Jockey Mike Luzzi retires to become his son Lane’s agent

Eclipse Award-winning jockey Mike Luzzi has retired from racing to start a new career representing his son Lane, his agent said Saturday.

“I said it was time to turn the page on a great career and begin a new one representing his son in New York,” Mike Monroe said in a text message to Horse Racing Nation.

Monroe confirmed the story that was broken by David Grening of Daily Racing Form.

Mike Luzzi, 54, who was the champion apprentice jockey of 1989, has had only four rides since March, most recently finishing fifth on Sea Foam in the Genesee Valley Breeders’ Stakes on Sept. 4 at Finger Lakes.

He told DRF that his son asked him to become his agent.

“It was his idea,” Mike Luzzi said. “Reluctantly, I’m going to finish my career.”

Beginning in the fall of 1988, Mike Luzzi had 3,314 wins from 28,319 starts with earnings of $115,417,910, according to Equibase. He rode Grade 1 winners Kiri’s Clown, Critical Eye, Timely Warning, Spun Sugar, Daaher and Jilbab. He had third-place finishes in the 1999 Preakness on Badge, the 2003 Breeder’s Cup Sprint on Shake You Down and the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on House of Grace.

Based most of the last 30 years in New York, Mike Luzzi was limited in recent years by injuries. His last win came 16 races ago Jan. 8, when he rode Happy Sophia to victory in an allowance race at Aqueduct.

Lane Luzzi, 26, began his riding career in late 2015 at Laurel Park. In recent years he made a name for himself in Texas and Oklahoma before moving this fall to Aqueduct. He has made 4,936 starts to accumulate $15,336,107 in earnings and get 658 wins, most recently Thursday riding Solo in Paris to victory in a maiden-claiming race at Aqueduct.