By Bill Finley
It was 50 years ago, a Wednesday in late October and Eddie Maple was spending his day riding at Aqueduct. It was supposed to be just another routine day at the track. But then the seventh race happened. The stewards disqualified Ron Turcotte's mount and handed him a five-day suspension for careless riding. In those days, there were no appeals, no dragging things through court. The suspension started immediately, which meant that Secretariat would need a rider for what would be his final career race, the 1973 GII Canadian International at Woodbine.
Eddie Maple was just 24 at the time and was light on experience when it came to riding in major races, but he thought he had a chance to get the mount on Secretariat. Trainer Lucien Laurin had called on him to ride Riva Ridge when he faced Secretariat in the Marlboro Cup Invitational H. and he retained the mount for the GII Stuyvesant H., which Riva Ridge won.
“I had had some luck with other horses in the stable,” Maple said. “But to ride this horse? I didn't know. There were a lot of hats in the ring.”
He was a bit nervous, but he didn't have to wait long. Within a day of Turcotte's suspension, Laurin announced that Maple would have the ride in the Canadian International.
“Eddie has done extremely well with our Riva Ridge,” said Laurin. “We've been pleased with his work. So we decided that after he rides Riva Ridge in New York on Saturday in the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup H.) that he fly to Toronto to appear with Secretariat in Canada.”
“When I found out I was so delighted,” Maple said. “I couldn't believe I was going to get the opportunity to ride what was maybe the greatest horse of all time. It was very exciting.”
He was already a big fan.
“I watched this horse his whole career,” Maple, now 74, said. “As a 2-year-old he was the perfect horse and he improved on that every step of the rest of his career. By that I mean, you start with a well-bred horse with good conformation. After he won the Derby, that race to me was the knockout punch. He let everyone know they were going to be in a tussle any time they raced him the rest of the year. He just seemed to build on his pedigree, his conformation. He got bigger, stronger. Mentally, he didn't waste any energy. I had only been riding seven years at the time but you could just watch him run and say this is some horse.”
Maple caught a flight to Toronto after finishing sixth on Riva Ridge in the Gold Cup and hunkered down to prepare for the International, to be run on a Sunday. Then he got a call from Turcotte, who was already in Toronto and preparing to work with Eddie Arcaro on the television broadcast of the race.
“The night before, I landed in Toronto and went to the hotel,” Maple said. “Ronnie called me up said why don't you come down to my room and we could talk. He told me don't worry. This horse will get you a position, he won't be rank. If he does get rank that would be the time to let him do a little something. But try to lay second or third. He was nothing but encouraging.”
Maple was in a no win situation. If he won it would be because anybody could have won aboard one of the greatest horses ever. If he lost it only could have only been because Maple screwed it up. But he said he was confident he was up for the job.
“I really didn't feel a lot of pressure,” he said. “I was always meant to handle that kind of stuff. I'm not saying I wasn't excited and I didn't get some goose bumps in the time leading up to the race. I had already ridden in a couple of Kentucky Derbies. I just felt I didn't have to be the greatest jockey in the world to give this horse a good ride because he was that good.”
Secretariat | Keeneland Library
On a miserable day in which it was cold and sleeting, the race unfolded much like Turcotte had predicted it would. Canadian star Kennedy Road took the lead under Avelino Gomez with Secretariat tracking him in second. Midway down the backstretch, Kennedy Road was starting to tire and Maple knew it was time to see what Secretariat had.
“I had one horse in front of me,” Maple said. “I knew I was on Secretariat and could let the party begin whenever I wanted to. I had it in my mind to keep that horse on the front in front of me as long as I could. At about the five-eighths pole that horse started to drift out. We started making up ground. Gomez attempted to bring that horse back to the inside, but he started stopping and Secretariat started to get rolling. At the half-mile pole, I let him sneak on a little bit. Like Ronnie said, if he gets a little too strong let him get into his stride. We had a half-mile left and Kennedy Road was done. It was just a matter of who was going to show up and run the race of their lives to beat this horse. But I knew at the half-mile pole it was pretty much all over.”
Secretariat kept pulling farther and farther away from the competition. He was 12 lengths in front at the eighth pole but Maple let him cruise through the final furlongs. He won by 6 1/2 lengths.
“I felt a certain amount of pressure,” Maple told reporters after the race. “I mean I've ridden in big races before, but this horse here, he's a little special. It was his last race and everything. But, heck, the race was as easy as pie. I noticed when we were warming up that the turf was kind of slippery, and that was the only worry I had. But he got hold of it real good.”
Maple, a Hall of Famer, retired in 1998. He won 2,896 races, including 217 graded stakes, captured a pair of GI Belmont S. and was for years, the go-to rider for Woody Stephens. He says winning the Canadian International is among his top three accomplishments in racing.
Today, he is enjoying retirement in Bluffton, S.C. and caring for two corgis and a cat. His family was dealt a setback when his wife Kate suffered a stroke in 2019.
“She's doing alright,” he said. “She doesn't have use of the right side of her body but she gets around on a cane.”
The Woodbine Entertainment Group has invited Maple to be its guest at this year's edition of the International, which will be held on Sunday. It's been 50 years, but the memories are still fresh in Maple's mind. Even if it's just for one race, when you ride maybe the greatest horse who ever lived in his final career start, that's something you never forget.
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