And a horse named Secretariat emerged on the horizon as something to believe in. Even non-horseplayers gave their hopes and, later, their hearts, to the chestnut-colored colt named Secretariat and a 5-1, 110-pound Canadian-born jockey named Ron Turcotte. Together, they would make unique equine history and capture the nation’s psyche.

The Hall of Fame jockey swept the 1973 Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes, ending a quarter-century drought in horse racing’s Triple Crown.

Hall of Fame jockey Ron Turcotte, who rode Secretariat to the Triple Crown in 1973, has died. He was 84. Turcotte’s family said through his longtime business partner and friend Leonard Lusky that the Canada-born jockey died of natural causes Friday at his home in Drummond, New Brunswick.