DEL MAR — The Breeders’ Cup begins Friday at Del Mar Racetrack, and while it will not be the first one missing a horse trained by D. Wayne Lukas, it will be the first one since Lukas died in June at age 89.

Bob Baffert, the most famous trainer since Lukas, knows what that means.

“He’s the one that really put the Breeders’ Cup on the map,” Baffert said Thursday morning.

Lukas didn’t win a race at the inaugural Breeders’ Cup in 1984, but it would be six years before that happened again. From 1984-89, at a time when there were just seven Cup races each year, horses trained by Lukas won 11 races, including hat tricks in 1985 and 1988. In the 41 years of the Breeders’ Cup, only five trainers have won more than Lukas won in those five years.

Lukas, whose last Breeders’ Cup starter was a year

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