Ronald Joseph Morel Turcotte, CM (born July 22, 1941 in Drummond, New Brunswick, Canada) is a Hall of Fame thoroughbred race horse jockey best known as the rider of Secretariat, winner of the U.S. Triple Crown in 1973.
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' 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 win 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. In 1984 he became the first ever recipient of the Avelino Gomez Memorial Award given annually to the jockey who is Canadian-born, Canadian-raised, or a regular in the country, who has made significant contributions to the sport.
In the 2010 Disney movie Secretariat, Ron Turcotte’s role as Secretariat's jockey is played by Otto Thorwarth, a real life jockey himself.
Turcotte lives in his home town of Grand Falls, New Brunswick, Canada, with his wife Gae and their four daughters. He is an advocate for the disabled and helps to raise funds for disability programs. He is involved with the Permanently Disabled Jockey Fund (PDJF). A well-known victim of an on-track accident, Turcotte makes appearances at racetracks to raise funds and awareness of the assistance the PDJF provides to fellow injured riders.