Ron Turcotte

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Ron Turcotte
Image:Replace this image male.svg
Occupation: Jockey
Birthplace: Drummond, New Brunswick
Canada
Birth date: July 22, 1941 (1941-07-22) (age 66)
Career wins: 3,032
Major Racing Wins & Honours & Awards
Major Racing Wins
Breeders' Stakes (1962)
Coronation Futurity Stakes (1963)
Toronto Autumn Cup (1963)
Canadian International Stakes (1964, 1971)
Kentucky Oaks (1965)
Sport Page Handicap (1966)
Suburban Handicap (1966)
Bernard Baruch Handicap (1967)
Tremont Stakes (1967)
Beldame Stakes (1970)
Diana Handicap (1970, 1971, 1976)
Hawthorne Gold Cup Handicap (1970, 1979)
Jockey Club Gold Cup (1970)
Withers Stakes (1970)
Alabama Stakes (1971)
Flash Stakes (1971)
Belmont Futurity Stakes (1971, 1972)
Champagne Stakes (1971)
Gotham Stakes (1971, 1973)
Laurel Futurity (1971, 1972)
Blue Grass Stakes (1972)
Coaching Club American Oaks (1972)
Florida Derby (1972)
Hopeful Stakes (1972)
Manhattan Handicap (1972)
Monmouth Oaks (1972)
Sanford Stakes (1972)
Wood Memorial Stakes (1972)
Brooklyn Handicap (1973)
Excelsior Breeders’ Cup Handicap (1973)
Man O' War Stakes (1973, 1974)
Matron Stakes (1973)
Travers Stakes (1973)
Dwyer Stakes (1974)
Edgemere Handicap (1974, 1976)
Santa Anita Handicap (1974)
Cornhusker Handicap (1975)
Queens County Handicap (1975)
American Derby (1976)
Aqueduct Handicap (1976)
Alcibiades Stakes (1977)
Arlington-Washington Lassie Stakes (1977)
Adirondack Stakes (1977)
Cup and Saucer Stakes (1977)
Schuylerville Stakes (1977)
Stars and Stripes Turf Handicap (1978)

American Classic Race wins:
Kentucky Derby (1972 & 1973)
Preakness Stakes (1965 & 1973)
Belmont Stakes (1972 & 1973)
Racing Awards
Leading jockey at Woodbine Racetrack (1962, 1963)
United States Triple Crown (1973)
Canadian Racing's Man-of-the-Year (1978)
Big Sport of Turfdom Award (1978)
George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award (1979)
Avelino Gomez Memorial Award (1984)
Honours
New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame (1973)
Order of Canada (1974)
National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame (1979)
New York Sports Hall of Fame
Canada's Sports Hall of Fame (1980)
Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame (1980)
Hawthorne Racing Hall of Fame (1986)
Paul Harris Fellowship
Long Island Sports Hall of Fame (1990)
Significant Horses
Northern Dancer, Tom Rolfe, Arts and Letters
Fort Marcy, Damascus, Fanfreluche, Dahlia
Shuvee, Dark Mirage, Riva Ridge, Secretariat

Ron Joseph Morel Turcotte (born July 22, 1941 in Drummond, New Brunswick, Canada) is a Hall of Fame thoroughbred race horse jockey best known as the jockey of U.S. Triple Crown Champion, Secretariat.

Turcotte began his career in Toronto as a hot walker for E. P. Taylor's Windfields Farm in 1959, but he was soon wearing the silks and winning races. As an apprentice jockey he rode Windfields' great Northern Dancer to his first victory. He gained prominence with his victory aboard Tom Rolfe in the 1965 Preakness Stakes. Turcotte soon found himself working with Canadian trainer Lucien Laurin at the racetrack in Laurel, Maryland. In 1972 he rode Riva Ridge to victory in the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes.

Ron Turcotte became internationally famous in 1973 when he rode Secretariat to the first Triple Crown in 25 years. He was North America's leading stakes-winning jockey in 1972 and 1973. He became the first jockey to win back-to-back Kentucky Derbys since Jimmy Winkfield in 1902 and is the only jockey to ever have won five of the six consecutive Triple Crown races.

He was voted the prestigious George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award that honors a rider whose career and personal conduct exemplifies the very best example of participants in the sport of thoroughbred racing. He is the first person from Thoroughbred racing ever to be appointed a member of the Order of Canada.

Turcotte's career ended in 1978 following a tumble from his horse (named Flag of Leyte Gulf) during a race at Belmont Park that left him a paraplegic. He was immediately inducted in the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1979. He was voted into the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame and in 1980 was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame.

Ron Turcotte's Riding Career from 1961-78:

  • Number of Mounts: 20,281
  • Number of Winners: 3,032
  • Winning Percentage: 14.9%

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