- Hall of Fame jockey Ron Turcotte won the Triple Crown in 1973 with Secretariat.
- Secretariat won the 1973 Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths, a record time of 2:24 that stands today.
- Turcotte won 3,032 races and $28,606,490 in earnings during his career.
Hall of Fame jockey Ron Turcotte, who won the Triple Crown in 1973 with Secretariat, has died at the age of 84.
Turcotte’s family announced that the jockey died from natural causes on Friday, Aug. 22, at his home in Drummond, New Brunswick. He is best known for winning the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes in 1973 with the legendary horse Secretariat.
Secretariat won the 1973 Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths, a record time of 2:24 that stands today.
Turcotte also won the 1972 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes aboard Riva Ridge. He won the 1965 Preakness aboard Tom Rolfe.
Turcotte won 3,032 races and $28,606,490 in earnings during his nearly two-decade career. However, his career ended in 1978 when he fell off a horse during a race, leaving him a paraplegic. He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in 1979.
‘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’s statement said according to the Associated Press.
