Seattle Slew takes the Kentucky Derby on his way to winning horse racing's Triple Crown and ultimately, America's heart. Endorsements piled up. Fast women with a hunger for celebrity stalked him at every turn. And it seemed he couldn't walk a block without someone offering him a drink and a snort. When you're a champion, everybody loves you. Everybody, it seemed, except the beloved celebrEquine himself.
His slide was fast and severe. After two weeks of abysmal ratings, CBS cancelled his weekly variety show. Two weeks after that Buick dropped its endorsement deal when sexually explicit photos taken of the horse and Mick Jagger at Studio 54 were leaked. He cycled in and out of treatment and rehab facilities in an attempt to exorcise the demons and get himself clean. In his final days, friends said he seemed changed. Ready to reclaim the glory, he had scheduled a series of minor circuit races to get himself in shape for another run at the Triple Crown. And then, tragedy: 3 days after winning the Kenosha Cup - his first taste of victory in over a year - Tatum O'Neil found him unresponsive on the bathroom floor of a Hollywood Blvd. motel room. Seattle Slew was pronounced dead later that day, forever a lesson on the trappings of fame.
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