Seattle Slew - 1977 Belmont Stakes

[johnsnare]

Had the pleasure of being at Belmont on that special day. I still have my uncashed winning ticket. what a pleasure to see the replay.

[grumpyotter]

What a heart!

[TheWolfgirl11]

Theres a horse at my barn who is Seattle Slew's great granddaughter :) 

[konzwambii]

I was there. Had spent my 1st "small fortune" buying one of the first personal computers, intent on solving thoroughbred racing mathematically. Meanwhile I became a decent handicapper without benefit of the 32-variable multivariate regression analysis. Aware that favorites are often underbet, and longshots overbet, I played it safe. Bet Seattle Slew to "Place"! Haha... a pretty safe bet, and the payout not much worse than a win bet. This was all for fun, mind you. Wasn't looking for Favorites!

[cl0ngrf3]

I'm not saying that he raced against poor quality opposition (I don't know one way or the other), but I just don't understand the general tendency to rate a horse who wins all its races, or all races in the triple crown, above those who, in other years, don't. Oddly, it seems that if there are two or more outstanding horses in one year, all of them will be considered inferior to one who dominates in another year, regardless of the quality of what it is dominating.

[Farrah300]

Those other horses didn't have a chance!!!

[modijo93]

i own seattle slew great grandson and he looks exactly like him and he even strides like him while running!

[bigfilmhat]

@modijo93

I've caught the racing bug this year, going to Golden Gate Fields and watching the major races, Seattle Slew has a TON of grandkids, he grandsired a boatload of horses coming through Golden Gate fields and the Alameda County Fairgrounds.

[lpvcrcd]

Even before watching this I remember the pace was slow and this is probably the easiest race Slew won He basically galloped and had to have his jockey keep his mind on the race- really just a workout for Slew! People forget how large he was Look at him here and in the Derby He was a tall long and overall big horse He just galloped with that frame Even his losses were jockey errors most of the time [except his race following this: he was just worn out]

[joefederico]

Not to detract from Slew at all because I think he was a brilliant racehorse but he had no real competition until his 4 YO season. Run Dusty Run was a good horse, not great, as was Iron Constitution who would destroy any field in the slop. Slew solidified his greatness when he beat Affirmed the following year. Crugeut knew how to ride this horse perfectly so maybe that is why he did post amazing fractions when he did not have to but was more than capable of doing.

[kbrown3599]

got to meet Jean Crugeut at Keeneland last week and had my picture made with him. Very nice person who does not look 70 years old.

[Beatlegirl4eva]

I wish I were around in the 70s, like, watching the races and all, what were they doing so right?

Secretariat, Ruffian, Affirmed, Seattle Slew, Buckpasser, etc... After 30 years they managed to get 3 triple crowns.

If someone could train according to 70s training tactics, there`ll probably be a triple crown.

[ickiepoo]

I was just watching Rags to Riches win the Belmont in 2007. She's Seattle Slew's granddaughter--don't you know he's proud!

[LordofDublin4]

On this day I sat in my cousin's bedroom on Long Island, NY watching the race before departing with my brother and sisters, cousins, and other family members from JFK for Ireland. I was taking my late father, who had passed away two days earlier on the 9th of June, home to Ireland to be laid to rest. he was a horseman and it was a tradition to watch the triple Crown together. I watched alone quietly that day as a young man with both joy for Slew 's victory and sadness that my father was gone.

[Dahaas2003]

Wow. That is a really nice, but bittersweet to be sure, memory you shared with all of us out here. Think of it this way, Slew left you with a strong memory of your dad, and your dad, by sharing all those Belmonts with you, made sure this one would remain memorable to you, too. Not bad, being able to associate Slew with your Dad. Again, thanks for sharing.

[rowdyeverylap]

one of the few times a horse ever led the Belmont wire to wire, I was lucky to see slew race on TV when I was 8, he was a real fighter

[WolvieGirl07]

Seattle Slew has got to be my favorite racehorse of all time. Watching these races astounds me. Amazing. I wish I had been alive to see him win the Triple Crown. I'm still waiting to see a Triple Crown winner in my lifetime.

[stivo1975]

only triple crown winner to ever beat another TCW (Affirmed)

[zaius316]

I notice that this replay has something I haven't seen on an NYRA replay; an angle switch on the backstretch (1:08).

[KIKAURMOUF]

i would name my horse ALPHA KENNY FILLY.....LOLOLOLOL sslew awsome

[ladybelle24]

The only undefeated TC winner. That says it all.

[directorwvp2]

If I could name a race horse, I'd call him "REALLY SLOW HORSE", or ... "HORSE" ... or maybe "SLOWER THAN MOLASIS" LOL

[conewells]

I remember watching this just before seeing Star Wars at the movies. A memorable day, a memorable year.

[bronco3250]

A special special horse that ran out front on the most grueling of the triple and he pulled away at the end.

The ditractors of Smarty Jones reminded me of the ditractors of Slew.

Too bad Jones lost that Belmont...would have tied Slew with 9 starts and 9 wins.

[gotch09]

@bronco3250 Yeah I was sick that Smarty didn't make it. I wanted him too.

[BE109]

At the time there was a lot of talk about Slew being the best of a bad crop. Boy did he ever shut those jerks up. At 4,he proved beyond a doubt he was a great one. Heck,Secretariat had his detractors,some still believe in that B.S.! Just look at their races the greatness just gushes out.

[SlaughterhouseRules]

He was a very special horse, period!

[Rodney81818]

Going undefeated and winning the triple crown is awesome. Not even the greatest Secretariat did that. The awesome Slew

[wooley85]

All around best champion of 20th century...undefeated as Triple Crown winner and one of the most prolific stallions of the era.

[terjer01]

Chic Anderson (Lord rest his soul) possessed some powerful pipes!

[eggybirdie]

It was awesome...killed the 4th and the Mother of Goose(6th) w/the tri and laid it all on the Slew in the 8th..the most impressive winner to win the Triple crown(undefeated!)-EVER.

[SWALE1984]

GREAT RACE!!! To run 12 furlongs on "Big Sandy" while the track surface was muddy and heavy, and still come in at 2:29 3/5 is incredible. In my humble opinion, Slew was never given the credit he deserved for his Belmont Stakes performance. Thanks for posting!

[davemock]

A great Chic Anderson's line is after he shuts the NYRA mic off before the finish (as track callers had to do then), but keeps his CBS-TV mic hot...then describes Cruget at the moment of victory:

"He stands up! It's over with! Seattle Slew, two and a half!"

I wonder if someone on YouTube has the CBS-TV call of that and also the Affirmed-Alydar Belmont Stakes, where he describes the actualy moment of victory.