Throughout his life after racing, Seattle Slew was tended to by his attentive groom Tom Wade. (Barbara D. Livingston)
By G.S. Thompson
Looking back over my 50-year career in horse racing from water-bucket carrier to groom to trainer to writer, I’ve met some pretty darn good horses, some of which were the best in the world, but every one of them had something special about them.
I missed seeing the mighty Secretariat in person, but I did get to meet Seattle Slew and Cigar, among other greats, a few of whom graced us at Assiniboia Downs.
Canadian champion Escape Clause was the best female I ever met at the Downs, and her coming-back-at-the-wire nose defeat to the best mare in the world, Midnight Bisou, in the 2019 Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) at Oaklawn Park, makes her the best Manitoba-bred of all time.
Congratulations to breeders Cam Ziprick and Arnason Farms, owners Barry Arnason and True North, and trainer Don Schnell, for an amazing accomplishment.
Escape Clause (inside) and Midnight Bisou at the wire in the 2019 Apple Blossom Handicap. (Coady Photography)
Interestingly, Escape Clause wasn’t the quickest horse I ever met at the Downs. That honour belongs to One More Lady, who won eight stakes here from 1984-1989. But that’s not where I caught her tailwind.
I was at the rail near the three-eighths pole one morning when she was working a half-mile for trainer Tommy Elias. When she got to the turn, I thought the jockey might jump off. She was moving heavy and extremely fast. I didn’t think she would make the turn, but she did, and her supposed 48-second work was more like 44 seconds, or less. I’m pretty sure she went half a mile in 43 2/5 in a race one day at the Downs, but those charts aren’t readily available anymore. And she probably had faster in her.
The best horse I ever met at the Downs was Overskate, who won the 1978 Manitoba Derby by a zillion lengths while bent in half and set a new track record for 1 1/8-miles. Peggy’s Choice finished second in the race for trainer Don Gray, and I was in the test barn with that horse and Overskate. He wasn’t a big horse, and some said he weighed in at only 850 pounds. Most of it was heart.
The 7-time Canadian champion also won numerous graded stakes in the United States and set a new track record going 1 3/8-miles on the turf at Belmont Park in the Bowling Green Handicap.
Cigar in the midst of his 16-race winning streak at Belmont Park in 1995. (Barbara D. Livingston)
Cigar holds a special place in my heart, as I was able to cover him for a full week at the Breeders’ Cup in 1995, in the midst of his perfect season and his 16-race win streak. Trainer Bill Mott and his crew were especially kind to me, and on many mornings, I was the only reporter at the barn, so I got to know Cigar better than most outsiders.
I was standing by the walking ring outside Mott’s barn one morning with Cigar’s jockey Jerry Bailey and I asked him what it was like to ride such an incredible horse. Cigar was on the other side of the walking ring, about 50 yards away, when Bailey said, “Watch this.” “Hey buddy,” he called out to Cigar. Cigar stopped and looked right at him. They were brothers.
While Secretariat may have been the Bobby Orr of the breed and the most talented thoroughbred ever to look through a bridle, and Cigar might be considered a thoroughbred version of Sydney Crosby, Seattle Slew was probably the best horse I ever saw up close.
He was like a combination of 7-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady and Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor.
Taylor was described as one of the most feared and intimidating players in NFL history. His explosive speed and power is credited with changing the outside linebacker position from one of read-and-react to aggression and attack. (Wikipedia). Intimidating and explosive was Seattle Slew.
I was at the paddock on November 11, 1978, when Seattle Slew took on four rivals in the final start of his career, the Stuyvesant Handicap (G3) at Aqueduct. The only undefeated Triple Crown winner in history was heavily favoured to win, but he was sopping wet in the paddock, and he was acting like a crazy, fire-breathing dragon.
I thought, ‘how could he possibly win in that condition after expending so much of his physical and mental energy in the paddock.’ I bet against him. Mistake.
Slew took the lead out of the gate and never looked back. They were NEVER going to beat him. Seattle Slew won the first nine starts of his career including the Kentucky Derby (G1), Preakness (G1), and Belmont Stakes (G1), and finished his career with a record of 14-2-0 from 17 starts. When he lost, he had major excuses.
Seattle Slew winning the 1977 Kentucky Derby. (Tony Leonard)
In the Life and Death of Seattle Slew, Hall of Fame scribe Steve Haskin described Slew as “something wild and beautiful. On the track, he could be as swift and lethal as a falcon in a dive or soar as gracefully as an egret on gossamer wings. He was, in every sense of the word, a Thoroughbred.”
Many hardcore horse people, from breeders and bettors to jockeys and trainers, thought the performance that summed Seattle Slew up best was his neck loss to Exceller in the 1978 Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1), when he dueled fellow Triple Crown winner Affirmed into submission after a half mile in 45 1/5 and six furlongs in 1:09 2/5, opened up, was caught by Exceller late on the sweeping Belmont turn, dueled with that one to the sixteenth pole, appeared to be put away, and then came back gamely in the last 100 yards to lose by a neck. Read more here: Exceller, Seattle Slew Gold Cup Battle Among the Best Ever.
There were other special horses I was privileged to groom or spend time with while working for trainers like Woody Stephens, Charlie Whittingham, Allen Jerkens, and Roger Attfield, or writing about them. Champions, superstars, and graded stakes winners that included White Star Line, Terpsichorist, Sensational, Sir Lad, Inkerman, Balzac, Amazer, Devil His Due, Sky Beauty, and Peteski, but one stood out as the best of the best, for me.
Seattle Slew.
He could be your horse, too.