The key reason to call Seattle Slew a living legend is simplythat he's living. The legend part long since established, the great thoroughbred is now 28 and a survivor of two spinal operations.

        That swaybacked stallion grazing alone at Hill 'n' Dale, a 319-acre farm in Lexington, is the sport's only living Triple Crown champion — 25 years ago this spring — and oldest living Kentucky Derby winner.

        Thanks to a stroke of breeding genius by Northern Kentucky's Ben Castleman, an unremarkable foal bucked the odds to become arguably the greatest combination ever of a champion runner and prolific stud.

        “He was an unbelievable racehorse and an unbelievable sire,” said Mike Battaglia of Edgewood, the Derby's handicapper since 1975. “Seattle Slew had it all.”

        Racing in the 1970s, a decade that also produced Triple Crown winners in Secretariat (1973) and Affirmed (1978), Slew's racing achievements may not have seemed sublime. Yet time has served to illuminate his excellence. Affirmed was racing's last Triple Crown winner, and Slew remains the only horse to complete the three-race series — the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes — with an undefeated record.

SLEW OF WINNERS

Seattle Slew is one of racing's all-time great breeding stallions. He has sired 101 stakes winners, and his offspring have earned more than $75 million in purses. Here are some of his top offspring:   • A.P. Indy: 1992 Horse of the Year, winning Belmont Stakes and Breeders' Cup Classic. Totaled $2.98 million in winnings. Has sired 33 stakes winners; has $300,000 stud fee.   • Capote: Champion 2-year-old in 1986, winning Breeders' Cup Juvenile.   • Flute: Won 2001 Kentucky Oaks. Has totaled $1.1 million in winnings.   • Digression: Champion 2-year-old in England in 1989.   • Landaluce: Champion 2-year-old filly in 1982.   • Slew City Slew: Won 11 races, totaling $1.17 million in winnings.   • Slew O' Gold: Champion 3-year-old in 1983; champion older horse in 1984. Totaled $3.53 million in winnings.   • Surfside: Champion 3-year-old filly in 2000. Totaled $1.85 million in winnings.   • Swale: Champion 3-year-old in 1984, winning Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes. Totaled $1.58 million in winnings.

        He retired to a stud career that has produced 101 stakes winners. Slew's offspring have earned more than $75 million in purses.

        Not bad for a $17,500 yearling who emerged from a public auction to become the world's most valuable animal. Owners Mickey and Karen Taylor weighed offers as high as $12 million for their horse's syndication as a breeding stallion.

        “In the thoroughbred industry, you can't compare him to anything,” Mr. Taylor said. “He is absolutely amazing.”

        He's an old horse by anyone's standards, 90 or 100 in human years. Only one other Triple Crown winner lived longer: 1943 champ Count Fleet, who died at age 30.

        Slew underwent surgery two years ago for spinal cord compression and had his second such surgery 8 1/2 weeks ago to ease the pain of arthritis. He may not ever breed again.

        “That doesn't matter. What's important is just that he have a good life,” Mrs. Taylor said. “He's given everyone a good life.”

        Said Mr. Taylor: “Karen and I have been around this horse for 27 years. We don't have any children. He looks after us, and we look after him.”

        Slew's story started in 1973 with the late Mr. Castleman, who lived in Fort Mitchell. He had a mare named My Charmer that he raced at Turfway Park, then known as Latonia Race Track, and he contacted Claiborne Farm about who was available — and affordable — with whom she could mate.

        Bold Reasoning, a brand-new stallion just getting ready for his first breeding season, was recommended. The stud fee was $5,000 — a bargain at Claiborne, where stud fees of $25,000 or more were common.

        “He was looking for the right combination and he hit on it, and did so at a bargain price,” said son Polk Castleman, who lives outside of Richmond, Va.

        When the colt was a year old and up for auction, Mr. Castleman had decided to let the yearling go if he brought a bid of $15,000 or more. Otherwise, the breeder intended to keep him and race him with a partner from Cincinnati.

        Slew was an awkward-looking colt, and the Taylors, in conjunction with Jim and Sally Hill, bought him for $17,500 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky sales. The blue-chip auctions at Saratoga and Keeneland that summer were fetching average prices of $40,000 to $50,000. At Saratoga the previous week, a colt by Secretariat had gone for $550,000.

        “A lot of people said (in hindsight), "How could you sell that horse?' ” Polk Castleman said. “But he basically always sold his colts. The neatest thing was that he was never sorry he sold the horse. He was tickled to death for the success. It was the ultimate success for a breeder.”

        The Taylors, then both 30, were in their second season as horse owners. Mr. Hill was a racetrack veterinarian. Instead of putting Slew in the hands of a big-name trainer and jockey, the neophyte owners chose former steeplechase rider Billy Turner to train him and journeyman Jean Cruguet to ride him.

        Slew's first race was Sept. 20, 1976, at Saratoga, and he won by five lengths. The coming-out party was at the Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park, when he beat touted rival For the Moment by 9 3/4 lengths with the fastest mile ever run by a 2-year-old: 1:34 2/5.

        “With his speed, he was a mile horse,” Mr. Cruguet said. “The only reason he went farther (running Triple Crown distances) was the trainer. Any other trainer would have made him a sprinter.”

        In his Derby victory, Slew broke slowly and was trapped behind a wall of horses. But as Mr. Cruguet said, “He was either going to go through those horses or over them.” He pinballed through the field and won by nearly two lengths.

        Louisville writer Mike Barry, who missed only four Derbys between 1922 and 1991, called Seattle Slew “the most deserving winner” in the race's history.

        In the Preakness, Slew's time of 1:54 2/5 for the 1 3/16-mile race, identical to Secretariat's, was the second-fastest in the 102 years of the race. In the Belmont, cruising to a four-length triumph, Mr. Cruguet stood up in the stirrups 20 yards from the finish and waved his whip to the crowd.

        After the Belmont, the Slew Crew fell apart. The owners pressed for a quick follow-up race on the West Coast, in the Swap Stakes in early July, and Slew finished fourth — beaten by more than 16 lengths.

        Mr. Turner was fired that fall, replaced with relative unknown Doug Peterson, and Mr. Cruguet was replaced by Angel Cordero Jr. the following year. The Taylor-Hill partnership ended in a lawsuit, with the Hills receiving a financial settlement and the Taylors gaining the Hills' interest in Slew.

        Slew still kept winning big races. He twice faced Affirmed, the only meetings ever of Triple Crown winners, and Slew bested him both times.

        “Seattle Slew was a feisty, precocious, excitable horse,” said Steve Cauthen, the Walton native who rode Affirmed. “And that decade was a golden era for our sport.”

        Slew won 14 of 17 career races, earning $1,208,726 in purses. The public, captivated by his rags-to-riches tale, has never forgotten. To this day, Slew is showered with flowers, cards and visitors, and was even invited to be a guest at a wedding. Queen Elizabeth visited him twice in the 1980s.

        Slew commands a $300,000 stud fee, one of the top five in the industry. (Storm Cat is tops, at $500,000 per live foal). The average auction price for the 10 Slew colts sold at Keeneland last summer was $1.2 million.

        “He has a very special aura about him,” Mrs. Taylor said. “He had such heart, such power, such speed. He has given us so much. To be around him has been a privilege.”

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