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I'm stealing that from the headline in the LA Times the following day; "J.O. Tobin and Shoe Slay the Slew." Awesome race by J.O. Tobin, the English 2-year-old champ of 1976, with Bill Shoemaker aboard at Hollywood Park. This is the legendary Harry Henson on the call. J.O Tobin ran the 10 furlongs in 1:58 3/5, missing the world record by only 2/5. J.O. Tobin ran in the Preakness, finishing 5 lengths behind Seattle Slew, but skipped the Derby and strangely the Belmont. This is the one major black mark on Slew's career, his first loss after 9 wins. It was run on July 3, 1977, just 22 days after the Belmont win. The ease of that race may have fooled Slew's owners into thinking he was indestructible and didn't need the standard long rest. There is no write up on this race at Seattle Slew dot com, which is strange. I'd be interested to see what the Taylors had to say. Slew had no real excuse, other than no reason to be there. Cruguet had to check a bit after a half mile but that certainly had no bearing on the outcome. I remember going on vacation with my parents just a few days after Slew's Belmont. The announced plans for him were a long break. Then I picked up a paper a week or so later and all of a sudden Slew was headed to California. Big mistake. It was a major event, dollars and otherwise, and almost like a circus atmosphere, but a monumental strategic gaffe. I listened to this race on radio late in the afternoon at a campground in Fresno, surprised by the margin but not the result. The great Jim Murray wrote in the LA Times a day later, "Secretariat wouldn't get beat 16 lengths by a train." I'm a huge Slew fan but even I got a laugh out of that one. If Slew had died of the virus, this would have been his final race, and he would have been severely underrated, minus the fall '78 comeback races.