Legendary jockey revisits Triple Crown victories

BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer

JEFF GRANIT staff Ron Turcotte, the jockey who rode Secretariat in the 1973 Triple Crown races, visits Rick’s Saddle Shop’s grand opening in Upper Freehold. Fans got to meet one of the legends of thoroughbred racing at Rick’s Saddle Shop in Upper Freehold this week.

Ron Turcotte, who rode Secretariat to his Triple Crown victories, visited Rick’s Saddle Shop on Friday and Saturday. Turcotte is a spokesman for Semican feeds, a brand carried by Rick’s.

The fabled spring of 1973 is half a lifetime ago for the 64-year-old Canadian. He reminisced about Secretariat and another great horse, Riva Ridge, whom he rode to victories in the 1972 Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes.

Riva Ridge placed fourth in the Preakness. The horse gave Turcotte a lot of satisfaction, he said, because he had a hand in his schooling.

“I told [trainer] Lucien Laurin that he was the best 2-year-old I ever rode, but could we put off running for a month to school him?” Turcotte said. “I thought he was timid.”

Because Riva Ridge would duck inside or outside, depending on where a horse was passing him, Turcotte thought to school him for a month with a horse on either side of him, rather than through the traditional one-horse method. After this experiment, Riva Ridge was undefeated in his races the rest of the year and was the champion and richest 2-year-old of 1971, according to Turcotte.

“Riva Ridge [lost] the Preakness due to mud,” Turcotte said. “He was not as versatile as Secretariat. He couldn’t handle all racetracks and that cost him the Triple Crown. But he was definitely a great horse. He’d beat everything on a fast track.”

Turcotte remembered Secretariat as being “kind as a kitten” and having “a personality out of this world.”

After Secretariat’s retirement to stud, Turcotte said he would visit him whenever he went to Kentucky.

“I felt he recognized me,” Turcotte said. “I would holler, and he would pick up his head. He always came over to see me.”

Riva Ridge and Secretariat were both owned by the Meadow Stable during their racing careers.

No one who saw Secretariat win the 1973 Belmont Stakes by a record 31 lengths will ever forget it. However, Turcotte considers that year’s Preakness a more memorable race.

“In the Preakness in 1973, we were last — the horse bobbled leaving the gate,” Turcotte said. “We had come from last in the Kentucky Derby.”

Secretariat nearly tripped or had some sort of hesitation leaving the gate, and that’s why Turcotte considers it a greater triumph than winning the Belmont Stakes.

Turcotte said they passed everyone in the first turn, which was considered a big no-no, but they took the lead halfway through the race and led the rest of the way, setting a new track record.

In 1978, Turcotte was paralyzed from the waist down in a racing accident at Belmont Park. He returned to Canada, where he and his wife raised their four daughters. The couple sold their riding horses about 10 years ago, when their girls had all gone off to college and Turcotte’s father died. Turcotte said he could not find someone reliable to care for the horses, so he reluctantly sold them but found them good homes.

Still an avid follower of racing, Turcotte predicted that Afleet Alex will win the Preakness on May 21. The last horse to win the Triple Crown was Affirmed in 1978. Only 11 horses have been in the winner’s circle for the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes. Since Affirmed, there have been 10 horses that won the first two legs, but failed in the Belmont Stakes. The past three seasons have seen War Emblem in 2002, Funny Cide in 2003 and Smarty Jones last year beaten in the last race of the Triple Crown.

When asked if he thought there would ever be another Triple Crown winner, Turcotte replied, “The Triple Crown is not meant to be easy. [But] sooner or later, someone will win the Triple Crown.”

Turcotte said at least five of the 10 horses since Affirmed should have won the Triple Crown, but failed to because of mistakes made by their jockeys. He said he feels Smarty Jones lost his bid last year due to a problem with his feet. He believes jockey Victor Espinoza fought War Emblem too much in the Belmont, and that Kent Desormeaux tried to open Real Quiet up in 1998, but asked the horse to run way too early.

“The trouble today is that too many jockeys fight their horses in the Belmont,” Turcotte said.

He recalled his own legendary Belmont Stakes win. There is a famous photograph of Turcotte glancing back as Secretariat roars down the stretch, with no other horses visible behind them. Turcotte said he was looking back to the teletimer because he knew they had broken the track record. He had heard the announcer say they were ahead by 25 lengths. He said he had to look across the turn to see the other horses.

“I had to look back,” Turcotte said. “Curiosity got the best of me.”

Turcotte said it is still hard to find the words to describe the events of 32 years ago.

“It was more than a dream come true,” Turcotte said. “All jockeys dream to win the Kentucky Derby, then the Triple Crown. Doing it and breaking all track records was beyond a dream.”

He added that with all the bad things that have happened to him, such as his paralysis, he tries to remember the good things.

“Every year, Secretariat gets bigger and bigger because he is so popular,” Turcotte said.