By Bloodhorse.com
ATOKA, Okla. (Mar. 24, 2016) — Tough, dedicated, and determined are how friends remember Jeff Lukas, who died this week at age 58.
Also being remembered is the brilliant training career cut short by the aftermath of severe brain injuries Lukas suffered in December 1993, when he collided with Tabasco Cat, loose and in full stride through the Santa Anita Park barn area.
“I started off with Jeff as an exercise rider, at the bottom, and I mean he was tough,” said trainer Dallas Stewart, who rose through the Lukas Racing Stable organization to become an assistant under Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, Jeff’s father. “He was focused and a really great horseman.”
When Stewart started with the Lukas stable, he worked with Winning Colors, the 1988 Kentucky Derby (gr. I) winner Jeff Lukas is credited with developing.
“To be the kind of trainer he was, you just have to have it in you—it can’t be taught. He had it,” Stewart said. “And after the accident, he was tough. He had a lot of help but his determination got him back.”
Lukas’ brain injuries were so severe, he nearly died on several occasions. When he did begin to heal, his personality changed dramatically and he retained some long-term damage to his memory and his vision. Lukas eventually carved out a quiet, peaceful life in the southeastern Oklahoma town of Atoka, which is captured in a Sports Illustrated longform published last year.
Lukas worked for First Bank in Atoka, one of several branches owned by David Burrage, who was accountant and general manager of Lukas Racing Stable from 1980 through 1999. Burrage also lived in Atoka.
In a 2013 interview with Steve Haskin, Wayne Lukas said that accident is the one thing he would change about his life, describing his son as “the backbone of the operation for so many years.”
“Jeff accepts the cards he was dealt,” Lukas continued in that interview. “But he’s doing really well. He lives through his children. His son graduated from the Air Force Academy with honors this year, and his daughter is on a soccer scholarship in California. He still follows racing closely. Ask him about the LeComte and he’ll rattle off the splits for you.”
Perennial top trainer Todd Pletcher, also a protege of Wayne Lukas, remembered Jeff “as the sharpest and most dedicated horsemen I’ve ever met.”
“Jeff’s impact on my life and career, as well as many others in the Lukas organization, is immeasurable. We will all miss him greatly,” Pletcher said.
Funeral services are being handled by Brown’s Funeral Home in Atoka. Arrangements are still being set.