(By Avalyn Hunter)
Calling a horse a "breed-to-race sire" might be damning
him with faint praise in the commercial market. But for the small owner-breeder
looking for a reliable source of winners, there is no higher praise. In the
vocabulary of the latter, a breed-to-race sire represents value for the money
invested in a stud fee, promising soundness, honesty, and a good chance of
getting a horse able to earn its keep.
Few horses have fit that description better than the late
Slew City Slew, who died of old age April 3 at Airdrie Stud. While best known
as the sire of the popular and versatile California-based gelding Lava Man—the
first horse to win grade I races on dirt, turf, and synthetic surfaces—Slew
City Slew was a stallion for Everyman. To date, Slew City Slew has 931 foals of
racing age: 581 of those foals are winners and 55 are stakes winners. He could
get runners on any surface, out of just about anything. And every now and then,
he could come up with a horse with real class—all for a stud fee that peaked at
$6,000. In his final season 2011, his advertised fee was just $2,500.
A plain, workmanlike horse with the dark bay or brown coat
sported by so many of Seattle Slew's progeny, Slew City Slew was "just
plain folks" despite his regal heritage and his own racing talent, which
was enough to make him a multiple grade I winner in a career spanning four
seasons and 42 starts. As good-natured as he was tough and sound, he was about
as trustworthy as a stallion can be around farm visitors and children, making
him a valuable ambassador for his breed as well as an asset to it. That's about
as much as you can ask of any horse, and it is to be hoped that in his final
crops—his 2011 crop numbered 13 and he had at least one foal born in 2012—at
least one more runner will emerge who will do the "old man" proud and
keep the memory of an honest, hard-knocking racehorse and sire fresh and green.