One of the greatest reinsman in the history of Standardbred racing, Michel Lachance won almost everything there was to win as a driver. And although he’s been retired from that end of it for a number of years, he’s still quite involved in the sport through his sons Patrick and Martin. Now, approaching the 35th anniversary of his World Record Time Trial with Matts Scooter, we take a look back at the career of the man who rightfully sits in the Hall Of Fame in both Canada and the U.S. By Debbie Little.

 

September 23, 2023 marks the 35th anniversary of Mike Lachance guiding Matts Scooter to a then World Record-setting 1:48.2 time trial at Lexington’s Red Mile.

Lachance, 72, remembers it like it was yesterday, including the fact that he was almost a no show for the historic mile.

“That time trial was at Lexington, and back then it wasn’t the fastest track in the world,” Lachance says. “Springfield [in Illinois] was the fastest track, but the time trial was at Lexington and it was at the end of his [Matts Scooter’s] three-year-old year. So, the horse was at his best.”

The time trial was on Friday, September 23, 1988 - the day after Lachance won the Little Brown Jug with B J Scoot. Matts Scooter was not Jug-eligible.

Lachance landed at the airport in Lexington that morning but couldn’t get a taxi or rental car. At about 11:30am he saw a familiar face.

“I saw Myron Bell… he came to pick up somebody and I said, ‘Myron, you’ve got to take me to the track right away,’” Lachance recalls. “I said ‘I’ve got to time trial Matts Scooter and it’s at 12:30.

“I just got to the track in time. They were getting him ready and they were waiting for me.”

Throughout his career, for Lachance, days like that - minus the airport drama - were more commonplace than not.

The double Hall of Famer - he’s an inductee in both the U.S. and Canada - has a body of work that speaks for itself, which is a good thing, when you consider how low-key and humble Lachance is. When asked, he will tell you about his accomplishments, but those who know him would say he was never one to seek out the spotlight. Instead, he let his actions on the track speak for him, and they show him to be one of the best that’s ever sat in a bike.

“Mike was as tough as there was to drive against; a great competitor,” Hall of Fame driver Bill O’Donnell states. “He was not only a great driver, Mike’s a great horseman. You know, he ran a very successful public stable from the time he was very young, and was a leading driver everywhere he ever went.”

Lachance, a native of St. Augustin, Quebec, grew up on a dairy farm, but his dad, Gedeon, always had horses.

“At the beginning, [horses] weren’t his main business, it was the dairy farm, but we always had horses,” Mike said. “He had racehorses and he drove in a handful of races himself too. At the end of his life he lived for horses, and the love of the horses; we got it from dad.”

Growing up, Mike had five brothers that all spent some time in harness racing as well.

He credits his oldest brother, Gilles, with really opening the door to the sport for the rest of the family in a bigger way.

“Gilles used to come to the States in the late ’60s and early ’70s. He was the leading driver in Canada at that time and was the leading driver almost everywhere he went… he’s in the Hall of Fame in Canada.”

Gilles was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 1997, four years after Mike.

For Mike, harness racing was a perfect fit, and he started winning races driving at county fairs in Canada at the age of 12.

At 16, Mike drove in his first pari-mutuel race, at Quebec City in 1967.

“So many people started there,” Mike said. “It was beautiful. It was the best place to be for a young man just starting in the business. It was like a dream place.”

Mike would go on, not long after, to race at Montreal’s Blue Bonnets, the premier track in Quebec.

“I was watching the races and I saw Herve [Filion] win the final race [of the inaugural World Driving Championship in 1970],” Mike said. “The Lachance family, the Filion family, the Turcottes; there were like five or six families in Montreal and we all grew up together. Everybody was in the horse business and we were all friends together.”

In Montreal, Mike had his own stable - it wasn’t until he came to the States in the early ’80s that he became a catch-driver. Starting out, Mike wanted to be both a trainer and a driver.

“Back then I owned a piece of most of my horses. I had like 35 or 40 head and I owned a piece of 30 or 35. So that was a different business for me. I was a trainer/owner/driver. When I came down to New York in ’82, I brought my barn, and I had 15 head… I left about 20 behind in Montreal.”

Mike’s original plan was to race in New York for the winter, when things were slower in Montreal, and then go back home to Canada in the spring.

“So, I said ‘In April or May when Yonkers is over for the winter meet, then I’ll go back to Montreal for the summer’. But when I saw what I could do in New York, I thought I’d extend it for another six months. And by the time we got to 1983, I started to have a lot of drives.

“I was driving eight, nine horses a night and at the end of ’83 I was already close to the top, or second, behind Carmine [Abbatiello]. In ’84, I started to run away with it. I was winning double the races than the guy who was second.”

In 1984, Lachance became the first driver to record 200 wins at Yonkers and Roosevelt, a feat that neither Abbatiello nor the great Herve Filion had accomplished.

Mike’s early success prompted him to stay in New York, move his family down from Canada, and to give up training his stable.

“I was too busy catch-driving so many horses for so many big stables. Back then in New York I had the pick on the three top, top, top stables. There was Vinny Aurigemma, Larry Summer and Linda Toscano. They were my three customers, so there was no room for me to have horses [of my own].”

From 1984-1987, Mike was the top driver at both Yonkers and Roosevelt, as well as in all of North America.

“You know, the thing about Mike is, he could drive trotters, pacers, lazy horses, crazy horses, fillies, colts,” Toscano says. “There was not a horse that he couldn’t drive, and in doing so, there was also not a horse he couldn’t help you with, because he had a clock in his head, the likes of which nobody had. That’s why his time trials were so amazing.

“Nobody had a clock in his head like Mike, in my opinion. And yet, on the other hand, he could take a bad horse and teach somebody like me how to make them good. I could get a horse to win off a qualifier, but getting consistency out of a horse was difficult, and he taught me how to get consistency out of a horse. He taught me that horses love routines,” Linda shares.

In 1986, Mike etched his name in the record books by winning 770 races, which at that time was a single-season record in the U.S. He obliterated the previous mark of 637 Herve Filion set in 1974, a number that many thought would never be touched. He also bested the world record number of 707 set by Germany’s Heinz Werwering in 1983.

“He probably won 150 races for me that year,  and he probably won more than 200 for Larry [Summer],” Toscano said. “Mike was a huge part of my career, huge. So not only was he a friend and a mentor, but he was my go-to guy forever. Forever.”

In 1988, Mike took a ride across the river to the Jersey side and set up shop at The Meadowlands, where he immediately became a force to be reckoned with. In fact, for the next 16 years, he was in The Big M top-five, and for most of the time, the top-three.

“He never gave you anything on the racetrack, but boy, he never asked for anything either, and I like that,” said O’Donnell, who added with a laugh, “Whatever you got from Mike you earned, he didn’t give it to you, put it that way.

“I mean, we were friends, we traveled together, you know, all over the country together and raced together, but don’t think just because you were his friend that when you went behind the gate that you were still his friend, because you weren’t. He was a very tough, very tough competitor. And you know what? He knew his horse, too. I’m a Mike Lachance fan. I raced against him, but I respect him.”

Many times, throughout his tenure at The Meadowlands, Mike finished second in the driver’s standings to John Campbell.

“He was very intense, very focused and very prepared, in that he knew what his horse could do and he knew how his horse fit in the field… he was a tough guy to drive against,” Campbell says. “Just in that he was a very driven competitor, and that made him tough to drive against.”

Many have said that the last person they wanted to have to get by in the stretch was Mike. When asked if he thought Mike was difficult to get by in the stretch, Campbell said: “Well, yeah, but all that really means is that Mike could keep a horse going in the stretch… you don’t get to the level that Mike got to without being able to keep a horse alive in the stretch, right? There’s no question, we had a tremendous amount of respect for one another.”

Racing and winning at The Meadowlands got Mike noticed by top owners, including George Segal.

“It took me a long time to use Mike,” Segal said. “Well, I think [trainer] Ronnie [Gurfein] introduced me to him and, yes, Ronnie and Mike were close. He drove mostly at Yonkers for a long time. And then, you know, when he came to The Meadowlands, there was Campbell and O’Donnell, but he drove just as good at The Meadowlands, with much tougher competition, than he had over at Yonkers. He did great.”

Mike’s pairing with Gurfein was special. They would go on to win many top races together, including three Hambletonians, one of which where the winner was owned by Segal.

When it came to big money races, Mike was known to be loyal to Gurfein, Brittany Farms and the Antonaccis, among others.

Mike has won 21 individual Triple Crown races, and would probably have won two more were it not for his loyalty.

“Two Little Brown Jugs that I lost was because I went with a horse for Brittany instead [of the winner], but there’s no regrets,” Mike says. “Financially, those people were wonderful to me. George Segal, Myron Bell, Art Zubrod, and everybody around Brittany Farms, they treated me like a king. They still do - and I haven’t driven a horse for 10 years for those people.”

In 1996, he qualified both Armbro Operative and Brittany’s Firm Belief for the second heat of the Jug. He chose Firm Belief out of loyalty and Armbro Operative went on to win. In the 1998 Jug, he qualified both Shady Character and Brittany’s Artiscape. He chose Artiscape and Shady Character won.

One time when the loyalty to Brittany and Gurfein definitely worked in his favour however, was when he won the 1996 Hambletonian.

Mike had been driving both the top colt, Lindy Lane, and the top filly, Continentalvictory, and knew that he would have to make a choice going in. His plan was to choose Lindy Lane.

Mike remembers being out at lunch with Gurfein and an owner of Continentalvictory, when he told Gurfein that he was going to choose Lindy Lane.

According to Mike, Gurfein did not take it well and almost started to cry, pleading with him to drive Continentalvictory.

“I said, ‘Jesus Christ, it’s not the end of the world’. So, I said, ‘I’ll stay with her if it means so much to you’. But in my heart, I thought I was going to get beat. I thought Lindy Lane was going to beat her.

“You should have been there. It was funny and it wasn’t funny, because I was in a bad situation.”

Mike then had to inform Frank ‘The Elder’ Antonacci that he would not be driving Lindy Lane.

“Frank Antonacci is such a special person, such a great guy. A couple of days after [I told him], maybe a week after, he started to talk to me again and I drove so many horses for him.”

Mike has won a total of ten, $1 million races, only three of which where he was the post-time favorite, and the majority of which he hadn’t even driven the horse in the elimination. One of those was his Hambletonian victory with Amigo Hall for Canadian trainer Blair Burgess.

According to Burgess, Amigo Hall had been struggling trotting in the turns on the 5/8ths tracks in Ontario.

“Trevor Ritchie [his regular driver] was a little discouraged with him and was also being pressed to drive a horse in [the Hambletonian] for Bob Stewart,” Burgess said.

Burgess decided to test Amigo Hall in a qualifier at The Big M and see how he did before making any decisions about racing in the Hambletonian.

“I thought at the time he would appreciate the surface and the two turns. [I] don’t remember if I didn’t ask, or if Trevor just couldn’t come, but I put Mike up in the qualifier because there probably wasn’t a better available evaluator there.

“I had a slight Mike connection through Brittany Farms. He drove a lot of their horses and when I was lucky to be at a ‘team lunch’ in Jersey with Myron Bell et al, Mike would be there quite often.”

Amigo Hall finished a strong second in his qualifier and Burgess felt his troubles seemed to be going away. He asked Mike if he thought he should enter the Hambletonian and Mike said ‘Yes’.

“He wasn’t emphatic but thought the competition that year was just so-so,” Burgess said.

Burgess entered Amigo Hall and put Ritchie down, but the driver chose Stewart’s horse instead. With Lachance already down to drive another horse, Burgess went with John Campbell, who was already committed to drive probable race favourite Power To Charm in the final.

“JC did an amazing stick handling steer and finished a strong third,” Burgess said. “I said a very happy ‘Thank you’ to him and proceeded to walk back from the front paddock with Amigo and [groom] Stacey Wadden. Mike was waiting for us, leaning up against the outside thoroughbred rail.

“Before we even entered the paddock area, he said ‘You need a driver in the final?’ with only a slight smirk. I said ‘Yes I do and you are it’. I knew with his knowledge of the horse and Amigo’s gate speed, if we got any kind of draw, we’d be competitive.”

According to Burgess, on Hambletonian Day, Amigo Hall had one of those days all the great ones do. “He was calm and collected in the front paddock,” Burgess said. “Totally unstressed, just staring at the tote board. I got more confident as the day went on. The only thing, I didn’t think he was an experienced enough horse to cut the mile, but I didn’t tell Mike. Never need to say anything to him. He knew.”

The pair had the lead at the quarter before relinquishing it, then rode the rail before shaking loose in the stretch and winning at odds of 27/1.

With so many top-level wins, you’d think it would be difficult for Lachance to choose a favourite, but he does have a couple that stand out a little above the rest.

“The Prix d’Ete in Montreal with Matt’s Scooter, my first Prix d’Ete, it was very close to my heart,” Mike says. “The Hambletonian with Self Possessed was very close too, because we had such a hard time with him before that. He was making breaks and we had a problem with him.

“The Prix d’Ete in Montreal with Matt’s Scooter was something unbelievable because my father passed away in ’89 - just a year later.”

Sadly, for Mike, his dad wasn’t well enough to go to Blue Bonnets that day.

“But he watched the races on TV,” Mike said. “And my mother told me he was crying.

“I won it two years in a row - with Matt’s Scooter and then Goalie Jeff [1989]. The Prix d’Ete was the best race in North America back then. They used to do it like it was the Prix d’Amerique.”

One top race that Mike never won was the Yonkers International Trot. He had a chance in 1993, but finished third and was disqualified to seventh for going up the passing lane with a half-mile still to go.

Mike said people were very critical of his drive, even going so far as to say that he was finished. But what people didn’t know was there were extenuating circumstances.

“I was in a major accident in the afternoon at The Meadows…  I got stuck under a pile of horses and I was feeling so bad I couldn’t remember things,” Mike said. “I left half of my equipment at The Meadows before we even got on the plane. I don’t remember the flight back to New York and I got in the paddock that night and I lost half of the time. I had suffered a concussion when I went down.

“I was driving in the International that night, so I said ‘No, I’m OK. I’m OK’. I wasn’t OK.”

Mike had been fortunate not to have too many major accidents in his career but the worst by far he said was that one at The Meadows.

“I remember after the races [at Yonkers], my wife was with me, and we went straight to the hospital. They examined me and they told my wife to not let me sleep for too long. I went home, and I swear on my grandchildren, I went into bed and I came out on Monday… but she was waking me up frequently.

The naysayers that believed Mike’s career was over because of the incident in the International, should know that his career was even better after that happened.

He won over $120 million in purses after that incident, including three of his five Little Brown Jugs and all four of his Hambletonians. He also went on to win two of his four Kentucky Futurities - in 2012 and 2013 - at ages 61 and 62 respectively.

Even though he hasn’t driven in a race since 2014, Mike remains active. He still owns horses and he’s at the barn every day, helping his son Patrick, a talented trainer/driver in his own right. He also visits his son Martin, who is a talented trainer in Canada, every few months.

He has no regrets for walking away when he did.

“If a driver tells you they’re 65 or 68 and they’re just as good as they were [when they were younger], it’s bullshit,” Mike says. “It’s not true. You’ve got to be an athlete to be out there, and you have to go out every night against Dexter Dunn and you gotta be on top of your game. When you’re 65-years-old, you’re not on top of your game.

“I won a lot of big races and I’ve done some great things, but there’s an end to everything. So that’s it.”

Now in his 70s, Mike is looking to slow down a little and perhaps take the winters off to travel and spend more time with his wife, Micheline. He plans to spend fewer days at the barn and as a result, own fewer horses.

“It’s not because I have no confidence if I’m not around,” Mike says. “I own horses because I love it. It’s fun for me. So if I’m not going to be around the barn as much, I’m going to own less. But I’m always going to have horses.”

 This feature originally appeared in the September issue of TROT Magazine. Subscribe to TROT today by clicking the banner below.