A couple of things need to be kept in perspective when talking about Slew’s pedigree and purchase price.
His dam My Charmer was by a respected broodmare sire of the day. My Charmer won 6 races. Winning at 2 and 3, $34,113. Which doesn’t seem like a lot of money but converted using an inflation calculator that is $192,000 in “today’s dollars”. She won the Fairgrounds Oaks before the Grading system was in place. It was then as it is now a respected stakes race. The Fairgrounds Oaks is a Grade 2 race and the purse was $500,000 last year. Her dam was at the time a modest producer but was still young. In the end did not produce much of note. My Charmer’s third dame was a top notch race filly and Champion 2 year old. With plenty of family behind her.
His “low” purchase price of $17,500 was not exactly “low” in 1975. I don’t have what the sale averaged that year but I would bet it was around $7-10,000. Last year the average price for over 7,000 yearling sold at auction was around $60,000, converting that to 1975 dollars, $13,000. Slew purchase price in today’s dollars would be over $76,000. Not exactly a “bargain”.
Not as bad as the author of Sea Biscuit saying that he was bought for the “paltry” (her words) price of $7,500. $7,500 (over $126,000 today) in the mid 30s while the country was still recovering from the Great Depression for horse that had lost umpteen races was a huge price. The sellers laughed all the way to the bank. Though the buyer had the last laugh.
Slew’s sire Bold Reasoning won 2 important stakes, set a track record at Belmont and stood at the highly respected to this day Claiborne Farm. He only sired 3 crops having suffered a breeding shed accident. Slew being from his second. So he was an “unknown” commodity having nothing to race at the time. But given his connections and race record his get would have drawn attention. With Slew being from his second crop who knows what kind of stallion he may have become. A one hit wonder or the second coming and a “house hold name”.
Slew was not an ugly crooked legged yearling as is often written. He rotated, turned out in one leg which is seen in a lot of yearlings. More times than not as they grow and their chest fills out their legs come “back in”. I saw Slew many times at stud and IMO he was a very good looking horse that had his “faults” but nothing that any astute horseman would have problems with.
My father was a “principle” for many years in Fasig Tipton the auction company that sold him. The company had just set up “shop” in KY to compete with Keeneland. The sales pavilion hadn’t been built at the time and they sold out of a tent. The sale of Slew and several other high profile horses around that time put the company on solid footing in hard-boot country. My father said Slew was not an ugly yearling at all. A bit gangly and unfinished, going through an awkward stage. As the saying goes with anybody that has an eye for a horse, “I can see a nice horse in there”.
As with any stallion one never knows if they will hit or not. But Slew was a “BIG talking horse” and Leslie Combs (founder of Spendthrift) was still extremely well respected and held a good deal of “breeding power”. He like Claiborne had a lot of “broodmare power” in his pocket. Nothing guarantees a stallion’s success but getting top mares to them goes a LONG way. The rest as they say is history. No serious student of TB breeding would say that Slew was a “freak”. He was given every opportunity that very few get and he made the most of it. Pretty much right up to the day he was retired. He, Northern Dance and Mr. Prospector were modern day “breed changers”.
This is a link to his 2008 pedigree page. Keep in mind Slew was her first foal.
http://www.brisnet.com/cgi-bin/bris_link.cgi/public/SeattleSlew/SEATTLE+SLEW/1974/750.html
