When a Canadian-sired, bred, owned, trained and driven horse races until mandatory retirement, earns just shy of $1.7 million, while never cashing a purse cheque for more than $37,500, and does so with basically no vetwork whatsoever, they get a feature in TROT. That’s exactly what The Real One did for trainer/driver Patrick Lachance, and owner Hélène Fillion - after she bought him at age two for just $12,000. By Chris Lomon.

Canadian-sired, bred, owned, trained and driven, The Real One raced until the mandatory retirement age of 15, never cashed a purse cheque for more than $37,500, and earned almost $1.7 million in the process - yet you’ve probably never even heard of him. If there’s ever been a horse that deserved a feature in TROT Magazine, this is ‘the one’ - The Real One.

 

“Age is a matter of feeling, not of years.”

The quote from George William Curtis, an American writer, reformer, public speaker, and political activist, is no doubt relatable for many, a reminder that age, in the grand scheme of things, is merely a number.

For athletes, human or equine, keeping pace with younger contemporaries is no easy feat.

But it is possible.

From household names like seven-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback Tom Brady, to NHL legend Gordie Howe playing pro hockey over five decades, and George Foreman becoming the oldest heavyweight boxing champion in history at age 45, in 1994, tales of athletic triumphs orchestrated by older competitors, those who thumb their noses at Father Time, have always captivated the sporting world, be it on the big or small stage.

While his name and exploits haven’t earned a fraction of the fanfare some other veteran athletes have been afforded, The Real One, a son of Mach Three-Elle Blue Chip is every bit deserving of applause, accolades and admiration for his success story.

“I would say he is like Jaromir Jagr,” said driver and trainer Pat Lachance, of the NHL legend who has crafted one of the longest playing careers in professional ice hockey history. “Just like Jagr, this horse kept himself in great shape and was better than a lot of his younger contemporaries.”

Lachance, son of Hall of Fame driver Mike Lachance, didn’t initially think of The Real One in Jagr-esque terms however.

No one associated with him really did.

But the racehorse once thought of as an average sort would become much more than that, long before he stepped onto the racetrack for his final mile, on December 10, 2024, at historic Yonkers Raceway.

There was nothing, aesthetically or otherwise, that suggested the rather ordinary-looking bay Standardbred, foaled on April 20, 2010, was destined to be something extraordinary.

Little did anyone know at the time that The Real One would become the real deal.

After a pair of two-year-old qualifiers in June 2012 at Mohawk Racetrack, under the tutelage of trainer Ben Baillargeon, The Real One debuted on July 6th of that year and finished fifth, seven lengths behind the winner, pacing his own mile in 1:56, on the same racetrack.

One week later, he was an uninspired last of nine.

Baiilargeon and French-Canadian owner/breeder Richard Berthiaume then listed the rookie pacer on the Standardbred Canada Horses For Sale Board - he sold for $12,000.

It was Hélène Fillion and her boyfriend, trainer Bertrand Ayotte, based in Quebec, who purchased the horse and subsequently raced him at ages two and three.

Being trained by Ayotte, in his first start for his new connections, on August 12, 2012, The Real One finished fourth, in 1:59.2, at Rideau Carleton Racetrack in Ottawa.

After four consecutive runner-up finishes, his maiden-breaking score would come in his eighth lifetime start, on October 4th of that year, also at Rideau Carleton - the winning time was a modest 1:58.1.

The following season, at age three however, The Real One showed signs that he was on the cusp of hitting his best stride.

His 2013 sophomore campaign yielded a pair of wins and a third from five Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots appearances, punctuated by a 1:54.3 OSS victory on the half-mile track at Grand River Raceway that August.

Those efforts caught the attention of U.S.-based trainer Monte Gelrod, who had watched The Real One race, and was impressed by what he saw.

When told that Fillion spoke little English, Gelrod asked Pat Lachance to reach out and make an offer to Fillion and Ayotte, to buy the horse, on his behalf.

Fillion was not interested in selling her horse - in the least.

“I didn’t know Hélène or Bertrand at all at that time,” shared Lachance. “I had never met either of them. But she actually sounded a bit upset at the offer to buy him,” he laughs. “At one point I remember telling her to remember that I was just the messenger… that I wasn’t the one trying to buy her horse.”

The sale obviously didn’t go through, Fillion and Ayotte kept their beloved horse, and following a sophomore season that saw him win 10 times and earn $55,143, they started to prepare him for his aged campaign.

After a few starts at Rideau and Hippodrome 3R, however, early in The Real One’s four-year-old campaign, and approximately six months after he called her, Pat Lachance found himself on the receiving end of a phone call from Hélène Fillion.

“I think some people they knew had been telling them [Hélène and Bertrand] that their horse could probably make some good money at Yonkers,” Pat recalled.

“It wasn’t that Hélène didn’t want to give him to me - she didn’t want to give him to anybody,” chuckles the horseman who has over 4,300 driving and training wins combined. “She was so protective of him. I told her, ‘If you let me train him, I promise I will take care of him like he is my own horse.’”

So Fillion handed the reins over to Lachance, to train her beloved horse, and Pat stayed true to his word in regard to the horse’s care.

“The first time I trained him he seemed like a nice enough horse,” Pat shared. “But he didn’t train like he was special or anything. I remember saying to my dad that I thought he might be ‘Just ok’ or something along those lines.”

Now in to go, Pat’s new owner, Hélène, was trackside at Yonkers on June 21, 2014, when the bay made his first start in the Empire State.

“Hélène was so serious that day, like a mom sending her kid to someone else to take care of,” laughs Pat.

Lachance, who was in the racebike behind the horse that evening, put the pacer’s nose on the wings at the start of the second race, hopeful he could guide the 2/1 mutuel choice on the toteboard to a fairytale finish for his nervous owners.

Third, after an opening quarter in :26.3, the pair then moved into second through three-quarters in a lively 1:22.4.

That’s when Lachance called on his new pupil for the first time.

“I really didn’t expect him to be that good,” Pat admits. “I just remember tipping him wide and he just exploded… I was a bit shocked. I had to eat the words that I had spoken to my dad a few days earlier, but in this case I really didn’t mind (laughing).

“After that first time I raced him, I knew he had a big engine though, because he won by over four lengths,” he recalled of the 1:52 mile. It was the first of three straight scores for the new pairing of horse and driver. “He was just so fast, so quick over that last quarter. He flew home.”

It would become The Real One’s calling card.

Whether it was a soft or sizzling opening panel in front of them, Lachance knew what to expect from his charge in the final quarter of each race.

You can count on two hands the number of times The Real One was on top at the quarter, during his 11 years competing in the U.S. - with the large majority of those starts coming at Yonkers. Most people would think that a half-mile specialist would do most of their best racing on top - not in this case.

Lachance learned that about his new charge early on.

“He would always try so hard. But he would get a little hot sometimes and you would have to settle him down a little bit. I learned quickly that if you let him relax [off the gate] early, when you asked him for that extra gear late, he would really take off.

“I never really left with him as time went on, because he was better from off the pace, but I got hurt in a race accident at Woodbine in 2018, and when I was recovering I had to have a few different guys drive him. That’s when [Jason] Bartlett thought he’d try to get cute one night,” he laughs.

“He rolled him down to the three-quarters in 1:22 or something, in the mud as a big favourite. He got beat,” Pat smiles, as he reminisces about one of his all-time favourite horses, and the way his charge performed best.

“I think it was important to the success and longevity of his career that we learned he was best from off-the-pace. His style of racing, having a target to chase down, those types of horses always seem to last longer.”

And speaking of being built to last, Lachance believes part of that came from the horse’s pedigree as well.

“I always had an idea he would have longevity because he was a Mach Three out of a Bettors Delight mare - Mach Threes always seem to last forever. You throw a Cam Fella line in there and you have yourself a tough, durable horse.”

And a winning one, too.

The Real One held the track record, 1:50, at Yonkers for three years. He first achieved the feat in his six-year-old season.

It wasn’t his only memorable moment.

On June 20, 2015, The Real One prevailed in a special $75,000 Open Handicap Pace at Yonkers, which doubled as the Marvin Kaufman Memorial.

Despite being saddled with post eight and ignored at odds of 17/1, The Real One, with Lachance in the sulky, roared home in :27.2 to win by a length and a quarter in 1:52.3.

The $37,500 top prize would be the largest in the career of the hard-knocking pacer that went on to win 73 times and earn $1,689,592 the hard way.

“He had the eight-hole that night, but everything worked out,” recalled Lachance. “They mixed it up a little bit on the front end and he came flying home like he always does. That was pretty cool.”

There were many other wins to come, along with a second in a leg of the Levy (now Borgata) Series in 2016, and a hard charging fourth, just 1 ½ lengths behind the winner (McWicked), in the 2019 edition of the $250,000 Dan Rooney at Yonkers.

In the six years from ages 4-9 (his first six years with Lachance) the least The Real One ever earned was $140,663, and if it wasn’t for the COVID-19 shortened racing season of his 10-year-old year, he surely would have went eight straight seasons of six-digit earnings (he came back at age 11 to $117,755).

In 2024, at age 14, in his last year of racing, The Real One posted two victories, six seconds and five thirds, accompanied by $85,994 in purse earnings.

Standardbred rules note that horses can race until December 31st of their 14-year-old campaign, except for races where they are driven by amateur drivers, so this past December 10th, he lined up behind the gate for the final time.

At the end of the mile, fittingly, at Yonkers, The Real One was fifth, two lengths back of the winner.

It was a bittersweet moment for Lachance, who was in the racebike as usual.

“You could always count on him, even at the barn. If you were going through a rough racing patch, you would see he was entered, and you knew things would get back on the right track. And they would. It was amazing, the stretch of around seven years, where he just went out and performed at a high level each and every race. He stayed sound. He still is. He could race for another couple of years - I could guarantee that. He loved Yonkers. He never had any problems, suspensory, tendon, soft tissue - we were very lucky.

“In fact, we may have done [blocked] his feet a few times, but I swear to you that in all the years we had him, he NEVER had a joint injected.”

In this day-and-age of racing, that is the one fact in this entire story that might be the most impressive!

310 starts in the Lachance Stable; 61 victories; more than $1.6 million in earnings over 11 years of racing; zero joints injected.

“He was very quiet in the barn and never did anything wrong. He never tried to bite you or kick you - a very nice horse to be around. You could have kids around him and you wouldn’t be worried about it.

“He had lost a step at the end and was down in class, but he owed us nothing. I think the one thing that went through my mind was, ‘I can’t wait until he’s home and happy’. I know he will be taken care of. I want him to lead the happy life he deserves,” smiles Pat.

Now, with a career stat line of 349 - 73 - 58 - 57, a mark of 1:50h and $1,689,582 in lifetime earnings, the horse who was never dropped in for a claiming tag is now back home in Quebec.

It is every bit a storybook ending for his connections, including longtime groom Alejandro Herrera.

“He is a special horse,” said Herrera. “We spent 10 years together. He was very easy to take care of and was always happy. What I will miss the most is taking him to the races every week. He could feel when race day came - we had so many great trips to Yonkers.”

For Lachance, where The Real One will spend the rest of the days is, perhaps fittingly, a place where the respected horseman actually spent his own childhood days.

“Crazy enough, the farm he is now living at is my Uncle Andre’s farm. He bought that farm from my father. My father bought it from their father, so both my dad and I were raised where The Real One is now. It’s where I spent the first 10 years of my life before my family moved to New York.”

Small world!

Lachance will, at some point, make his way to the place he once called home, to reconnect with Fillion and Bertrand, and the horse who defied the odds, literally and figuratively.

“I was speaking with Hélène the other day,” Pat laughed. “I asked her if that horse was getting good care up there and joked that I might just have to go up and check on him to make sure.”

True friendships have been forged between the connections of The Real One over the past decade, as the war horse has changed the lives of all those around him - for the better.

“The Real One is a very happy horse and always gave us 100 percent, no matter what position he was in,” Hélène Fillion shared. “He has always paid for his training and allowed us to buy around 20 horses [over the years], 10 of which went to Patrick Lachance.

“It was he who gave us the chance to continue in the field of racing and to be able to go to the auctions... I have worked in horses since I was young, with young horses, and having The Real One was a gift from heaven.

“Patrick had The Real One for 10 years. The first eight years he came back to the farm for the winter, on vacation, and preparation for returning to Patrick afterwards. Patrick took care of him as if he were his own, and he was a member of his family.

“A big ‘thank you’ to Patrick and his team for the good years and the good care, because he is 15-years-old now and still young.

“The Real One is in Mirabel with André Lachance and Sylvie Lamarche.

“Currently, the old man is still jogging because he loves being on the track, and he roams the paddock freely. We are going to give him a nice retirement as he deserves.”

While jogging in Mirabel, Quebec, there are no more targets for The Real One to chase, no more out-of-the-clouds final quarters to pace, but that’s ok.

Instead, the retired pacer will simply take in the sights and sounds of farm life, where he will spend time with his new companion, a pony who also calls the property home.

“He showed so many of us that age is only a number,” said Lachance. “We can all learn a lot from him.”

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