Triple Crown-winning jockey Turcotte honored with statue

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The Canadian town of Grand Falls, New Brunswick, will hold a public ceremony Sunday to unveil a monument and statue of Canadian-born jockey Ron Turcotte, who won the 1973 Triple Crown aboard Secretariat.

“It’s a great honor,” Turcotte said. “I didn’t expect everyone to recognize my achievements like they’re doing by putting up a monument. It’s really something. It’s very heartwarming that your own people do things like that for you.”

Turcotte resides in his hometown of Drummond, New Brunswick, near Grand Falls. Richard Keeley, the mayor of Grand Falls, said the project has been in the works for a number of years.

“Back in 2009, the town was in the planning stage of revitalizing its major tourism infrastructure,” he said. “At about that time, the movie ‘Secretariat’ came out, and it just brought back what Ron accomplished during that time. We started tinkering with the idea of maybe finding a way to reintroduce that and make it more a part of our tourism strategy.”

The statue and monument was created by Yves Theriault, a native of Bertand, New Brunswick. The statue depicts the moment when Secretariat and Turcotte crossed the finish line in the 1973 Belmont Stakes, while the monument will include a list of Turcotte’s major accomplishments. Keeley said Turcotte and Leonard Lusky of the Secretariat Foundation were heavily consulted during the process.

“Early on when we started exploring the concept with Yves, he met several times with Ron,” he said. “Last year, when the bronze was cast, it was brought to Drummond for Ron to view it, and some minor details were corrected. Also, Mr. Lusky observed the animal and suggested to the sculptor that it was a very good rendition of the horse, and Ron was happy with the depiction of himself as well.”

Keeley said the statue and monument will be located on Broadway Boulevard, Grand Falls’s main throughway, and close to the Ron Turcotte Bridge, which crosses the St. John River. The bridge was named in Turcotte’s honor in 1976.

According to Keeley, the cost of the project is approximately $300,000 and was funded through a series of grants and partnership agreements as part of a joint initiative between the municipality and the provincial government of New Brunswick.

Keeley said he is expecting a big turnout for Sunday’s unveiling.

“Based on the chatter that’s going on in the community and from what I’m hearing elsewhere, there will be a significant number of people attending,” he said. “We’re a community of 5,700 people, and with the smaller communities around us, we’re probably around 10,000 or 11,000. But you’ve got people from throughout the St. John River valley and throughout the province that will probably make the trek to witness probably one of the more significant events in our region.”