A candid Interview in April 2009 with Bill Turner conducted by Dennis Hogan
With thanks to Dennis Hogan

What made Slew the horse he was?

First of all, he was just made right. He had the conformation, he had the bone, and the mind that you find in a great athlete. And he had a burning determination to run. It didn’t make a difference whether it was in a race or whatever. He just wanted to go out there and go, to use himself. In races he was an absolutely formidable competitor because there was no quit in him. He was absolutely dominant, and that’s the way he was when he went to the breeding shed. Tom Wade was his groom at the breeding shed down at Three Chimneys. He said, talking about Silver Charm, and he was a good racehorse, he won 2 legs of the Triple Crown, he was a tough old horse. Well he went down there to Three Chimneys, and he was there for a week or so. And they have a big rotunda there, it’s a sort of a big round oval, and the studs are around the outside. And they have a walking area in the middle there and he (Tom Wade) was walking Slew around and he went over to Silver Charm’s stall, and Silver Charm was up at the gate and Slew just looked at him. Silver Charm went to the back of the stall and just stood there, and stayed there. Enough said. ‘I’m the boss hoss,’ and he let them all know that - and Slew was an old man then so…(laughs)

Of the 3 races, which was the most challenging?

"As a trainer my biggest concern was getting him under control enough so I could win the Belmont. I was worried about him not being settled enough to go a mile and a half. That’s what I always had in the back of my mind. Slew, he had so much energy, we would train him an hour a day - every day. In fact we trained him the morning after the Derby before we loaded him on the plane to ship him out just to get the energy out of him so he wouldn’t be too much to handle on that plane. "

“I was a little concerned that we would get him settled enough to run a good mile and a half. I trained him with that in mind the entire time, sure enough when all was said and done that wound up being the easiest race for him.”

On the Derby: “That was probably the greatest race he ever ran in that he broke last in the field because the assistant starter was just asleep at the switch and didn’t let him go right away, because he was afraid of him, because Slew was very intimidating,  so he broke crooked and Cruguet almost fell off of him, and he was last and by the time they run a quarter of a mile he was just sitting off the lead, so he figured he ran a first quarter in 22&2/5, and to finish it off going a mile and a quarter after running a first quarter like that in the Derby, it’s never happened before. For the Moment was in front of him for a bit so he sat off him for a ways and the rest is history. (he was a very powerful horse) Oh, very powerful and aggressive.”

You said that he had ‘the mind.’ Do you think that one of the keys to a great racehorse is intelligence?

Oh yeah. But the only thing about that is,…and he showed it in his offspring. Everybody would say that ““the Slews’, they’re so intelligent,”  but that can become a problem to a trainer in that when you’re dealing with a mind like that - you insult them and you won’t get any results.

(They’ll start outsmarting you?)

Well yeah, or they’re not going to do it your way. If you insult them they might just say, “Well  the hell with you!”  and they might just decide not to run. An interesting story along that line. A guy named Bob Duncan, he was a starter here, probably the best starter we’ve had in years. And he was a very, very good horseman. You know he had done his time in the stalls and he was an asst. starter when Slew was running and he handled him for a number of his races here in NY. And Slew was not an easy horse to handle in the gate because he had so much energy. And Bob told me one day, after he had been a starter over here for a while, he said, “ I learned how to handle  a good horse by handling Seattle Slew. The way you handle a good horse, and the way you handle the average horse that comes over here is entirely different.” And I thought that was interesting. And that’s why some people just can’t train a good horse. And a lot of good horses come along you never even knew they were there. Because people don’t know what they have so they don’t know how to treat them, and they don’t run for them.

Slew looked incredibly dominant in those 3 (the classic) races. Was he just that good or was it a great deal of work keeping him in that condition?

It was easy enough to keep him fit because he kept himself fit, because he was just a workaholic. The main thing that I had to do was not allow him to do too much. Horses are fragile, and you can’t let them overdo it because they’ll get leg problems, like any athlete will get leg problems if they do too much.

You said a horse can be mishandled and reject training. What would be an example of that?

Asking him to do too much on a given day, or if there was something wrong, he’s got a bruise on the foot or something like that, and he doesn’t seem too bad but still you take him out and ask him to do some work that he shouldn’t. Or he’s off his feed because he’s just not feeling well because he’s got a bug and you ask him to do some work and they don’t really want to, but you get after them anyway, or that type of thing. Well that’s an absolute no-no. Or you have a rider on him that can’t handle the horse and he (the horse) just gets mad at the rider, or a groom that doesn’t suit the horse because not every groom can rub every horse. So if it doesn’t work you have to change, and if you don’t change it can mean trouble with the horse.

Do you keep in touch with Jean Cruguet?

Oh yes. I see him at Saratoga every year and he usually comes through here once a year around Belmont time. He’ll be here around the Belmont (stakes).

Your career is forever linked to Slew. Has this been a blessing or a curse?

Oh, it’s a great blessing because, my gosh, how lucky was I to come across the kind of horse with that ability out of the blue.  But an interesting point is that if I had had a big stable of race horses I would have never trained that horse because one of the reasons I got him was that I had a small stable.

But they (the owners) didn’t know what they had, he was only $17,500?

Well not really. Jim Hill was helping the Taylors pick him out, and he knew what a racehorse was supposed to look like. He had it all there, the horse was just very immature, and he was a big dumpy colt, so he didn’t catch a lot of people’s eyes. He was the first foal out of a freshman sire. The mare had nothing to go by, and the sire had nothing to go by, so why should anybody pay a lot of money for a big dumpy looking colt (with untested pedigree)?

Wasn’t his conformation suspect? Reportedly his front hoof was turned out?

Well, both front legs were turned out. But that’s a fallacy too because when you have a big immature horse, a Thoroughbred, you want them turned out if they are going to develop a lot. Because when their shoulders develop and their muscles develop, there are gonna’ straighten out. He wasn’t turned out when he was in the breeding shed down there. (laughs).

I watched the Swaps and J.O. Tobin did a mile & a 1/4 in 1:58, an extremely fast time. Slew had his hands full that day?

Yes, but he had buried J.O. Tobin in the Preakness. But the thing is that Slew didn’t run. He never got out of a gallop.

Would you say that this was an example of what you were saying earlier about an intelligent horse being asked to do too much and as a result rejecting his task?

It’s a classic example. It’s exactly what I have been saying. You see, I’m working for a veterinarian who is part owner and the Taylors had no experience in the business. A veterinarian would go in and look at the horse and say that, “ he’s eating well, his legs are in good shape, he’s sound, there’s no reason he can’t run.”  But what they didn’t understand was that mentally the horse was exhausted. And if the mind isn’t there…if the mind is there he can be sore and he’ll  run well, but if the mind’s not there I don’t care how he’s doing, he’s just not gonna’ run. And you can’t always explain that to people..

If you could say something to Seattle Slew today - what would you tell him?

Thanks, Old man.

Seattle Slew's Maiden Win at Belmont