Today is the 50th anniversary of Secretariat's Triple Crown victory -- one many people call the most dominant performance in sports history. His jockey spoke about memories from that run and more.
From the tiny village of Drummond, New Brunswick, Ron Turcotte rose to the top of horse racing, riding Secretariat to a sweep of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont in 1973. Their triumphs ended a 25-year Triple Crown drought. Now 81,
The friends discovered a restaurant that fed them in exchange for washing dishes. To pay for a room, they picked nightcrawlers until the wee hours.On the first Saturday in May 1960, the friends emerged from their attic quarters and found a crowd around the television watching the Kentucky Derby. They were cheering on Victoria Park, which finished third as the first Canadian horse to place in a Triple Crown race.
Turcotte made an important connection in 1960 when he met E.P. Taylor, a prominent owner, breeder and businessman regarded as a major force in the development of Canadian racing. He went to Taylor’s farm to learn about thoroughbreds. Turcotte stopped by trainer Lucien Laurin’s barn and told him, “You have the best 2-year-old in North America.”
“She was a Northern Dancer fan,” Turcotte said of the horse-loving queen, “so she had a lot of questions about Northern Dancer.”“My dad and mother were both very impressed,” he said.Two stalls down, a chestnut colt stuck his head out. “Who’s that pretty boy you have here?” Turcotte asked.Still, the trainer told Turcotte to get on Secretariat and give his opinion.
“He looked at me like, ‘What are you doing there?’” Turcotte said. “I walked up to him, grabbed the reins and hopped on him again.”“He was a little jealous,” Turcotte said. “If I talked to another horse in the next stall, he’d reach over and grab my jacket and pull me back to him.”“One time he pinched me a little and I said, ‘Ouch, you hurt me.’ He put his head down like he was so sad,” Turcotte said. “I said to him, ‘It’s OK, you didn’t hurt me.’ His head popped up and his ears were pricked.
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