Riding Career:
1961 - 1978
Career Wins:
3,032 (14.9%)
Significant Mounts
Arts and Letters,
Dahlia,
Damascus, Dark Mirage, Fanfreluche,
Fort Marcy,
Northern Dancer,
Riva Ridge,
Secretariat,
Shuvee, Tom Rolfe
Major Race Wins
Breeders' Stakes (1962)
Toronto Autumn Cup (1963)
Coronation Futurity Stakes (1963)
Canadian International Stakes (1964, 1971)
Preakness Stakes (1965, 1973)
Kentucky Oaks (1965)
Suburban Handicap (1966)
Sport Page Handicap (1966)
Tremont Stakes (1967)
Bernard Baruch Handicap (1967)
Jockey Club Gold Cup (1970)
Withers Stakes (1970)
Beldame Stakes (1970)
Hawthorne Gold Cup Handicap (1970, 1979)
Diana Handicap (1970, 1971, 1976)
Champagne Stakes (1971)
Laurel Futurity (1971, 1972)
Flash Stakes (1971)
Gotham Stakes (1971, 1973)
Alabama Stakes (1971)
Belmont Futurity Stakes (1971, 1972)
Florida Derby (1972)
Hopeful Stakes (1972)
Sanford Stakes (1972)
Belmont Stakes (1972, 1973)
Hollywood Derby (1972)
Kentucky Derby (1972, 1973)
Wood Memorial Stakes (1972)
Blue Grass Stakes (1972)
Coaching Club American Oaks (1972)
Monmouth Oaks (1972)
Manhattan Handicap (1972)
Travers Stakes (1973)
Matron Stakes (1973)
Brooklyn Handicap (1973)
Excelsior Breeders’ Cup Handicap (1973)
Man O' War Stakes (1973)
Santa Anita Handicap (1974)
Dwyer Stakes (1974)
Man O' War Stakes (1974)
Edgemere Handicap (1974, 1976)
Queens County Handicap (1975)
Cornhusker Handicap (1975)
American Derby (1976)
Aqueduct Handicap (1976)
Arlington-Washington Lassie Stakes (1977)
Schuylerville Stakes (1977)
Adirondack Stakes (1977)
Alcibiades Stakes (1977)
Cup and Saucer Stakes (1977)
Stars and Stripes Turf Handicap (1978)
Awards / Honors
Leading Jockey at Woodbine Racetrack (1962, 1963)
United States Triple Crown (1973)
New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame (1973)
Order of Canada (1974)
Big Sport of Turfdom Award (1978)
Canadian Racing's Man-of-the-Year (1978)
National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame (1979)
George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award (1979)
Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame (1980)
Canada's Sports Hall of Fame (1980)
Avelino Gomez Memorial Award (1984)
Hawthorne Racing Hall of Fame (1986)
Long Island Sports Hall of Fame (1990)
Ron Joseph Morel Turcotte, CM 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) at the start of 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:
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Number of Mounts: 20,281
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Number of Winners: 3,032
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Winning Percentage: 14.9%
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