Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – Ron Turcotte, who famously rode Secretariat to the Triple Crown in 1973 to earn an enduring place in horse racing lore, died Friday at the age of 84. Turcotte’s longtime friend and business partner Leonard Lusky said the Canadian-born Hall of Famer died of natural causes at his home near Grand Falls, New Brunswick.
In a career spanning nearly two decades, Turcotte won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes twice each. But he’ll go down in history as the jockey who guided Secretariat on an electrifying Triple Crown run in 1973—a sweep that ended a Triple Crown drought that had stretched back to Citation’s treble in 1948.
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“Ron Turcotte will be forever remembered for guiding Secretariat to Triple Crown glory in 1973,” David O’Rourke, president of the New York Racing Association, said in a statement. “While his courage as a jockey was on full display to a nation of adoring fans during that electrifying time, it was after he faced a life-altering injury that we learned about the true character of Ron Turcotte. By devoting himself to supporting fellow jockeys struggling through similar injuries, Ron Turcotte built a legacy defined by kindness and compassion.”
Turcotte won 3,032 races in a career that ended in 1978 when he suffered injuries in a race spill that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Despite being in a wheelchair, Turcotte was a regular presence at major races, signing autographs and posing for pictures with fans.
Turcotte’s accomplishments earned him a place in six different Halls of Fame, including the National Racing Hall of Fame and the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. In his later years, he was a tireless advocate for the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund. “Although he is appropriately recognized as a member of the Racing Hall of Fame for his accomplishments in the saddle, his contributions to the PDJF established him as a giant in the hearts of all associated with this organization,” the fund’s chairman William Punk Jr. said. “His memory and his impact will live on forever.”
A photograph of Turcotte aboard Secretariat, looking back as he romped to a stunning 31-length victory in the 1973 Belmont Stakes to secure the Triple Crown, is one of the sport’s most iconic images. “I couldn’t hear the announcer all the time, saying how far I was in front,” Turcotte told The Los Angeles Times in 2023, to mark the 50th anniversary of Secretariat’s Triple Crown triumph. “I knew I was quite a ways in front because I couldn’t hear any other horses hitting the ground behind me. When I got the quarter pole, I looked and I could barely see them and I looked at the clock and saw 1:59 on the board, which was faster than we ran the Derby.”
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