OKLAHOMA CITY — The jockey who rode Secretariat said the film about the equine star “pretty well” captures the story of what happened during the horse’s famed run to the 1973 Triple Crown.
Ron Turcotte, who visited Remington Park over the weekend as part of the festivities surrounding Sunday’s Oklahoma Derby, acknowledged the filmmakers took some poetic license with the tale but said he “thought it was a very good movie.”
“Secretariat, he had the looks, he had the charm, he had it all,” said the 69-year-old Turcotte, who saw the film for the first time last week in Lexington, Ky.
The film, starring Diane Lane and John Malkovich as Secretariat’s owner, Penny Chenery, and trainer, Lucien Laurin, respectively, was released nationally this weekend and finished third at the box office, taking in $12.6 million, according to studio estimates released Sunday.
Horse racing industry leaders hope “Secretariat” spurs interest in the sport among the general public like “Seabiscuit” did when it was released in 2003. Alex Waldrop, the president and CEO of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, sent an e-mail to racing fans Friday reminding them of the movie’s impending release.
“I’ll be taking my family to see it, and I hope you will do the same,” Waldrop wrote. “If you feel, as I do, that even more movies should be made about great horses like Secretariat and his unforgettable owner Penny Chenery, then seeing the movie this weekend would be an excellent way to convey that message to Hollywood.”
Remington Park vice president and general manager Scott Wells said track officials had planned all along to use the movie as a promotional tool. But they received a pleasant surprise upon learning the film’s release date was the same weekend as the track’s biggest thoroughbred race — when Turcotte and Otto Thorwarth, who portrayed Turcotte in “Secretariat,” would visit.
Thorwarth, a former jockey who once rode regularly at Remington Park, Oaklawn Park, River Downs, Turfway Park and other tracks, answered a casting call at the encouragement of a friend and didn’t think anything would come of it.
“I’ve never acted a day in my life, other than in front of the (track) stewards,” he said, laughing.
Turcotte, who said he wasn’t consulted on the film, said Thorwarth “did a real good job” capturing the jockey’s personality, even if some of the scenes featuring Turcotte’s character in the film didn’t quite happen as filmmakers portrayed.
Also, he said, Laurin “was actually a conservative dresser. He was a man that loved fishing. I don’t think he ever golfed once in his life.” In the film, Laurin is portrayed as a flashy dresser who tries to take up golf.
Horse racing aficionados will notice other holes in the movie. For example, in the film, Secretariat’s rival, Sham, is portrayed as having won the Wood Memorial — a Kentucky Derby prep race — with Secretariat finishing third. In fact, Sham finished second behind another horse, Angle Light, in that race.
