Secretariat Triple Crown Saddle

A saddle built for weight

In the spring of 1972, jockey Ron Turcotte worked with Lee Wincher, a Kentucky leathersmith who had made saddles for other riders, including the one Mike Manganello used to win the 1970 Kentucky Derby on Dust Commander. Turcotte wanted a saddle that would distribute the external lead weights needed to reach the heavier totals assigned in stakes and handicap races.

Wincher built it with a series of pockets beneath the flaps to hold and balance those weights, and finished it just before the 1972 Blue Grass Stakes. Turcotte called it his "Big Race" saddle. Its four lead weights are each labeled and signed with his name.

Turcotte used it first on Riva Ridge, Secretariat's stablemate at Meadow Stable, who won the 1972 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes. Riva Ridge won 17 of 30 starts and two championships.

The lumberjack's son from New Brunswick

Ronald Joseph Morel Turcotte was born July 22, 1941, in Drummond, New Brunswick, one of 12 children in a French-speaking family. His father was a lumberjack, and Turcotte left school at 14 to work with him; because he was small, he was given the horses to manage.

He started in Toronto in 1960 as a hot walker for E. P. Taylor's Windfields Farm, rode Northern Dancer to his first victory as an apprentice, and won the 1965 Preakness on Tom Rolfe. He then rode for the Canadian trainer Lucien Laurin, which put him on Riva Ridge and then Secretariat.

Turcotte was North America's leading stakes-winning jockey in 1972 and 1973, the first rider to win back-to-back Kentucky Derbies since Jimmy Winkfield in 1902, and the first person from thoroughbred racing appointed to the Order of Canada. His career ended on July 13, 1978, when he fell from Flag of Leyte Gulf at Belmont Park and was left paraplegic. He entered the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1979 and died at home in Drummond on August 22, 2025, at 84.

Big Red, 1973

Secretariat was foaled March 30, 1970, at Meadow Stud in Caroline County, Virginia, by Bold Ruler out of Somethingroyal. Turcotte first rode him in an allowance race at Saratoga on July 31, 1972, and the colt was named 1972 Horse of the Year at two. In early 1973, after Christopher Chenery's death, Penny Chenery syndicated him for a then world-record $6.08 million.

He lost his final Derby prep, the Wood Memorial, finishing third; an abscess in his mouth was later blamed. Then, on May 5, before a crowd of 134,476 at Churchill Downs, he broke last, ran each quarter-mile faster than the one before and beat Sham by 2 1/2 lengths in 1:59 2/5, still the track record. On May 19 at Pimlico he made a last-to-first move on the first turn and again beat Sham by 2 1/2 lengths. A broken teletimer clouded the time for decades until the Maryland Racing Commission ruled in 2012 that he ran 1:53, a stakes record.

On June 9 at Belmont Park, against four rivals and as a 1-10 favorite, he won by 31 lengths in 2:24 flat, the fastest 1 1/2 miles on dirt in history and still the American record. He was the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years. Turcotte said afterward, "This horse really paced himself. He is smart: I think he knew he was going 1 1/2 miles, I never pushed him."

It was a season otherwise dominated by bad news. The last U.S. soldier left Vietnam on March 29, and the Senate's televised Watergate hearings began on May 17, two days before the Preakness.

Fifty years in a jockey's keeping

Turcotte kept the saddle for nearly 50 years. As the 50th anniversary of the Triple Crown approached, Jim Irsay, owner of the Indianapolis Colts and a collector of music, history and sports artifacts, called him about it. Sources disagree on when the deal closed: the auction house and one trade paper say February 2023, while the Secretariat estate's website says December 2022 and a Louisville newspaper says 2022. A Louisville newspaper and a racing writer reported the price as $2 million; a racing trade paper called it undisclosed.

"This special saddle represents a most magical time in my racing career and its personal significance to me and my family goes beyond words," Turcotte said. "I have had the privilege of keeping it safe and secure for nearly 50 years, and now it's time to let others enjoy the treasures in my collection as well." He added that the sale would ensure financial security for his daughters and grandchildren.

The saddle was first shown publicly on March 4, 2023, in Las Vegas, and toured with Irsay's collection through 2023 and 2024, with appearances at the Belmont Stakes and at Saratoga. Irsay died May 21, 2025; Turcotte died three months later.

Irsay's family offered the saddle at auction in New York on March 12, 2026, together with Turcotte's letter of authenticity, signed photographs of the Belmont and a copy of Newsweek with Secretariat on the cover. Bidding stopped at $1.2 million, and the price with the buyer's premium was $1,524,000, reported as the most ever paid for horse-racing memorabilia at public auction. The buyer was not named. If the reported $2 million private price is accurate, the auction result was lower than what Irsay paid.

How it is tied to the races

Under the saddle flaps are the slots for the lead weights, and each weight is signed by Turcotte. The saddle came with its stirrup irons and leathers.

Turcotte's account, published on the Secretariat estate's website, is that he used the saddle in each of the 1973 Triple Crown races and throughout the colt's 1972 and 1973 seasons, including the Sanford, Hopeful, Belmont Futurity, Champagne, Laurel Futurity, Garden State, Bay Shore, Gotham, Wood Memorial, Arlington Invitational, Whitney, Marlboro Cup, Woodward and Man o' War. He also used it on Dahlia, Key to the Mint and other stakes horses.

The independent photo-matching evidence is narrower. The authenticator's letter definitively matches the saddle to the 1973 Arlington Invitational and, in the catalog's words, "supports" the Triple Crown attribution. A racing trade paper's list of the races where it was used named the 1972 stakes and the 1973 Bay Shore, Gotham and Wood Memorial, but not the three Triple Crown races. The Triple Crown attribution rests on Turcotte himself.

The numbers

1973 Kentucky Derby (May 5)

Won by 2 1/2 lengths in 1:59 2/5, still the Churchill Downs record

1973 Preakness (May 19)

Won by 2 1/2 lengths; time revised in 2012 to 1:53, a stakes record

1973 Belmont Stakes (June 9)

Won by 31 lengths in 2:24, the American dirt record for 1 1/2 miles

Derby crowd

134,476, then the largest in North American racing

Career record

21 starts: 16 wins, 3 seconds, 1 third

Career earnings

$1,316,808

Honors

Horse of the Year 1972 and 1973; ninth U.S. Triple Crown winner, first in 25 years

Timeline

1. Jul 22, 1941

   Ron Turcotte is born in Drummond, New Brunswick.

2. Mar 30, 1970

   Secretariat is foaled at Meadow Stud in Caroline County, Virginia.

3. 1972

   Lee Wincher builds Turcotte's "Big Race" saddle just before the Blue Grass Stakes.

4. 1972

   Turcotte uses the saddle on Riva Ridge in his Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes wins.

5. Jul 31, 1972

   Turcotte rides Secretariat for the first time, winning at Saratoga.

6. May 5, 1973

   Secretariat wins the Kentucky Derby in a track-record 1:59 2/5.

7. May 19, 1973

   Secretariat wins the Preakness; the time is later set at 1:53.

8. Jun 9, 1973

   Secretariat wins the Belmont by 31 lengths in 2:24 and the Triple Crown.

9. Jun 30, 1973

   Secretariat wins the Arlington Invitational, the race the saddle is photo-matched to.

10. Jul 13, 1978

    A spill at Belmont Park ends Turcotte's riding career.

11. Oct 4, 1989

    Secretariat dies at 19.

12. Jun 19, 2012

    Maryland racing officials revise Secretariat's Preakness time to 1:53.

13. Feb 2023

    Jim Irsay buys the saddle privately from Turcotte (one source dates the sale to December 2022).

14. Mar 4, 2023

    The saddle goes on public display for the first time, in Las Vegas.

15. May 21, 2025

    Jim Irsay dies.

16. Aug 22, 2025

    Ron Turcotte dies at 84.

17. Mar 12, 2026

    The saddle sells at auction in New York for $1,524,000.

The world in 1973

• Jan 27, 1973

  The Paris Peace Accords are signed, ending U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

• Apr 3, 1973

  Martin Cooper makes the first handheld cellular phone call, in New York.

• Apr 4, 1973

  The World Trade Center officially opens.

• May 3, 1973

  Chicago's Sears Tower is finished, the world's tallest building.

• May 14, 1973

  Skylab, the first U.S. space station, is launched.

• May 17, 1973

  Televised Senate Watergate hearings begin.

• Jul 16, 1973

  Alexander Butterfield reveals President Nixon's secret taping system.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Secretariat Triple Crown Saddle is number 54 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (53 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The same saddle carried Riva Ridge to the 1972 Kentucky Derby, the year before Secretariat's.
• Each of the saddle's four lead weights is signed by Turcotte.
• Secretariat ran every quarter-mile of the 1973 Derby faster than the one before it.
• The Preakness time was disputed for 39 years because the infield teletimer had been damaged by people crossing the track.
• Secretariat's name was suggested by Meadow's longtime secretary, Elizabeth Ham, from her earlier job connected to the League of Nations secretariat.
• Jim Irsay turned 14 five days after the Belmont, according to a racing writer who knew the family.