It wasn’t how Gaetan Lamy expected to close out his 50th and final season as a driver, but it’s what the doctor ordered.
Lamy, 70, hasn’t driven since September 24 at Hippodrome 3R, and he won’t be in the entries for the track’s last few programs of 2017. This past spring the veteran Quebec driver informed Trot Insider that the 2017 campaign would be his last in the sulky.
“I wasn’t feeling good, so I went to the hospital in Sorel. They said ‘you’re staying’ and kept me six days. I’d broken some ribs in a spill (at H3R) in June and started back three weeks later, but my kidney got infected. At the hospital, they told me not to do anything for two months, so I guess that’s it. Health has to come before horses. I’ve got less time ahead of me than behind me,” he said.
Lamy plans to keep busy with his other passions, hunting and fishing, once he recovers fully.
Lamy, who won the O’Brien Award as Canada’s driver of the year in 1992, said the consolation is that he went out a winner, as he guided six-year-old pacing mare Bemmol Kalie to a 7-1 upset and lifetime best in what turned out to be his final race.
“I won my first race 50 years ago, and I won my last one,” said Lamy, who had 10 victories this year and finishes up with a career total of 6,777.
Gaetan Lamy guides Bolero Takara to victory at the Red Mile. Bolero Takara would go on to produce Shamballa and Ys Lotus
(A Trot Insider exclusive by Paul Delean)