Mike Luzzi, America’s Eclipse Award-winning apprentice jockey in 1989, has
A 45-year-old native of Wilmington, Delaware, Luzzi has stood the test of
Sidelined due to a broken leg and fractured pelvis sustained in a paddock
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Presented annually by Santa Anita since 1950, the Woolf Award is one of the
most highly coveted honors in all of racing as it recognizes those riders whose
careers and personal character earn esteem for both the individual and the sport
of Thoroughbred racing.
Born October 27, 1969, Luzzi was raised in-part by his grandfather, legendary
trainer Buddy Raines, who also trained one of Luzzi’s biggest early stakes
winners — Timely Warning, with whom Luzzi won the 1991 Maryland Million Classic
at Pimlico and Brooklyn Handicap at Belmont Park. Luzzi was also the winner of
New York’s prestigious Mike Venezia Memorial Jockey Award in 2001.
With 26,540 career mounts, Luzzi has won 3,420 races and his mounts have
generated purse earnings of $108,218,039.
Luzzi and his wife, Tania, reside in Floral Park, New York, and they have a
daughter, Larue, 14, and son, Lane, 16, who is preparing to become a jockey.
The Woof Award was created to honor and memorialize the legendary jockey
George “the Iceman” Woolf, who was regarded as one of the greatest big money
riders of his time. Woolf died follow a spill, which has often been attributed
to the effects of diabetes, on Santa Anita’s clubhouse turn January 3, 1946. The
Woolf trophy is a replica of the full-size statue of the late jockey which
adorns Santa Anita’s Paddock Gardens area.
The inaugural Woolf Award winner, which was determined by a vote of the
Racing Press, was Gordon Glisson. Last year’s Woolf Award was won by Corey
Lanerie.
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