Seattle Slew

Seattle Slew (February 15, 1974 – May 7, 2002) was a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse who became the tenth winner of the American Triple Crown (1977). He is one of only two horses to have won the Triple Crown while being undefeated in any previous race; the second was Justify who won the Triple Crown in 2018 and is descended from Seattle Slew. Seattle Slew was the 1977 Horse of the Year and a champion at ages two, three, and four. In the Blood-Horse magazine List of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century Seattle Slew was ranked ninth. Joe Hirsch of the Daily Racing Form wrote of Seattle Slew's three-year-old campaign: "Every time he ran he was an odds-on favorite, and the response to his presence on the racetrack, either for a morning workout or a major race, was electric. 'Slewmania' was a virulent and widespread condition." Seattle Slew later became an outstanding sire and broodmare sire, leading the North American sire list in 1984 when his son Swale won the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes. Another son, A.P. Indy, won the Belmont Stakes and continued the sire line through descendants such as Mineshaft, Tapit, and California Chrome. Background Seattle Slew was a dark bay horse with a small white patch of hair by his left rear hoof. He was bred by Ben S. Castleman, a Kentucky racing commissioner, and was foaled at White Horse Acres near Lexington, Kentucky. Seattle Slew was the first foal out of My Charmer, a stakes-winning daughter of the otherwise obscure sire Poker. My Charmer went on to produce the 2000 Guineas winner Lomond and Seattle Dancer, and several of her daughters became outstanding producers. My Charmer descends from champion and noted "blue hen" Myrtlewood. Castleman originally intended to breed My Charmer to Jacinto but that stallion's book was full so Seth Hancock of Claiborne Farm recommended the mare be bred instead to Bold Reasoning, a first-crop sire who had won the Jersey Derby and Withers Stakes in 1971. Bold Reasoning was a grand-son of Bold Ruler, whose descendants, including Secretariat, dominated the Kentucky Derby in the 1970s.