Famed horse racing jockey who rode the legendary Secretariat to Triple Crown dies at 84

Fox News Senior Meteorologist Janice Dean talks with Joe Petrucione, a clocker at Belmont since 1965, about the upcoming race. 

The jockey who rode the legendary race horse Secretariat to the Triple Crown in 1973, Ron Turcotte, has died at 84.

Turcotte’s family said through his longtime business partner and friend Leonard Lusky that the jockey died of natural causes Friday at his home in Drummond, New Brunswick in Canada. 

"Ron was a great jockey and an inspiration to so many, both within and outside the racing world," Lusky said. "While he reached the pinnacle of success in his vocation, it was his abundance of faith, courage, and kindness that was the true measure of his greatness."

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Secretariat and Ron Turcotte after winning the Kentucky Derby (Jerry Cooke/Corbis via Getty Images)

He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in 1979.

"The world may remember Ron as the famous jockey of Secretariat, but to us he was a wonderful husband, a loving father, grandfather, and a great horseman." the Turcotte family said in a statement through Lusky.

Turcotte won more than 3,000 races, but his career ended in 1978 when he fell off a horse early in a race and suffered injuries, as he became a paraplegic. 

Turcotte won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes twice each, most notably sweeping the three with Secretariat to end horse racing’s Triple Crown drought that dated to Citation in 1948. Secretariat’s record time of 2:24 in the Belmont, winning by 31 lengths, still stands 52 years later.

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Secretariat running past a crowd during a race