05/03/2014
"It seemed they were a mile away. It was an incredible feeling. He was just whistling through the air."
Twenty-two years ago I had the pleasure of spending an evening with Ron Turcotte, the jockey, who, in 1973, rode Secretariat to victory in the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes. Considered one of the greatest racehorses of all time, Secretariat set records in each of those races, records that still stand today.
Listening to the famous jockey's stories about the remarkable thoroughbred, was an enriching experience for me. Thank you Ron Turcotte. Thank you Secretariat. Thanks as well to Hart and Janet North of Westminster Books (www.westminsterbooks.com) for making that wonderful evening possible.
To mark today's running of the Kentucky Derby, I thought I'd share the story that came out of that memorable night.
Ron Turcotte Rides Into History
by Lane MacIntosh
At 12:10 a.m., March 30, 1970, a large, chestnut-coloured c**t was born in Doswell, Virginia. At that moment, a few hundred kilometres away in Valley Stream, New York, a Canadian jockey named Ron Turcotte lay sound asleep. Within five hours, he would get out of bed, dress quietly and drive the short distance to the Belmont Park racetrack.
Driving his red and black Cadillac into the barn area that morning, the Grand Falls, New Brunswick native had no way of knowing that in a little over three years, on this very track, he and the wobbly-legged c**t who would come to be known as Secretariat, would become legendary figures in the world of horse racing.
Turcotte was always interested in horses. As a child, he spent a lot of time with his mother at his grandparent's farm in Ste. Anne, 40 kilometres from Grand Falls. Rose Turcotte loved her father's workhorses, and so did her second-eldest son. He grew up cleaning stalls, carrying feed and making sure the big draft horses were well-groomed.
When he was 14, Turcotte dropped out of the eighth grade to become a lumberjack with his older brother Camille. For the next five years, he cut down trees and worked with horses all day in the woods. This experience taught him a lot and was an important part of his later success as a jockey.
"You get to understand animals," he says. "People say horses are dumb but they're as smart as the people handling them. Bess was the best of them. She was easy to work with; you'd call her name and she'd come, regardless of where you were."
Turcotte started his career as a jockey at Toronto's Woodbine Racetrack in 1960. By January 1972, when he first saw Secretariat at Miami's Hialeah racetrack, he had become one of North America's most successful jockeys.
"Secretariat was a remarkable looking animal," he remembers. "He didn't have the normal temperament of a two-year-old. He didn't spook easily; he was calm, like a big riding pony."
A few days later, when he first mounted Secretariat and rode him around the track, Turcotte felt sure the two-year old underneath him was no ordinary thoroughbred. His instinct could not have been more accurate.
In horse racing, three of the biggest races in America are the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes. Together they're called the Triple Crown of racing. A horse who wins one of these races is doing well. A horse who wins two is considered great. A horse who wins all three, becomes an instant legend.
On the morning of June 9, 1973, the day of the running of the Belmont Stakes, Secretariat was on the verge of making horse-racing history. So was the soft-spoken jockey who had ridden him to victory a few weeks before in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, setting track records that still stand. The winning of the Belmont Stakes would make Secretariat the first Triple Crown winner since Citation's victory in 1948.
At the start of the first two Triple Crown races, Turcotte purposely held Secretariat back. He wanted to make sure the stallion had enough speed to take him through the backstretch. In each race, he executed his strategy brilliantly and was planning to do the same for the Belmont. He didn't know it at the time, but Secretariat had plans of his own.
Bang! When the starting pistol fired, Secretariat surged forward, a tidal wave of muscle and spirit.
In an instant, he was out of the gate, thundering down the mile-and-a-half track, setting his own pace with his powerful 24-foot strides. Turcotte knew he had to abandon his strategy and trust the instinct and intelligence of the master athlete beneath him.
Two minutes and 24 seconds later, Secretariat blazed across the finish line 31 lengths ahead of Sham, Twice a Prince, My Gallant and Private Smiles. In the 123-year history of the Belmont Stakes, no horse had ever run faster.
"It seemed they were a mile away," Turcotte remembers. "Then I looked up and saw 2:20 on the teletimer and I didn't have far to go. It was an incredible feeling. He was just whistling through the air."
Later that day, as he drove his red and black Cadillac away from the barn area, Ron Turcotte knew that, for him, the sport of horse racing would never be the same.
A lot had happened to the soft-spoken jockey since he left Grand Falls. His grandparent's farm, the northern New Brunswick woods and the jingling sound of Bess's harness were a long ways away.
Copyright 1992 Lane MacIntosh
The actual footage of Secretariat's record breaking win during the third and final race of the 1973 Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes. Music by Nick Glennie-S...
