Winning Canadian jockey says of the horse that won the U.S. Triple Crown 50 years ago, ‘I wasn’t worried about the distance. Secretariat was a tough son of a gun’
Secretariat and Ron Turcotte barrel towards the finish line to win the 98th running of the Preakness Stakes on May 21, 1973, in Baltimore.In Grand Falls, N.B., there is a bronze statue of Ron Turcotte and Secretariat as they bound across the finish line at the 1973 Belmont Stakes. It is a stirring tribute to the town’s favourite son and his horse, and to what is widely considered the greatest race in history.
Secretariat’s legend has been immortalized in culture: on the big screen thanks to a feature film by Disney, on the cover and in the pages of Sports Illustrated, and as the subject of numerous books. While many may know him as the greatest horse who ever lived, comparatively few are familiar with the man who rode Secretariat into the annals of sports history.
Ron Turcotte hangs on as Secretariat romps along the final stretch just before the finish line and a victory in the 105th running of the Belmont Stakes, winning the Triple Crown at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y.It is exactly a half-century ago that Secretariat electrified nearly 70,000 spectators at Belmont Park and and half of the TV audience in Canada and the United States.
Beginning with the Kentucky Derby in 1972, Turcotte became the first jockey in history to win five Triple Crown races in two years, the first two aboard Riva Ridge. Among all of them the 1973 Belmont Stakes is the one he most remembers.The Turcottes: The Remarkable Story of a Horse Racing Dynasty “I just let him run his own race,” Turcotte said afterward. “He moved awfully fast and awfully easy on the backside.”
“That was a special Preakness,” recalls McCue, 76, whose family owned racehorses in the 1960s. He still takes racing photos. “There was such a buzz about Secretariat. I remember the excitement as he exploded around the turn. A jockey told me he had never seen anything like it. As far as I am concerned, he is the greatest racehorse ever.”
The following day, Turcotte rode Secretariat during a short workout and gave Chenery and Laurin a thumbs up. In the workout, Big Red was faster than horses that raced at the track the same day. At 1,150 pounds, Secretariat covered the mile and a half in an average speed of 37 miles an hour . His nearest competitor, Twice a Prince, was nearly a football field behind when he crossed the finish line and captured the first Triple Crown in 25 years.
Big Red died from laminitis, a degenerative hoof disease, in 1989. On eBay hundreds of items related to him are still being peddled. A horse shoe he wore during the Kentucky Derby in 1973 sold in 2018 for more than US$80,000.One of Canada’s greatest sportsmen, Turcotte has been inducted into nine halls of fame.
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