Mike Lachance tribute video

Mike Lachance is one of our sport’s greatest drivers of all time. He retired from racing in 2014 with 10,252 wins and career earnings of $187,710,149. He has won four Hambletonian’s, five Little Brown Jugs, three North America Cups, four-time U.S. leading dash winning harness racing driver, winner of 28 Breeders Crowns and a winner of the Pacing Triple Crown.

The U.S. Harness Racing Alumni has produced this video to honor one of our sport’s greatest drivers of all-time.

Michel “Mike” Lachance was born December 16, 1950, in St. Augustin, Quebec.

By the age of 12 he was winning races at county fairs. Lachance is considered to be one of the greatest harness drivers of all time.

During his career he had won 10,253 races and purses totaling $187,710,149. He has been inducted into both the United States and Canadian Harness Racing Halls of Fame. Lachance has won leading driver titles at major racetracks in Canada and the United States, Lachance began driving harness horses as a young boy and in 1967 began driving professionally at age seventeen in Quebec City, Quebec.

He went on to win driving championships at Blue Bonnets Raceway in Montreal, Quebec. His success in Canada led to a move to the major tracks in the New York City area in 1982. In 1984 he became the first driver to win 200 races in a single year at both Roosevelt and Yonkers Raceway.

In 1988 Lachance made the Meadowlands Racetrack his base. At the mecca of American harness racing he would rank in the top five drivers for fifteen straight seasons. Lachance was the U.S. National Champion in wins for four straight years from 1984 to 1987 and won the money winning title in 1996.

In 1986 he set a new North American record with 770 wins. On July 14, 1995, he set a new record for most wins on a single race card with eight. Among his many major career wins were five in the prestigious Little Brown Jug, four Hambletonian Stakes and three North America Cup races. In 1997 he won the Triple Crown of Harness Racing for Pacers with Western Dreamer, the only gelding of any breed to ever win a Triple Crown.

Lachance is very confident in his ability while being very humble as he talks of hard work, honesty, and luck having all played a part in his success on the track.

by Fred Hudson for the Harness Racing Alumni Show