Born and raised on a small farm, Lukas grew up with an interest in horses. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison with a master's degree in education then taught at La Crosse, WI Logan High School where he was a head basketball coach. He was initiated into the Kappa Sigma fraternity while an undergraduate.[3] He began training quarter horses in California in 1968 and after 10 years of achievement that saw him train 24 world champions, he switched to training thoroughbreds. The first trainer to earn more than $100 million in purse money, he has been the year's top money winner 14 times.[citation needed] Lukas got his big break in 1980 when he won the Preakness Stakes on Codex. His horses have won the Kentucky Derby four times, the Preakness Stakes on seven occasions, and have claimed victory four times in the Belmont Stakes, including winning all three of the Classics in 1995 with Thunder Gulch (Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes) and Timber Country (Preakness), making him the first trainer to sweep the Triple Crown Classic races with two different horses in a season. In 2013, he surpassed Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons for the most Triple Crown race victories, with 14. In 2024, the 88-year-old Lukas broke Fitzsimmons' record as the oldest trainer to win a Triple Crown race when Seize the Grey won the Preakness Stakes.[4]
In 2014, at age 78, in his acceptance speech for the 2013 Eclipse Award of Merit, he stated, "[w]hen they start giving you awards...they are trying to get you to retire. Well, you young trainers get ready because I'm not retiring. We're coming after you so you'd better get up a little more early in the morning from now on. We're coming after you with a vengeance."[2]
Personal life
Lukas has been married four times. He had one son, Jeff (1957–2016), and two grandchildren with his first wife. In December 1993, Lukas' derby contender Tabasco Cat seriously injured Jeff Lukas, who worked for his father as an assistant trainer and was the elder Lukas' hard-driving right-hand man. In a shedrow accident at Santa Anita Park, the colt broke loose and when Jeff Lukas tried to stop him, the horse slammed into him, throwing him into the air and when Jeff landed on the concrete, he suffered a skull fracture which left him in a coma for several weeks. He suffered permanent brain damage and had changes in personality, vision loss and damage to his memory. By spring of 1994, he had recovered enough to attempt a return to horse racing but after a series of less-demanding jobs ending in 2003, it was clear he could not work safely around racehorses. He also tried living and working near horse farms but his disabilities were too severe for him to be safe around horses at all. He ultimately moved to Atoka, Oklahoma in 2007 to work for David Burrage, who had been the accountant and general manager for Lukas Racing Stables. By that time, Burrage was a banker and owned the First Bank in Atoka, which employed Lukas. His father bought him a home there and Jeff lived a quiet life until his death at age 58 in March 2016.[7][8]
Lukas suffered with COVID-19 in 2020. However, he later recovered from the illness.[1]
