Even in 2023, the name Secretariat is recognizable to millions of Americans otherwise unversed in horse racing. Tributes to the most famous racehorse of the 1970s are everywhere. More than 250 streets in the US are named after Secretariat (more than any human athlete), he was one of ESPN’s top 50 North American athletes of the 20th century, and, somewhat confusingly, he even served as the basis for a character in Netflix’s hit animated sitcom BoJack Horseman.
This weekend’s Kentucky Derby marks the 50th anniversary of Secretariat’s victory at Churchill Downs, which was itself the first step in the horse’s signature achievement – winning the 1973 Triple Crown.
“It’s hard to forget,” Ron Turcotte, the Hall of Fame jockey who rode Secretariat to victory in each of his Triple Crown races, tells the Guardian. “[Secretariat’s] name comes up so often that it don’t seem like it’s been that long … he’s everywhere on YouTube. Whenever I feel like looking at him, I can see him there.”
Secretariat’s greatness is occasionally reduced to mechanical terms, the implication being that his accomplishments were purely a product of his exceptional physical attributes.
It is therefore remarkable that, for the most part, Turcotte speaks of Secretariat’s personality when describing what made him such a great horse. “He was a very intelligent horse,” Turcotte says. “Never seemed to fight the rider – never fought me anyway – and he would relax … You could make as many [tactical] moves as you wanted to in a race.”
Indeed, one of the few times Turcotte mentions Secretariat’s physicality is in reference to the horse’s prodigious appetite. Even then, Turcotte speaks with the gently surprised fondness of a grandparent ribbing a particularly ravenous grandchild. “He was a heavy horse – by that I mean he ate a lot,” says Turcotte. “He ate 18 quarts of oats a day.” For comparison, the average racehorse eats a daily ration of 12 to 14 quarts of oats.
Speaking with Turcotte, it becomes quickly evident that, at the age of 81, his memory surrounding his horse racing career borders on the photographic. He remembers training sessions just as well as high-profile races. Turcotte specifically mentions one prematurely abandoned workout with Secretariat in the days before the Wood Memorial, the last race the pair would run in preparation for the 1973 Kentucky Derby. “I [worked] him a slow mile. I was supposed to go faster, but the horse that was in front of me threw his rider and the horse was zigzagging in front of me. I didn’t want to take any chances and have [the other horse] cut in front of me, so I didn’t let him work fast that morning.”
In what was considered an upset at the time, Secretariat placed third in the Wood Memorial later that week (after winning every previous race that year). Concerns emerged about his ability to run the longer distances required in races like the Kentucky Derby. Those concerns would prove unfounded.
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The Kentucky Derby is a one-and-a-quarter-mile flat race over a dirt track. An important race in its own right, the Derby simultaneously serves as the first jewel in the Triple Crown, a trio of high-prestige races that also includes the Preakness Stakes (held two weeks after the Derby) and the Belmont Stakes (run three weeks after the Preakness). The Derby, however, remains the most famous of the three, as well as the race most likely to attract a casual fan’s attention.
Unlike the UK’s Grand National, horses only get one shot at the Triple Crown in their lifetimes – the Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont are all restricted to three-year-old horses. The rationale behind this restriction has been lost to history, but it’s generally believed that it makes for more exciting, unpredictable racing. Two-year-old horses are still considered juveniles, whereas elite four-year-old horses have already developed into well-known entities. Consequently, three-year-old racing represents the appealing combination of athletically mature horses who could still surprise punters.
Twelve horses have won the Triple Crown over the last century. Nevertheless, there’s always been something different about Secretariat’s 1973 win. Among other distinctions, Secretariat was the first horse to win the Triple Crown in 25 years, at that time by far the longest gap between Triple Crown winners. The 1970s also marked the tail end of horse racing’s peak popularity, making Secretariat one of the sport’s final superstars before it transitioned into its present-day thriving, but much smaller, cultural niche. More than any of these relevant (but secondary) reasons, however, Secretariat’s Triple Crown win remains unique because it is objectively better than that of any other horse in the history of the competition.
During the Triple Crown’s first leg, Secretariat set the track record at the Kentucky Derby, becoming the first horse to finish the race in under two minutes (along with Sham, who came in two and a half lengths behind in second). Previous doubts about Secretariat’s endurance were made to look silly – he ran each quarter-mile of the race faster than the previous quarter-mile (he ran the final quarter over two seconds faster than the first). He then broke the track record at the Preakness before, three weeks later, delivering perhaps his most famous performance at the Belmont. Not only did Secretariat set yet another track record – he won the Belmont by a remarkable 31 lengths (roughly 75 meters). Fifty years later, Secretariat’s win at the Belmont remains the largest margin of victory in Triple Crown history. Moreover, 50 years later, all three of Secretariat’s track records remain unbeaten.
Turcotte offers a simple explanation for the records’ longevity: “There was only one Secretariat.” But so too was there only one Ron Turcotte. Yes, Turcotte was fortunate to ride an animal athlete as magnificent as Secretariat, but Secretariat was also lucky to be jockeyed by a sportsman as talented as Turcotte.
It’s a question that comes up often when outsiders discuss horse racing – how much credit for a win should go to the horse and the rider, respectively? Turcotte is characteristically humble when discussing his contributions to Secretariat’s success, reckoning that the horse should receive about 90% of the praise. “I’ve never seen a jockey come across the wire with a horse on his back. The horse is the one that wins the race.”
That may be true, but Turcotte appears to be selling himself short. Just one year before Secretariat’s Triple Crown sweep, for example, Turcotte rode a different horse (Riva Ridge) to wins in two of the three Triple Crown races. Despite his repeated successes at the sport’s highest levels, however, Turcotte did not appear destined to be a jockey in his youth.
Growing up in a rural, French-Canadian household in New Brunswick, Turcotte left high school before graduating to join his father in the timber industry which, importantly, still relied on horses to drag fallen trees in the 1950s. “I worked in the lumber for five years,” Turcotte says. “That’s where I learned my horsemanship – my dad taught me about it. I was in love with horses from the time I can remember.”
Turcotte gives two reasons for leaving lumberjacking after five years. First, “they were coming out with machines to haul wood instead of horses,” and the horses were his favorite part of the work. And second, “My brother had left a year before [to find work in Toronto] and, when he came home at Christmas, he had done so much better [working as a roofer in Toronto] than I had done in the lumber. So, I went back with him to work in roofing.” This plan was quickly disrupted.
“When I got there, there was a carpenters’ strike, so there were no houses to be roofed,” he says. Turcotte spent months looking for work without success, living in a rented room in a boarding house until a chance occurrence changed his life.
“I came downstairs, the landlord and a few people were watching TV. It was the first Saturday in May 1960, and Canada had a horse [Victoria Park] in the Kentucky Derby.”
One of the people watching the Derby turned to Turcotte and asked if he had found work yet. “No,” he replied. “Then [the man] said, ‘Well, why don’t you try the racetrack? Maybe you can be a jockey.’ I asked him ‘What’s a jockey?’ And he said, ‘that little boy in the white pants.’”
The next day, Turcotte went down to Toronto’s Old Woodbine racetrack to find work. He wasn’t permitted to enter the grounds because he lacked the appropriate pass. He tried a second time – still no entry. A sympathetic guard at the track, however, suggested Turcotte try the other racecourse in Toronto, so he started heading that way.
“Before I got [to the new track], I caught a ride with a trainer that just happened to be passing that way … When we got to the gate, the guard asked the driver, ‘Does everybody have a pass?’ And [the driver] answered, ‘Yes.’ And then dropped me off.” Thus was born one of the great careers in horse racing.
The remainder of Turcotte’s path is as serendipitous as its beginning. The same day he hitchhiked to the second racetrack, he ended up at the stable of Edward P Taylor, who happened to own the horse Victoria Park. Turcotte began working for Taylor as a horse-walker. Two horses into his new job, however, a watchful trainer recognized Turcotte’s experienced horse handling and promoted him to a groom, a role he held for three months before he was deemed ready to start actually riding the horses.
“I had never sat in the saddle before, even though I had rode plenty of horses bareback” says Turcotte who, then still only 18 years old, demonstrated a knack for riding that outpaced many of his peers. “I broke 15 horses without getting thrown once, and all the other [riders] were getting thrown.”
Turcotte was eventually promoted to jockey, winning his first race on 9 April 1962, fewer than two years after he sat in a racehorse saddle for the first time. He was Canada’s leading rider by the end of the same year. Having essentially conquered Canadian horse racing, Turcotte moved on to the United States. He ultimately moved to New York state, which served as Turcotte’s base of operations while achieving his Triple Crown success.
The incredible nature of his career has given Turcotte much to reflect on during the 50th anniversary of his Triple Crown victory, including his feelings about the horse that carried him across all three finish lines. Secretariat passed away on a Kentucky farm in October1989 at the “lived a good life for a horse” age of 19. Turcotte speaks on the subject thoughtfully. “Any horse that you’re close to … it’s like part of the family going [when they die].”
When asked if this was the case with Secretariat, Turcotte replies, “Oh, definitely.” Turcotte then returns to praising the horse’s personality. “[Secretariat] had such a nice way with people … When there were cameras around, he would stop and look at the cameras, stuff like that. He was so generous, kind, and gentle.”
After speaking with Turcotte for an hour, the same could be said for Secretariat’s jockey.
