Mike Lachance on his successful partnership with trainer Ron Gurfein.

by Debbie Little

According to Hall of Fame driver Mike Lachance, when it comes to his four Hambletonian victories, some things were just meant to be.

Lachance’s quartet of wins started in 1994 with Victory Dream for trainer Ron Gurfein and ended with Amigo Hall in 2003 for trainer Blair Burgess.

“Three of those Hambletonians were with me and Ronnie Gurfein,” Lachance said. “I know I was second with another one for Ronnie [Cantab Hall in 2004], and I must have raced maybe, I don’t know, seven or eight for Ronnie in the Hambo. So, most of my Hambletonian experiences were with Ronnie Gurfein.”

Gurfein was a friend of the family.

“Ronnie Gurfein was good friends with my brother, Gilles, from back in Monticello,” Lachance said. “So, when I first met him in New York, Ronnie had a friendly personality where he was talking to me like we were part of the same family.

“So, when I first came to The Meadowlands in ’88, right away he started to use me on some of his horses, and that’s around the time that Ronnie started to have some really good horses. And he used to go to Florida with 25 or 30 of the best-bred trotters in the country, and I hooked up with him at the right time.”

Although his first Hambletonian win came in ’94 with 2-5 favorite Victory Dream, Lachance said he came close with Embassy Lobell in 1990.

“Embassy Lobell was my first really good horse,” Lachance said. “I finished second and if I had to start the race all over again, I think I would have won, you know, just the way the race went, but I did not win, John [Campbell] won.

“So, the first one I had a shot with was Embassy Lobell, and then after that, almost every year I always had something. I went maybe from ’94, I would say, to 2004, and almost every year I had a horse that had a shot to be in the Hambo final and close to being the favorite.

“I was very fortunate like that; I was spoiled to have very good horses for such a long period.”

It wasn’t long before the tandem of Lachance and Gurfein found themselves back in the Hambletonian winner’s circle with a talented filly with a high-flying tail that looked like it was slapping Lachance in the face every time it swished.

“She was so comfortable like that,” Lachance said about the choice not to tie down Continentalvictory’s tail. “She was so elegant and that’s the way she was. She had a character that mare, you know, she had a mind of her own, so we didn’t want to aggravate her in any way.

“For me, it’s tough to say, but I still think that she was one of the best 3-year-old fillies of all time. And some people are going to argue with that, but some people are going to say, ‘Well, okay.’

“She was just an unbelievably talented filly. She was built like a freight train. It was something to race her.”

Lachance remembers first seeing Continentalvictory in Florida during the winter.

“I used to go in February, March or April a couple of times before stake payments and when I saw her in Florida, oh boy, I thought that she was something special right away,” Lachance said.

According to Lachance, the talented filly had some idiosyncrasies.

“It took me like three, four or five starts before I got her going the way me and Ronnie wanted,” he said. “And once I got her going, she was the Filly of the Year at 2 and 3. She was just a monster.”

Continentalvictory’s 3-year-old year, 1996, was a big one for Lachance. He said he probably had the three best horses for the Hambletonian that year.

“I had Mr Vic, Continentalvictory, and Lindy Lane and John [Campbell] had Act Of Grace; they were the best four, and three were mine,” Lachance said, adding with a laugh, “So, like a month before the Hambo, I was thinking that I’m going to have the best horse in the Hambletonian Oaks and I’m going to have one of the best horses in the Hambletonian, but when they decided to race her against the boys, that screwed up my plan.”

The final Hambletonian-winning pairing for Lachance and Gurfein came in 1999.

“Self Possessed was the fastest trotter I drove in my life by far,” Lachance said. “All those years, if you go back in time, and see the speed that he had, he was one of the fastest trotters of all time. He could trot a quarter in 25 seconds, 30 some years ago.

“He had some soundness problems, so we had a little problem in the spring. He was making breaks because he was sore and there was a problem with the shoeing, and it turned out that on Hambo Day there was nobody that could come close to him. And there was a nice horse in the race against him, Angus Hall. If there wasn’t a Self Possessed d D, Angus Hall would have won everything that year.”

In 2003, Lachance thought he and Gurfein had another chance at Hambletonian glory, as the pair had the winterbook favorite, Classic Response, who unfortunately broke a bone about a month before the big race.

“So, I woke up on Hambo Day and everybody that had a good horse had a driver,” Lachance said.

Although Lachance had a horse in all three of the eliminations, they were all long shots at 14-1, 19-1 and 48-1.

But a prior good deed on Lachance’s part came back to him 10-fold for the Hambletonian final.

The week before the Hambletonian eliminations, trainer Blair Burgess asked Lachance to drive his 3-year-old trotting colt, Amigo Hall, in a qualifier.

Lachance said he remembered that there were a lot of qualifiers that day and it was maybe 100 degrees outside and everybody was just trying to find a way to get out of the paddock.

“Blair Burgess comes to me and he says, ‘Mike, I have my colt and Trevor [Ritchie] was supposed to come and qualify him because he’s been driving him and I got nobody, could you go with him?’ I said, ‘Yes, I’ll do it.’”

Burgess told Lachance up front that the colt was Ritchie’s drive in the Hambletonian.

“And when I came back [after the qualifier], Blair said, ‘What do you think? Am I going to look bad to have him in the Hambo? Is he good enough?’ I said, ‘Blair, it’s a year that’s wide open. There’s nothing great.’ So, I said ‘Take a shot.’”

As things turned out, Amigo Hall was in the third Hambletonian elimination with Lachance driving one of his three long shots, and Ritchie driving a different horse. Since Campbell did not have a drive in the third elim, he drove Amigo Hall to a third-place finish. Campbell however was already committed to drive the eventual Hambletonian post-time favorite Power To Charm.

“So, believe me, it was meant to be that I got back to that horse,” Lachance said.

None of Lachance’s elimination drives made the final, finishing sixth, seventh and ninth.

Lachance remembers seeing Burgess outside the paddock after the third elim, knowing that Amigo Hall made the final and would need a driver. However, Ritchie’s other horse didn’t make the final.

“[Burgess] could have gone to Trevor Ritchie but he felt that I was nice enough to qualify him… so, when I walked into the paddock, he came towards me and I said, ‘I guess you’re looking for a driver?’” Lachance said. “He was a longshot Amigo Hall [27-1], but I went behind the gate and I saw nobody was on the gate and in two steps I got to the front, so everything turned out for me there.

“I let [Campbell driving Power To Charm] go and I sat on his back until the stretch and I just came out and I won the race at the end. When things like that happen, you know things are meant to be sometimes. So, I was meant to do well in the Hambo for 10, 12, 15 years in a row.

Amigo Hall [$57] was the longest shot in Hambletonian history, until Cool Papa Bell paid $106 in 2022.

“I’ve won a lot of big races in my life, but the Hambletonian is not the same,” Lachance said. “It’s not the same as any other race.

“Ask [John Campbell]. He won some Little Brown Jugs and the North America Cup and Meadowlands Pace, but winning the Hambo’s not the same.”