Did D. Wayne Lukas sleep in the morning after Seize the Grey glided away from the competition to give him his seventh Preakness Stakes win? Come on, now. The 88-year-old trainer was awake before 3 a.

m., worrying about a sesamoid fracture suffered by his other Preakness horse, Just Steel (with a pin inserted, he’ll be fine, Lukas said). He was at Pimlico Race Course by 5 a.

m. to watch a perky Seize the Grey pace the shed row alertly and munch on some nearby grass. He was deep into several rounds of interviews by 6 a.

m., thinking ahead — always ahead — about getting the whole operation back on the road to Kentucky the next morning. Lukas was never one to pause and soak in a moment.

His doggedness made him great in the first place, carrying him to the top of his profession in the 1990s, when he dominated the Triple Crown series, created a new model of training with thriving barns all around the country and rubbed plenty of people the wrong way with his brusque will to win at all costs. He’s a more graceful public figure now, comfortable in his role as thoroughbred racing’s elder statesman and grateful for the affection of old rivals such as Bob Baffert and Kenny McPeek, both of whom hugged him after Seize the Grey beat their horses Saturday . But that same old rage to win burns in him still.

As Lukas said in the afterglow of Seize the Grey’s victory, these big races are the reason he still rises before dawn every morning to go to his barn in Kentucky. “Don’t let .