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.

Ron Turcotte, the jockey who rode the legendary Secretariat to the Triple Crown in 1973 and won more than 3,000 races over his two-decade career, died Friday morning of natural causes at his home in Canada, per the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. He was 84.