s Belmont. It was one of those races you’ll never forget.”
If anyone doubted Landaluce’s brilliance, they were pretty hard to find after the Lassie.
Rested until September 5, she stretched to a mile for the Grade 2 Del Mar Debutante and once again pulverized her foes along the way. With a lead of just 1.5 lengths at the eighth pole, she pulled away with great ease in that final furlong to win by 8.5 lengths in a time of 1:35 3/5.
A 10-length victory in the Grade 3 Anoakia Stakes followed, and on October 23 she became the Grade 1 winner when she posted a two-length score as 1-20 favorite in the Oak Leaf Stakes at Santa Anita, covering a mile and a sixteenth in 1:41 4/5.
The next target was the $518,850 Hollywood Starlet on November 28, at the time the richest purse for fillies in Thoroughbred history. Still, Lukas knew his amazing two-year-old was also capable of dealing with men and targeted the Hollywood Futurity, another $500,000 bet, for its 1982 finale.
“We knew she could compete against the boys,” Lukas said. “We thought the sky was the limit for her. We could make her fight anyone.”
But in the week leading up to the Starlet, Landaluce fell ill with a fever of 103. At first, Lukas and vets thought it would be a mild illness, but it turned out to be a strain of Colitis-X, the same virus that nearly killed Seattle Slew, her father, a few years earlier. Landaluce’s situation worsened day by day and the doctors who treated her were unable to help her.
“We kept thinking we could turn it around, but of course we didn’t and we had no chance to do it,” Lukas said. “It was a virus that attacked all her vital organs. We had no chance to save her.”
Finally, in the early morning hours of November 28 – the day the Starlet was to be ridden – Lukas noticed Landaluce becoming unsteady and entered her stable to help and comfort her.
“I had gone to the stable thinking she had taken a turn for the worse. I could see she was getting weak and she started to stagger and fall against the wall,” Lukas said.
When Landaluce fell to the ground, she knocked Lukas over and her head landed in his lap. As he tried to help her up, Landaluce died with her head in Lukas’ arms.
“It was so hard to deal with losing her so quickly,” Lukas said. “It took me a long time to get over it, and I never let myself get into that position again with too many horses. It was hard and it was early in my career, and I didn’t handle it well.”
Lucas was not alone in his grief. He remembers having to arrange mental help for one of Landaluce’s grooms, who was found sobbing in the stable days later.
The loss of Landaluce was a shock to the entire racing industry. Not only did the sport lose a dynamic champion, but with her bloodlines she would have been a prized broodmare.
Although she only raced five times, she already captured the imagination of countless racing fans who mourned her loss. Lukas recalled seeing reports of Landaluce’s death on network news programs, something, he said, “that you had never seen in horse racing at the time.”
Landaluce was buried in Hollywood Park. When the track closed in 2013, her remains were moved to a final resting place on the farm where the filly was born, Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, and where her legend lives on.
“I’ve been training [many] champions and Landaluce is one of the best of them,” says Lukas. “She was one of the very special ones.”
NOTE: This story was originally published in 2016 and has been updated. Hall of Famer Lukas died on June 28, 2025.
Remarkable facts about Landaluce
- The highest price she paid to win in her five wins was $2.70 in her debut.
- She was named in honor of Francisco Landaluce, a hunting guide whom French and Beal met during a trip to a Spanish farm.
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