Ron Turcotte

It was 50 years ago, a Wednesday in late October and Eddie Maple was spending his day riding at Aqueduct. It was supposed to be just another routine day at the track. But then the seventh race happened. The stewards disqualified Ron Turcotte's mount and handed him a five-day suspension for careless riding. In those days, there were no appeals, no dragging things through court. The suspension started immediately, which meant that Secretariat would need a rider for what would be his final career race, the 1973 GII Canadian International...

It hit me hard the other night how old I have become. My brain was slowly processing that it was 50 years ago I saw Secretariat win the Kentucky Derby. I exaggerate. A lot. I caught a brief glimpse of Secretariat as he flew by my strained vantage point. After insistent begging, my older sister and her friends relented and took me with them to my first Derby. It was May 5, 1973 and we were in the infield. Frankly, at age 14, my day was already complete way before...

The saddle Ron Turcotte used while riding Secretariat to victory in the 1973 Triple Crown has been acquired by The Jim Irsay Collection and will be on display Mar. 4 at the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center during a free, one-night-only performance of The Jim Irsay Band and exhibition of The Jim Irsay Collection. Irsay acquired the saddle from the now 81-year-old Turcotte. "This special saddle represents a most magical time in my racing career and its personal significance to me and my family goes beyond words," Turcotte said from...

The 2023 Secretariat's Legacy calendar will celebrate the Triple Crown winner's daughter Terlingua, who set six stakes records on the racetrack and then produced the great stallion Storm Cat. The 2023 edition is the sixth annual fundraising calendar honoring Secretariat and his descendants. The first five calendars in the series, which started with the Living Legends theme honoring the remaining Secretariats, have raised $28,000 for equine charities over the years. "I am very grateful to all the racing fans--especially Secretariat fans--who have supported both the Living Legends calendar series and...

Secretariat vs. Flightline (Tapit): Who was better? "I think Secretariat would have beat him," Secretariat's jockey Ron Turcotte said of a hypothetical match up between the two legendary horses. "That's no knock against the other horse. He's a beautiful horse. Well put together. I can't fault him in any way. But he has hasn't done enough for me to say he is better than Secretariat." That's not to say that Turcotte isn't a Flightline fan. "He's a fabulous horse," he said. "We don't know how fast he could run." Turcotte,...

As the 42,329 fans that attended the races at Aqueduct on July 4, 1972 made their way to the exits and to the parking lot and the A train after the day's last race, it's doubtful that anyone among them realized they had just witnessed the debut of one of the greatest horses who ever raced. For Secretariat, it began 50 years ago from today with a bad trip and a fourth-place finish in a maiden special weight race with an $8,000 purse. It would turn out to be the...

The 12th annual Secretariat Festival will be held as a virtual event Oct. 10 and 11 owing to restrictions and recommendations brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. "We cannot replicate the in-person fellowship that our fans have enjoyed at our Festival events in the past," said Kate Chenery Tweedy, daughter of Secretariat's late owner Penny Chenery. "But as we started contemplating a virtual format, we realized that it would present some opportunities that we have been able to harness and present to Secretariat fans all over the world. Now and...