(Edited Turfway Park release)
Hall of Fame jockey Ron Turcotte, who guided the legendary Secretariat into Triple Crown history in 1973, will be at Turfway Park Saturday, Oct. 3, from noon to 5 p.m. to greet fans and sign autographs.
Turcotte will sign fans’ own memorabilia at a cost of $15 per autograph, or his signature is included with each purchase of memorabilia from the on-site Secretariat store.@Proceeds from the event will benefit the Secretariat Foundation, established by Secretariat’s owner, Helen "Penny" Chenery.@The Foundation supports veterinary research into lameness of the horse, Thoroughbred retirement and rehabilitation facilities, therapeutic equestrian programs, and related charitable programs.@
Born in New Brunswick, Canada, in 1941, Turcotte originally worked as a lumberjack. In 1960, unemployment sent him to Toronto, where he began walking hots—cooling horses out after exercise—for E. P. Taylor’s Windfields Farm. He was Canada’s leading jockey in 1962 and 1963 and then moved his tack to the United States. His riding career came to an abrupt end on July 13, 1978, when a racing accident at Belmont Park left him paralyzed from the waist down.
Among his more than 3,000 victories, where wins in the 1972 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes aboard Riva Ridge. With his triumphs aboard Secretariat the following year, Turcotte became the first jockey in 70 years to win back-to-back Kentucky Derbys and the only rider to win five of six consecutive Triple Crown races.@@
Turcotte was inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in 1979 and also is a member of the Canadian Racing Hall of Fame, the Canadian All Sports Hall of Fame, and the New York Sports Hall of Fame, among other such inductions.@ His peers selected him to receive the prestigious George Woolf Memorial Award in 1979, and he also has received the Paul Harris Fellowship Award, the Avelino Gomez Memorial Award, the Canadian Sovereign Award, and the Turf Publicists of America Big Sport of Turfdom Award.@ In 1973 Turcotte was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada.
