HALL of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas took the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga with Sporting Chance.

Owned by Robert Baker and William Mack, the son of Tiznow overcame a moment of distraction when veering sharply to the right in the final stages of the Grade 1 stakes race.

Jockey Luis Saez nearly toppled off but was able to right the ship to win by a diminishing neck over Free Drop Billy.

Lukas, the 82-year-old bionic man of horse trainers, won the Hopeful for the eighth time in his storied career. He previously won it four years ago for Baker and Baker when Strong Mandate took the closing weekend stakes.

“He didn’t disappoint me at all,” Lukas said. “He ran even better than I expected. I expected him to run a strong race. I would have liked to have seen it without incident. You want everything to go smooth. I don’t think it diminished his quality any, we’ll move forward from this.

“Stuff like this is very correctable. These are two-year-olds and he’s just in his third race so you can see things happen like that every day in two-year-old races.”

SPINAWAY stakes

With the trainer’s title on the line at Saratoga, the Grade Spinaway turned into a Todd Pletcher/Chad Brown scrum as Separationofpowers and Pure Silver hooked up early in the seven-furlongs.

The clash crashed as those two faded and handed the $350,000 stakes race to the stalker, Lady Ivanka. The daughter of Tiz Wonderful collared the tiring leaders and held off Maya Malibu to score by three-quarters of a length.

* Todd Pletcher won the trainer’s title, while Jose Ortiz took his second consecutive riding title.

DEL MAR

Ruis finds a

racing Bolt

DEL Mar finished its summer season with a Grade 1 stakes for juveniles. Bolt d’Oro captured the Del Mar Futurity for Ruis Racing and trainer Mick Ruis.

Ridden by Corey Nakatani, the son of Medaglia d’Oro showed an important dimension, rallying from eighth in the field of nine to catch the Bob Baffert-trained Zatter by three-quarters of a length in the $300,000 stakes. Purchased for $630,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale in 2016, Bolt d’Oro improved to 2-for-2 in his career.

Ruis isn’t exactly Bob Baffert. The 56-year-old Californian made his fortune in the scaffolding business and recently jumped into the horse business. Originally, his daughter, Shelbe, trained his horses, but fired her and took it over himself. The Del Mar Futurity was his first Grade 1 stakes win.

“He got wiped out in the beginning, again. But this horse has so much talent. He can go to the front, he can come from the back. We were, what, six wide around the turn to take the lead,” Ruis said. “I’ll have him a little bit tighter for the Front Runner, so we’re real excited about that. Then we’ll see about the big race here (Breeders’ Cup Juvenile)?”

DEBUTANTE stakes

On the distaff side, Moonshine Memories did it on the front-end, securing a half-length win over Piedi Bianchi to take the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante for Bridlewood Farm, Mrs. John Magnier, Derrick Smith and Michael Tabor.

Trained by Simon Callaghan, the daughter of Malibu Moon kept her undefeated record intact as well, she’s now 2-for-2, after breaking her maiden two weeks before her stakes debut.

“We were actually looking for any small excuse not to run her back (in two weeks). There was no pressure from the owners. This filly just did everything you’d want from a horse in between,” Callaghan said.

“She showed in the paddock, her disposition and how calm she was, is something you can’t instill in them, it’s within them. I liked the way she was travelling within herself. She just kept running potential rivals off and she was all heart at the end.”

Fasig-Tipton had the second half its advertising campaign, as she was purchased for $650,000 at Saratoga last summer.