Lachance Retires From Driving

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Published: December 19, 2015 08:38 am EST

Michel Lachance didn’t want to make a fuss. So one of harness racing’s most accomplished drivers quietly called it a career just over a year ago.

His only starts this year were in one baby race and in the hall-of-fame race. He had no wins in 2015, the first time that’s happened since he started in Quebec City in 1967.

“It was at Lexington, the day before the (2014) Kentucky Futurity. I won the race, a late closer, came back and said ‘that’s enough, that’s it.’ When you tell people you retire, they want to make a ceremony for you. I hate those things. I just want to do things on my own,” said Lachance, who turned 65 this week.

His career stats tell the story. More than 10,400 victories, as many as 770 in a single season. Earnings of more than $192 million.

“I won five Little Brown Jugs, four Hambletonians, three North America Cups. I got to win the Prix d’Ete with Matts Scooter, in the place where I was born and raised, and then I won it again the next year (with Goalie Jeff). There’s people that would give their left arm to win one of those races. I drove great horses for wonderful people. How lucky can one man be? I had a beautiful career, the best of everything. I was spoiled.”

GOALIE JEFF- 1989 PRIX D'ETE

Lachance, a Quebec native who now lives in Millstone, N.J. with his wife of 41 years Micheline, said he didn’t want to become another driver simply playing out the string. “I’m competitive. If I’m not driving the best ones, why do it? I saw too many guys, good drivers, who were driving longshots the last five or six years. For what? It’s dangerous. At 65 and 70, you don’t get up as quick. That wasn’t going to happen to me.”

Any regrets? “I don’t miss it a bit. If I regretted it, I’d still be driving,” said Lachance, who is at the barns most mornings helping son Patrick with his stable and also regularly visits son Martin, who trains in Toronto. He co-owns 10 horses with his two sons.

(A Trot Insider Exclusive by Paul Delean)

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