Triumph to tragedy: Canada's Turcotte family rose from deep poverty to the peak of horse racing

The Turcottes The remarkable story of a horse racing dynasty

by Curtis Stock

The Turcottes lived such unlikely lives, it's a wonder there haven't been more books written about them.

The high point of Turcotte family history is a record that still stands – Ron Turcotte rode Secretariat to the fastest Triple Crown ever known. This spring marks the 50h anniversary of those glorious races, and author Curtis Stock, himself a celebrated track writer, is out to tell the story in full for the first time.

Mum, Dad, and 14 kids, the Turcottes are an impoverished lumberjacking family in Drummond, N.B. The boys work in the forest, some skidding logs with teams of horses; others riding rafts of the timber itself, downriver to mill.

It is extremely dangerous work, and when the oldest son, Camille, decides to seek a better living in Ontario, five more Turcotte brothers eventually follow suit.

Ron Turcotte and his pal Reggie Pelletier arrive in Toronto in 1960, nearly penniless. They get hired to pick worms for angling shops. Three measly bucks for a backbreaking harvest of nightcrawlers. Try as they might, no other jobs come their way. Defeated by the big city, the teenagers resolve to hitchhike back home. That very day, their rooming house landlord calls Ron in to watch the Kentucky Derby on TV.

As Ron stands there, dazzled by the grainy black and white spectacle, the landlord looks at his physically small tenant – as though for the first time – and tells Ron that he should become a jockey. Ron has not heard the term before, but he takes his friend Reggie to the new Woodbine track the next morning. The pair of them, with their compact frames and size 4 ½ feet, stumble into entry level work in EP Taylor's barn. The Turcotte dynasty of racing begins.

Out of the frying pan, into the fire

The mortality rate for career jockeys is 12.8 per 1,000. When a horse goes down in the stretch it is a high mass, high velocity wrecking ball. The starting gates are even riskier, with the anxious 1,000-pound animals and slight riders crammed into tight steel confines. Catastrophic injuries are commonplace. The weight loss regimen sees jockeys on diuretics and laxatives almost constantly.  A high number – perhaps 40 per cent of all jockeys have bulimia. Blood disorders, kidney damage, osteoperosis, chronic concussions, painkiller addictions, jockeys suffer all the above.

With the exception of a few extreme events like BASE jumping or mammoth wave surfing, horse racing is arguably the world's most dangerous sport. So while The Turcottes celebrates one family's huge successes, it also describes that same family's many tragic losses.

For Ron, as for all jockeys, cutting weight is everything. He weighs 125 pounds before his career in the saddle begins. In order to ride, he must lose twenty pounds ASAP. He starves himself for two months, eats one small salad a day, sometimes throws that up, takes laxatives and diuretics, and runs daily miles in a heavy latex rubber suit.

Ron Turcotte hits his feathery target weight, works a few horses and quickly becomes the winningest jockey in Canada. In his first year he wins more races than the next three jockeys combined. He makes 10 per cent of the horses' earnings. His mounts win $400,000 US, at a time when minimum wage is $1.15. Ron socks away every penny.

Younger brother Noel is the first Turcotte in family history to finish high school. In 1963, he sizes up his 5-foot-1 reflection in the mirror and heads west to join Ron as a jockey. In an astonishingly fast time – after just seven races – Noel begins winning consistently.

By 1964, Ron Turcotte is the highest-grossing athlete in Canada. Noel is winning a healthy income too. Brother Rudy turns 16, leaves the farm in New Brunswick, and he too comes out to race. At 95 pounds, he's made for the game. His debut season, 1968, he earns almost enough money to afford the new 12- cylinder Jaguar that's clawing his driveway. Rudy has a genius for riding, and a brilliant mentor in Ron. But he's wired to live hard and play hard – and danger is waiting in the wings.

At the end of 1969, Rudy has a bad fall mid race.  Lots of broken bones. People think he has died. It's just the beginning of the injuries he will endure.

And down the stretch they come

In 1970, a massive colt is born, with three white socks and a chestnut coat. Five potential names are rejected by the Jockey Club. Number six sticks. Secretariat.

Ron Turcotte has already shown himself to be a brilliant rider. He understands his individual horses in ways that are magical to read about. A nudge here, some tactical patience there, and one tricky horse after another learns to race under Ron. By the time Secretariat turns two years old, Ron has found out how to make the most of the fastest horse in history. Among other wise choices, Ron lets his ride come out of the gates dead last. For whatever reason, that's what Secretariat likes to do. On those slow starts, Ron says:

"He has a mind of his own - wants to run his own way and that's alright with me. I allowed him to get himself together. I didn't change tactics. He just wants time to settle into stride. Once he starts running though, there's no horse who can beat him right now."

In 1973, half of all the TV sets in North America tuned in for the Kentucky Derby. Secretariat begins the race close to the back of the pack, and then accelerates to fifth place as they come down the stretch. They are nine lengths behind the lead when 'Big Red' kicks into gear. Nobody has ever seen a horse run like that before. With each passing quarter of the race, Secretariat gains absolute speed, which almost never happens. Horses slow over the course of a race, because they are exhausted. Secretariat runs the first quarter in 25.2 seconds, the next two quarters progressively faster, and the final quarter in 23 seconds flat. The first horse ever to break two minutes at the Derby. 

Two weeks later, Ron and Secretariat go from last to first in the Preakness at Pimlico. They break the track speed record.

At the Belmont Stakes, the final jewel in the Triple Crown, Ron Turcotte is in a duel with Nelson Pincay, another great jockey of that era. Their horses are neck and neck, leading the pack by ten lengths.

Turcotte buries his face in Secretariat's mane and they accelerate to a record-smashing victory. He doesn't swing the crop even once. They cross the line a jaw-dropping 31 lengths ahead of all comers.

Curtis Stock compares that ride to Roger Bannister's four-minute mile and Bob Beamon's famous flying long jump at Mexico City. There is just no precedent for it in the history of horse racing. Eleven million people watched. Thousands of winning tickets were never cashed – because people valued the historic memory more highly than the payout. Ron Turcotte is the first jockey in 25 years to win the Triple Crown.

Roger Turcotte leaves school in grade 10 and joins his brothers. There are four Turcottes on the track now, winning races left, right, and centre. Roger is a successful jockey, but he has an angry side, and he is embittered at not winning the apprentice of the year prize. He has a tendency to drink to excess. Rudy too, struggling to keep weight off, drinks far more than he should.

Noel hops on the scale one day, sees 117 lbs and calls it quits. He can't fight starvation any longer. Within a few weeks he weighs 138 lbs.

Through 1976 and 1977 Ron continues to ride for huge money. Rudy also enjoys another million-dollar racing season.

Roger and Noel struggle. Rudy is involved in a spill that kills a fellow jockey. Shortly after that, at 36, Ron Turcotte is paralyzed from the waist down in a track accident. 3000-plus wins, career earnings of $30 million, his riding days are done. He throws himself into rehab like the determined athlete he has always been.

Roger continues to drink far too much. His fiancé issues an ultimatum.

Yves, the youngest of all the Turcottes, comes out to visit Roger. He gets work mucking out stalls and decides to commit to the horse racing life. Yves fights his way through the harsh pharmaceuticals, sweat boxes, and starvation. He whittles his weight down to 105 pounds.

In 1981 he becomes the fifth Turcotte to win as a jockey.

Noel is outdone by alcohol and the weight reduction struggle. Roger tries to kill himself and refuses to say why. Rudy- the smallest of the brothers, quickly becomes the heaviest. Rudy raced to a million plus dollars in earnings, when that figure still meant something, but he mismanages it and loses all the money eventually.

Cruel reality of an unforgiving sport

By 1983, Roger has found sobriety, and Yves joins him again, living in Alberta. A nephew, David Turcotte, comes on the Alberta racing scene and he does well as an apprentice rider too. Then Roger drinks again, and so does David, and a bad spiral begins.

Yves is the last Turcotte to get out of the game. In 1994 a mishap in the starting gate leaves him with badly broken feet. By the time he's 39, Yves has had three serious head injuries. His track days draw to an abrupt close.

Roger hangs himself.

Ron is in a wheelchair forever.

Noel hangs himself too.

Curtis Stock captures the cruel reality of an unforgiving sport. He describes how jockeys usually arrive young and uneducated, and when weight gain, injuries, declining abilities, or addiction end their racing years, they don't know where to turn.

Yves Turcotte puts the matter in family context.

"It was one Turcotte after another after another. But in the end they didn't know what to do when they had to quit."

The Turcottes The remarkable story of a horse racing dynasty, Firefly Books 368 pages, 30 pp b&w photos. Hardcover $35