| This excellent race is already on YouTube, courtesy of cf1970. I'm posting this version because it includes the additional footage of Seattle Slew breaking through the starting gate before the race. It also includes extra coverage at the end of the race, including a slow motion replay of the final sixteenth. After breaking through the gate, Slew didn't go nearly as far down the track as my stunned memory from 1978. Still, it would be hard to spin it as a positive, especially in a race that was decided by inches. Nice athletic job by Cordero to reign in Slew, especially after he reared. I wonder if the unnerving delay of nearly a minute contributed to the frantic pace, by Slew and Affirmed along with rabbit Life's Hope? Someone on another site tried to claim the speed figure on this race was poor. That sounds preposterous to me. The final time was 2:27 1/5. You can see it was hardly an ideal dry and fast track. Check out the surface when Slew is being brought around and reloaded. Andrew Beyer wrote in his post race article that the time was "excellent." The fractions themselves are intriguing. After the masochistic 1:09 2/5, the next quarter plummeted all the way to :26 flat. The horses in front were spent and Cordero was obviously trying to give Slew a breather, worried about Affirmed. If you look at the tape, Cordero looks to his inside entering the top of the stretch and sees Exceller and Shoemaker flying at him. Only then does he noticeably urge Slew, and the two ... |
