Ron Turcotte, the legendary jockey who achieved fame and acclaim for his achievements with SECRETARIAT passed away on Friday. He was 84 years of age.
Turcotte’s longtime representative Leonard Lusky said in a statement Friday; ‘Ron was a great jockey and an inspiration to so many, both within and outside the racing world.”
Turcotte famously rode SECRETARIAT to the Triple Crown in 1973, sweeping the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes to end a 25-year drought for the feat.
It marked the first Triple Crown victory since CITATION took all three jewels in 1948.
“The world may remember Ron as the famous jockey of SECRETARIAT, but to us he was a wonderful husband, a loving father, grandfather and a great horseman,” the Turcotte family said in a statement.
The Canadian jockey died of natural causes at his home in Drummond, New Brunswick, on Friday, per the Associated Press.
Turcotte was a lumberjack who began his racing career in 1961, won 3,023 races over the course of nearly two decades before his career ended in 1978 at the age of 36.
Perhaps his most notable race was when he rode SECRETARIAT to a still-record time of 2:24 in the 1973 Belmont Stakes, winning by the largest margin of victory in the race’s history at 31 lengths.
“When it came to running, he could fly,” Turcotte said of Big Red, who died in 1989 after being euthanized. “He was everything. Those memories never leave you.”
Turcotte was the last surviving member of the SECRETARIAT team.
In July 1978, the jockey’s career came to an end at Belmont Park when he fell from a horse and sustained injuries that made him paraplegic.
In the years that followed, Turcotte earned his place in six different sporting halls of fame, including the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in 1979 and Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1980.
Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund Chairman William Punk Jr. remembered Turcotte as one of the nonprofit organization’s “greatest champions and ambassadors.”
Turcotte is survived by Gaetane, his wife of nearly 60 years, and their four daughters: Lynn, Ann, Tina and Tammy.
