Ron Turcotte

Ron Turcotte, the Hall of Fame horse jockey most widely celebrated for riding Secretariat to a Triple Crown victory in 1973, died August 22, 2025, of natural causes at his home in New Brunswick, Canada. He was 84.

"Ron wasn't just a jockey, but a legend who defined an era," the Preakness Stakes posted on Threads. "He will forever be remembered as one of the greats."

Ronald Joseph Morel Turcotte was born July 22, 1941, in Drummond, New Brunswick. He was one of twelve children and left school at age 14 to work as a lumberjack before moving to Toronto to pursue horse racing.

He began his career in the early 1960s as a hot walker at Windfields Farm and quickly rose to prominence as a jockey, winning major races in Canada and the United States.

In 1972, Turcotte won the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes riding Riva Ridge. The following year, he rode Secretariat to win the Triple Crown with record-breaking times and a 31-length Belmont victory

His racing career ended in July 1978 when a fall at Belmont Park left him paraplegic. He dedicated his later years to advocating for injured jockeys.

In 2023, marking the 50th anniversary of Secretariat's Belmont win, Turcotte told Horse Racing Nation: "Somebody said that there will never be another Triple Crown winner. But there will be… There will always be Triple Crown winners."

Turcotte received numerous honors including induction into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame (1979) and Canada's Sports Hall of Fame (1980). He was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1974, awarded the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in 1979, and became the first jockey recipient of the Avelino Gomez Memorial Award in 1984.

--Legacy News Staff

(photo by Stephen MacGillivray/Associated Press)