We all have our heroes, those we hold in high regard for their character or their skills or how they have changed the world for the better or even for eating 83 hot dogs in ten minutes. “Big Red,” a nickname for the big chestnut racehorse, is one of my equine heroes whom I’ve written about before. One can’t talk about Secretariat without saying the name of Ron Turcotte. The two were a team, a single entity and riding Secretariat to the Triple Crown in 1973 was the highlight of Ron’s career as a jockey. Ron Turcotte passed away at his home in Drummond, New Brunswick, on August 22, at the age of eighty-four. The story of his life is one we can all admire.
Ron was one of twelve children, of which five of the boys became jockeys with Ron leading the way. At the age of fourteen, in 1955, Ron started working with his father cutting trees for the sawmill. At age eighteen, Ron and his friend moved to Toronto to find work, which was difficult considering the times. They worked at any job they could find. On May 7, 1960, Ron’s rooming house landlord was tuned into his television for the 86th running of the Kentucky Derby. An avid racing fan, the landlord suggested Ron seek out work as a jockey due to his light-weight frame. Ron didn’t know a thing about the Kentucky Derby or what being a jockey entailed. Soon after he found work at EP Taylor’s racing stable at Windfields Farm and within a very short time, Ron was Canada’s leading rider. He rode Windfields Farm’s Northern Dancer to his first victory in 1963. Ron referred to Northern Dancer as “a heck of a horse,” and he was, all barely 15 hands of him (60 inches at the withers compared to Secretariat’s 66 inches). Northern Dancer is another of my heroes who, in 1964, was the first Canadian-bred horse to win the Kentucky Derby and went on to be one of the most successful sires of the 20th Century. Northern Dancer sired 645 foals, of which 411 went on to be race winners. I had the great fortune of visiting Windfields Farm when I was a child and got the chance to see Northern Dancer in the flesh, before he was sent to stand stud in Maryland. I was on Cloud Nine and dreamed of being a jockey for the rest of my childhood. Northern Dancer was euthanized due to colic at the age of twenty-nine, a good long life. His remains can be found at the original site of Windfields Farm in Oshawa, an official heritage site as provided for under the Ontario Heritage Act.
Ron Turcotte rode to 3,032 wins in his career, but none could compare to the rides he made aboard Secretariat. Of 21 race starts, Secretariat finished in the money for 20 of those races with 16 wins, three seconds, and one third, with Ron aboard for 18 of those runs, claiming 15 of the 16 wins. Secretariat’s records for all three legs of the 1973 Triple Crown still stand, winning the Belmont, over its grueling mile and a half, by a staggering 31 lengths. I’ve watched replays of those races more times than I can count and I still sit on the edge of my seat as I watch.
Ron had a fall in 1978 at Belmont Park, sustaining injuries that left him a paraplegic. He spent the remainder of his life as an advocate of those with such afflictions, specifically injured jockeys. In 1980, he was welcomed into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame and received The Order of Canada. A statue of him riding Secretariat stands in Grand Falls, New Brunswick. Of Secretariat, Ron had this to say: “He was a loveable kind horse. One of a kind.” Ron only used the whip on Secretariat once in all those many races, tapping him lightly on the shoulder to move away from the pack. Secretariat finished his running career in Canada, winning at Woodbine in the 1973 Canadian International by six and a half lengths while 35,000 fans cheered on that cold and wet October. He was euthanized in 1989 due to the severe onset of painful laminitis.
Ron Turcotte has been and will continue to be remembered as a champion, with us claiming the kind and decent man as our own. I hope he and Secretariat are together again, reunited in perfect form, knowing they were truly something special.
wendistewart@live.ca
