Michel Lapensee, 58; jockey rode for nearly four decades

Michel Lapensee had a way with horses.

He knew the ones that didn't want to be hit with the whip as they thundered down the track and how to calm them when it had to be used. He knew how to comfort the horses he raced and get them to respond. He loved horses, and he let them know that, his son said.

''Dad was like Bill Belichick," Michel Lapensee Jr., of North Providence, R.I., said, referring to the coach of the New England Patriots. ''He had a plan before he went out. He never went unprepared. When my dad was working, he was one with the horse."

Mr. Lapensee, a jockey who rode at tracks in the United States and Canada for almost four decades -- most continuously in recent years at Suffolk Downs -- died Friday at Massachusetts General Hospital from injuries sustained Oct. 24 when he fell from his horse and was trampled during a race at Suffolk Downs. He was 58.

''Mike was the salt of the earth," Mario DeStefano, a trainer and president of New England Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, said. ''Everybody on the racetrack loved him. He was a fierce competitor, just a great guy. People said to me, 'What was Mike doing, riding at 58?' And, I said to them that Mike was in better shape than any jockey here."

Like most jockeys, Mr. Lapensee was slightly built, never more than 114 or 115 pounds, according to DeStefano. ''Most jockeys his age gain weight," he said, ''but what kept him physically fit was his love of racing. Mike got on the horse and gave his best. He was an accomplished rider with a good sense of pace. He was good at getting the horse out of the gate, knew how to use his horse, and was a strong finisher."

A native of Montreal, Mr. Lapensee started his horse-racing career at Blue Bonnet Raceway there.

''I always loved a contest of speed," he told the Globe in 1986. ''I wanted to be a race car driver when I was young. One day when I was 16, I went by Blue Bonnet and saw them working a horse. It was fast and it was racing, and I thought I'd give it a try."

After hanging around the barns for a few days, he met a trainer, Jack Dumas, who gave him a job summers until he finished school at 18.

''Then," he told the Globe, ''I went to the track full time. I started by walking and grooming, and I galloped horses for three or four years before I started to ride, but I really picked it up on my own by making a lot of mistakes and learning from them."

Over his long career, he raced horses at such tracks as Lincoln Downs and Narragansett in Rhode Island, Saratoga and Aqueduct in New York, Calder and Gulfstream in Florida, and Meadowlands in New Jersey.

''Dad could have gone on to bigger and better tracks," his son said, ''but he gave up those chances to make the family happy by staying close to home in Providence."

Often Mr. Lapensee's family went to the track to watch him. His son recalled that as a child he watched his father race at Finger Lakes Racetrack in New York. ''I was standing on a bench and he was riding a horse named Actor's Aroma. When he won, I yelled, 'That's my Dad!' "

When the Rhode Island tracks closed in the late 1990s, Mr. Lapensee went on the Suffolk-Rockingham circuit. Over his 38-year career, he won 2,678 races in 20,089 starts. The horses he rode won more than $12.4 million for their owners and bettors.

Retirement was ''never an option" for Mr. Lapensee, his son said. In 1994, he did retire for a brief time after a heart attack, said his brother-in-law, James Downing, a racing official at Suffolk Downs.

Downing said Mr. Lapensee married Downing's sister, Maureen, more than 30 years ago. They met while he was working at a track in Rhode Island. ''With Mike, family came first," Downing said. ''When the racing season ended, Mike spent winters with his family."

One way Mr. Lapensee kept fit, his son said, was walking his two dogs in the woods near his Providence home. ''My husband was a kind, sweet, caring, and selfless man," his wife said. ''He loved his home and simple pleasures. He loved his walks with his dogs, a home-cooked meal, and, of course, horse racing."

Mr. Lapensee rode in some memorable races. In 1998, he won riding a 16-year-old horse named Playing Politics, which became the oldest horse ever to win at Suffolk Downs, according to Suffolk spokesman Christian Teja. The event was so celebrated that a race card -- comparable to baseball cards -- was issued of Mr. Lapensee aboard Playing Politics.

Several days after his death, Downing said, a card arrived in the mail for Mr. Lapensee's autograph.

In addition to his wife and his son, Mr. Lapensee leaves his mother, Denise (Panneton) Lapensee of Montreal; a brother, Norman, and a sister, Marie, both of Montreal.

A funeral Mass will be said at 11 a.m. today in St. Edward's Church in Providence. Suffolk Downs is providing bus service to and from the Mass, leaving the track at 9 a.m. Burial will be in St. Ann's Cemetery in Cranston, R.I.