It was nine o’clock in the morning on May 7, 2002—25 years to the day
since Seattle Slew’s historic victory in the Kentucky Derby. The great
Thoroughbred gave one final look at his devoted owners, Karen and
Mickey Taylor, who, as usual, were by his side, and with his eyes, he
let them know, as the Sioux warriors would say before going to battle,
“It is a good day to die.”
Then, with the same class and dignity
he displayed throughout his 28 years of life, he closed his eyes and
passed quietly away. Even in death, he did it with style. He knew no
other way. Seattle Slew was something wild and beautiful. On the track,
he could be as swift and lethal as a falcon in a dive or soar as
gracefully as an egret on gossamer wings. He was, in every sense of the
word, a Thoroughbred.
John Polston was one day shy of his 57th
birthday when he received a call from Karen Taylor, informing him that
the great horse he had rubbed for two years had died that morning.
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