Seattle Slew Exploded From Humble Beginnings

From humble beginnings, Seattle Slew exploded into the forefront. Four years after the awesome Secretariat won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont, Seattle Slew duplicated the feat in 1977. And he did Secretariat one better, by becoming the only undefeated Triple Crown champion. In an era when it was common to see owners spend hundreds of thousands—even millions—on horses that they believed would reach Triple Crown status, Seattle Slew was purchased for a mere $17,500. As a colt, Slew didn’t look like the typical champion. But looks, it turns out, didn’t matter.

Two couples, the Taylors (Karen and Mickey) and Hills (Jim and Sally), bought him on July 19, 1975 at the Fasig-Tipton of Kentucky yearling sale in Lexington. Pointing to a horse with a big body and tiny tail, Hill, a veterinarian, said, buy that one. Mickey, a fourth-generation logger, and Karen, a former stewardess, heeded the advice and the group went $2,500 over budget to purchase the horse—out of My Charmer by Bold Reasoning—that was born on Feb. 15, 1974 at Ben Castleman’s White Horse Acres in Lexington, Ky.

The new owners named their horse Seattle Slew because the Taylors lived near Seattle, Wash., and Hill came from Florida, a swampy, or “slewy” place. One reason the horse was such a bargain was he was born with a right front foot that curved outward. He naturally swayed to the outside when he ran. Slew’s new owners turned the horse over to trainer Billy Turner, who found him so clumsy that he nicknamed him Baby Huey. Turner changed his tune in the summer of 1976, when he took Seattle Slew to Saratoga to work out and discovered the horse once named after a clumsy duck cartoon character could run like the wind… read more >