Lous Lancelot a bright spot in Chip Lackey’s trying season
The veteran horseman from California saw the end of racing in his home state, but now has a chance for a stakes victory on Saturday night in Chicago.
by James Platz
Saturday evening, James “Chip” Lackey will once again find himself in uncharted territory. The 2025 campaign has offered plenty of twists, turns, and tumult for the 73-year-old owner/trainer/driver. On this occasion, the racing veteran and his charge, 6-year-old Lous Lancelot, hope to claim victory on the Nov. 15 Night of Champions card at Hawthorne Racecourse. The duo is 6-5 on the morning line in the $50,000 Plesac championship for older male trotters, drawing post 5 in the seven-horse field.
“You know, I got incredibly lucky last week, to tell you the truth,” Lackey said. “I thought I was arguably third best, and then the other two guys, for one reason or another, couldn’t show up. And so, a good thing for me. I’ve just been battling all summer, quite honestly. California sort of gave up there, and I’m just sort of week to week, and almost day to day. But that horse, he’s very honest, and he’s very likable.”
Lous Lancelot began the season in Lackey’s home state of California racing at Cal Expo. Co-owned by the trainer and his partner, Elliott Gorov, the son of Lou’s Legacy out of Swan For All mare Honey Creek Swan held his own in the open ranks, quickly securing a pair of wins and two runner-up finishes. In the three previous seasons, Lackey headed to Minnesota once the meet in Sacramento came to a close. This year, horsemen were notified the California State Fair Board had voted to terminate the lease agreement with Watch And Wager, LLC. Harness racing abruptly came to an end in the Golden State and Lackey was left scrambling. He set his sights on Vernon Downs. Days before he was set to leave, he was presented with an opportunity that was hard to refuse.
“A guy that I knew a long time ago called me up two days before I left,” Lackey said. “He says, ‘This guy needs a trainer, and you can manage his stable.’ I talked to the guy. He says, ‘I’ll pay you $800 a week. I’ll give you a place to stay and stall rent for two horses.’ At the time, I had three.”
Lous Lancelot, whose last start came May 2 at Cal Expo, was slowly coming back after some time off. Lackey needed a home for the trotter and connected with Howard Okusko, Jr.
“I said, ‘Look, he’s a good horse when he’s right. He’s not a cheap horse. When he’s a good horse, he’s all right,’” the trainer said.
Within 10 days of entering the Okusko stable, Lous Lancelot qualified at Vernon Downs, racing third in a June 28 contest. He trotted second in his Vernon debut with John MacDonald in the bike. In 13 attempts over the oval, the last coming Oct. 31, Lous Lancelot collected one win and turned in six runner-up performances.
“If you look at his record, when Howie had him, it’s just tremendous,” Lackey said. “The track [Cal Expo] just sort of got him off form, and he was struggling at the end. I ended up sending him to Howie, and he totally fixed him. Brilliant job. Totally brilliant job by Howie. Best I ever saw in my lifetime with one I was associated with. I told Howie, ‘If you could play chess as good as you train horses, you’d be a grandmaster.’”
Lackey and Gorov purchased Lous Lancelot in July 2024. Since the acquisition, the trotter has banked just over $84,000. The kicker? This was not the horse they intended to buy. Lackey explained that he reached out to Pennsylvania-based owner and trainer Susan Marshall inquiring about two other horses. They ended up with the gelding.
“He’s a delightful horse,” Lackey said. “You know, everybody that’s had him for me just loves the horse. He doesn’t do anything wrong. He’s delightful to be around, and we’re just pretty lucky, actually. But that’s how we got him. I was interested in two different horses. For one reason or another, I couldn’t get them. But meanwhile, he’s been a pretty good deal.”
Last weekend Lous Lancelot picked up his fourth seasonal win and first of the year with the trainer in the bike as the duo claimed the Plesac elimination held Nov. 9. The victory came as a surprise for multiple reasons. First, Niko Man, winner of last year’s Plesac final, did not enter. Second, Goomster, another of the top trotters in the class, scratched out of the race along with three others to whittle the field to seven.
When the gate folded, Lackey moved the 6-year-old to the lead from post 3. Steering through snowy conditions, Lous Lancelot maintained a three-length advantage early through fractions of :29.1 and :57.4. Heath Bar and Geremy Bobbitt would trim the margin to less than two lengths before the trotter opened up again, crossing the wire nearly five lengths in front in a time of 1:57.2. The victory pushed the trotter’s career bankroll to $214,144.
“He’s got better than average gate speed, and he doesn’t mind doing the work,” Lackey said. “If you watch that race last week, when I warmed up, it wasn’t snowing like that. It wasn’t doing anything. When we left the paddock, it’s a friggin’ blizzard. He just sort of charged right out of there, and it didn’t really seem to faze him at all. They got a little bit close to him coming out of the corner, probably because he couldn’t hear them or see them. I tapped him a couple times, and honestly, he won in hand. He didn’t seem very tired afterwards.”
Win or lose Saturday, the future and what comes next for Lackey is unclear. The circuit he had grown accustomed to traveling no longer exists. Fern Wald, his partner of the last three decades, stayed behind in California and lives in the 1,100-square-foot townhouse they share.
“For the past nine or 10 years, I went on the road for the summer and I could always go home,” Lackey said. “I can’t go home. I mean, what am I going to do? Work at Walmart or Panera or something?
“I don’t know. That’s the best thing I can tell you. I don’t know. It’s just really month to month, to be quite honest. I don’t really know. Up until, whatever it was, six months ago, I could always go home. I had a little place there, me and Fern, and you sleep in your own bed, and you’re five minutes from the racetrack, and you don’t go for lots and lots of money, but I could always make some money there, you know what I mean? I could make more than it cost me to live, so that was all right.”
Last season Lackey and Lous Lancelot finished second to Niko Man in the Plesac. Perhaps Saturday they can improve on their 2024 placing and produce a memorable moment to counter the difficulties of the year.
“He’s the best horse in that race,” Lackey said. “That doesn’t mean he’ll win. He’s very tactical, and he’s got a really good chance if he just races the same as last week. I feel like I got incredibly lucky to even be in a spot where I have a chance to win on Saturday and did win last Sunday. It was certainly a huge, huge thrill for me last week to win, and if the horse was to win this week, it might be as big a win as I can ever think of in my lifetime, honestly. It would be really cool.”
