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A lifelong friend of New Brunswick’s world-famous jockey, Ron Turcotte, said he’s going to miss Turcotte more for the humble and kind man he was than for being a great athlete.
Turcotte, renowned rider of the legendary horse Secretariat — winner of the coveted Triple Crown in 1973 — was born in Drummond, near Grand Falls, N.B. The 84-year-old died Friday at his home in Drummond.
Turcotte won over 3,000 races, with earnings of more than $28.6 million. He was inducted into six different halls of fame and also received the Order of Canada.
“He liked those things, you know, and he wore his hall of fame rings with pride, but that was not what he was about … while he appreciated it and certainly enjoyed it, it was the simpler things in life that he liked the most,” Leonard Lusky told CBC’s Shift NB.
Things like food, faith and family were what Turcotte appreciated the most, said Lusky, who was Turcotte’s longtime business partner.
In 1978, a fall at Belmont Park ended Turcotte’s racing career and left him a paraplegic.
Afterwards, Turcotte travelled across Canada and the U.S. to spread awareness about the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, a charity that supports riders who have suffered lifelong injuries on the track.
“As long as I knew him, he never felt sorry for himself, he never talked about his injury in a way that would warrant any sort of pity,” said Lusky.
“He was kind, he was courageous, he was resilient.”
Lusky recalled one time when the team was at Belmont Stakes and packing up after a long day. He said Turcotte was exhausted after signing autographs for over 10 hours when a lady walked up to him and began talking.
Lusky said Turcotte stood there and answered every question patiently without showing how tired he was, while it got dark and the team packed around them.
“After about an hour, she finally says, ‘Well, I really want to thank you, Mr. Arcaro,'” said Lusky with a laugh.
The woman had thought she was speaking with Eddie Arcaro, another jockey who won the Triple Crown.
“Ron looked at me and I looked at him and we had the biggest grin, and we laughed about that … and you know, that says so much about him,” said Lusky.
Lusky said Turcotte loved talking with fans and yukking it up with jockeys.
The secret to Turcotte’s success
He said what made Turcotte stand out as a jockey was his connection with his horses.
“He was very intuitive to what a horse wanted,” said Lusky.
“His background was with horses when he was lumberjacking before he was ever a jockey and I think that … connection that he made with horses was something many jockeys aspired to do, but only a few do really well.”
A bronze statue in Grand Falls of Turcotte riding Secretariat commemorates his legacy.
Disney made a movie documenting Turcotte and Secretariat’s 1973 Triple Crown victory, Secretariat. The popular horse also made the cover of Time and Newsweek at the time.
In 2010, Turcotte said several people tried over the years to buy the movie rights to his life story. But he said his wife is a very private person, so he said no.
Turcotte is survived by his wife, who he was married to for almost 60 years, and their four daughters.
“The world may remember Ron as the famous jockey of Secretariat, but to us he was a wonderful husband, a loving father, grandfather, and a great horseman,” the Turcotte family said in a press release.
