Seattle Slew - The 1977 Belmont Stakes

[TCBinTN]

SS running in the KD is my first HR memory. I was amazed at how that beautiful horse could run. He was a great horse.

[mshobohorse]

Slew starts from 2nd or 1st place in the race. Secretariat usually starts from the back of the pack to collect momentum. They're both great horses, there's no reason to think 1 is better than the other. The same goes for Ruffian and Foolish Pleasure, Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra. (Though Secretariat is by far my most favorite)

[jlalewicz]

Slew was such a magnificent horse & one of the top racehorses of all time. Secretariat, Affirmed, Alydar....MAGNIFICENT!! Wish we'd had more time to see what Barbaro would have shown us...gone far too soon:(

[Farrah300]

@jlalewicz I totally agree with you, especially when it comes to Barbaro.

[RuffianRunsForever16]

There's no point in comparing horses when we can all agree they were ALL amazing horses..... let's be happy we were graced with such horses, and we have these videos to look back and remember. I wasn't even born when this was run for that matter lolz

[joefederico]

Seattle Slew was a great horse, there is no debating that but his 3-y/o competition was average at best. Run Dusty Run was a good horse but nothing special. Iron Constitution was a 1-dimensional dead stoner closer who loved the mud and still couldn't beat Slew. Jean Cruguet rode Slew awesomely and never pushed more than he needed. Slew solidified his greatness as a 4 y/o beating Affirmed.

[grgoldner]

I think Slew had way more competition than Big Red. Run Dusty Run, Iron Constitution, et al. It is a toss up.

[cf1970]

I humbly disagree with you. Seattle Slew is firmly entrenched in my top five of all time (it changes from time-to-time, save the #1 spot), but Secretariat faced Forego, Sham, Our Native, among others; not to mention taking on the Hall of Fame triumverate of Riva Ridge, Tentam, Cougar II, and the superb Prove Out after the Triple Crown.

To say that Slew had "way more" competition is simply not true. His competition at 3 was good, but not great, with all due respect to Slew.

Have a good day.

[all66books]

OK, I have found out this much; the late Smiley Adams was Run Dusty Runs' trainer for his whole career. RDRs rider for the Derby & Preakness was replaced with Sandy Hawley. So it was a change of riders, not trainers.

[all66books]

I remember that the owner of Run Dusty Run actually switched trainers after RDRs third place finish in the Preakness because he was certain that he had the horse who could beat Slew. I've been trying to look up the details to that story, but haven't been successful. Could somebody fill in the blanks, deny/confirm this? I'm pretty sure that I'm remembering at least that much correctly.

[KIKAURMOUF]

alot of the great horses are realated i looked at most of thier pedigrees and its cool that they all are realted near of far............godbless u all

[mattanddi62]

you don't see a horse go wire to wire in triple crown races very often. He seemed to have an extra gear whenever challenged.

My all time favorite horse.

I have a room in my house where the walls are filled with 8X10's of mostly baseball players and of the over 30 photos there is just one animal. The great Seattle Slew!

[jurankin]

Secretariat is the greatest, Slew is close.

[all66books]

The thing that stands out to me here is that every time that a horse comes up to challenge Slew, he just turns it up a notch and shrugs off the challenge, and is much the best down the stretch. A super performance on a muddy, slow Belmont strip.

[pnutbutrncrackers]

Exactly -- what a closer. It's very common to see the lead horse on the homestretch fade, but not Slew. Could he ever hold a lead once won.

[drpiratedna]

I saw Slew in NYC at either track can't remember in 78 or 79. After a layoff he went off at 2 to 1. A regular at the track couldn't believe it and was shouting "Seattle Slew 2 to 1, mortgage the house." Pretty funny. He won easily.

[Rightsideup]

Slew is my all time favorite, just a dominating warrior of a horse.

[ValerianSoup]

Is it just me, or does Slew look like a bodybuilder? It may just be this particular view, or my crappy monitor, but Slew looks like a giant ball of rippling muscles compared to the other horses in this race. Hardly looks fair.

[jkoff76]

He was Black Beauty, as far as I'm concerned. Just a big bunch of muscles!!

[rangerdgd1]

Smarty Jones had the same length lead at the last 1/4 mile,but couldn't hold off Birdstone

[rangerdgd1]

My brother still has his ticket from the Derby...Slew went off at 3/5 or something like that

[RVAuday]

Great video, I remember watching the race, but this is the first time I've actually watched all three of "Slew's" triple crown races back-to-back. What a horse, can't ever remember a horse that went straight to the front during long races (over 1-mile) and consistantly winning, especially (3) mile plus races in a 5-week span... All the more awesome. Even Secretariat paced himself for at least part of each race...

[CrimzonLogic]

awesome thats lava man's grandaddy!

[SWALE1984]

Incredible race by Seattle Slew. The track was a sea of tremendous slop. There was five inches of mud around the first turn. The footing was poor. Yet, Slew still came in at 2:29 3/5. It was also the first time he had ever run on a muddy track. And still, he handled it like a pro. Like a true professional.

[livestrong2007]

There are certain horses you simply never get tired of watching. Slew was certainly one of them. Nice work.

[cf1970]

Amen to that. Thank you for the kind compliment. Take care.

[AwsiDooger]

Too bad it wasn't a fast rack that day. I remember Billy Turner's comment a few days later: "I was going to send him. It would have been awesome."

[cf1970]

Yes, very good point. I too wish it would have been fast and Turner could have turned him loose. I'm sure Slew would have been terrific. Take care.

[AwsiDooger]

It also might have prevented the masochistic trip to California for the Swaps Stakes a few weeks later. Turner planned to give Slew a long rest after the Belmont but the Slew Crew was tricked into believing the horse was invincible, especially since he mostly jogged in the Belmont.

That reminds me, why aren't the flop races on YouTube? I see all the highlight races but not the busts, like Slew's loss to J.O. Tobin or Secretariat's defeats to Onion and Prove Out. Maybe they'll be found later.

[cf1970]

Yep, I agree, Turner definitely had it right to give Slew a well-deserved rest. He had certainly earned it! If only his crew had let him rest, Slew would have had a great chance at an undefeated season. As far as flop races go, I am still searching. They're proving quite hard to find. Thanks for your comments. Take care.

[gfn02]

Good video.

[cf1970]

Thanks pal. Can't wait for your next video! God bless.

[ruffchamp1]

hey..do u know why the videos on youtube keep stopping in the middle of them? how can we fix this? thanx for posting the legend!

[cf1970]

Hi ruffchamp. Sometimes when watching videos here, the playback is automatically paused until enough of the video in question is downloaded for play to restart again at the last point. It might also be an connection problem, but highly unlikely. Youtube also seems to be just plain slow at times. I've encountered weird lags in videos and pages loading here, so I guess just bear with it is all I can offer. Glad you liked the video. The Slew was a strong boy! Take care.

[aaronbees]

The backstretch footage is great - you can see how powerful he was.

[cf1970]

I agree. He was a strong boy. One of the bigger triple crown winners. Take care.