He grew up near Delaware Park Racetrack where his grandfather, trainer Buddy Raines, had a major role in raising him and his brother John who also became a jockey.

One of the family's great memories came in 1991 when the then eighty-year-old Raines saddled Timely Warning and watched as his grandson won the Maryland Million Classic and the Brooklyn Handicap.

Luzzi began his riding career in 1988 at race tracks in Maryland and in 1989 was voted the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Apprentice Jockey.

In 1994 and in 2001 the NYRA voted him the Mike Venezia Memorial Award, an honor given to a jockey who exemplifies extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship.

On April 12, 2015, Mike Luzzi accepted the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award at Santa Anita Park.