BUDA WITH THE SLEW
Three Year Old Colt - DANZIG x SEATTLE SLEW x NIGHT INVADER
Owner / Trainer - CAPESIDE
RECORD: 2001: 16 / 5-1-1
LIFETIME EARNINGS: $3,192,231
2001 Stakes:
-
1st: Bluegrass Derby(G1), Middle Jewel(G1), The Santa Clara Derby(G1), Corkscrew Stakes(G1),
Buckeye Derby(G2)
2nd: Rantofan Handicap(G3)
3rd: Risen Star Stakes(G3)
4th: LA Derby(G1)
A CAREER OF FIRSTS
Buda With The Slew Repeats as Eclipse Champion
By- Afc
Flash back to 2000. The morning of November 4 dawned clear, cool and crisp. Activity stirred in Barn 39 before the crack of dawn. The handlers of Buda With The Slew roused their charge as the orange sun rose over the horizon. Nobody spoke. A quiet confidence hung in the air and was reinforced by the big bay, who pranced around with his neck bowed, snorting and pawing at the ground. Nothing needed to be spoken. They knew.
Knew well enough that one of the hotwalkers
reportedly made his way to the windows before the Breeder's Bowl Juvenile that
day and bet his entire bank account on Buda With The Slew in the race. He was
rewarded when Buda stormed down the stretch to win the then biggest race of his
life by a convincing four lengths. The hotwalker used some of the money to buy a
tuxedo and a ticket to attend the Eclipse award dinner some two and a half
months later, because he knew what was going to happen.
In a career lined with firsts and stellar
accomplishments, Buda With The Slew rewarded his handlers' confidence when he
trotted off into Sim history and the Hall of Fame with the Eclipse Award as
Champion Two Year Old Colt.
What nobody else could have known was that
this was only the beginning. What a ride it has been.
Fast forward to May 5, 2001. The morning again
dawned clear and crisp over Barn 39. Trainer capeside is a superstitious sort,
and had the big horse in the same barn, the same stall. Fed him the same meals.
Kept the routine as similar to the one he used in November, or as far as his
memory would allow. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
When Buda With The Slew once again rocketed
down the Kentucky stretch, in what was again the biggest race of his young life,
it seemed like deja vu. Once, maybe. But twice? You gotta be
kidding.
Well, nobody's kidding. When the Eclipse
Awards are doled out this year, the hotwalker (now a groom, thanks in large part
to Buda With The Slew) will again be there with his year old tuxedo, albeit a
bit wrinkled. Rumor has it that Team Buda has tried to coerce Yogi Berra
into attending the ceremony, since they've got this feeling that it's going to
be "like deja vu all over again." They just know.
Buda With The Slew is the Eclispe Award
Champion Three Year Old Colt for 2001. Hey, haven't we seen this
before?
It's something capeside won't ever tire of.
The four year old son of Danzig just keeps amazing his trainer. His feats will
be the stuff of sim legend for years to come, and rightfully so.
Buda With The Slew is the first Juvenile
champion to win the Bluegrass Derby. Now, he's the first ever to be a repeat
Eclipse Award winner. Is there an encore left in the tank?
"I don't know," said capeside. "The Triple
Jewel trail took a lot out of him. He hasn't been the same horse in a while. But
he's surprised me before. I like to keep positive. Right now, I want to savor
this moment."
Buda's long trek to the promised land began
with a few missteps. After the big win in the Juvenile, which propelled him to
his first Eclispe, he stumbled in California and took the rest of the year off.
He returned in the StarHandicapping.com stakes and was terribly dull, finishing
a well beaten seventh in a field he should have handled with ease. "It got me
thinking," recalled capeside, "that maybe the dirt wasn't for him. He ran so
well in the BB Juvenile, that you had to wonder whether he just freaked on that
particular day. So, after he got beat in New York, we decided to try him on
the grass. Not very conventional for a Triple Jewel horse."
But it almost worked. Demonstrating the
surface versatility Danzig offspring are famous for, Buda just missed after a
stirring stretch rally. All of which made capeside's head spin even faster.
"That race, the Rantofan Handicap, was almost as good as his Juvenile race. I
had to think, at that time, maybe he was better suited for turf than dirt. We
tossed about the idea of going to Epsom for the Darby. But, we thought we'd try
the dirt again first. It's everybody's dream to win the Bluegrass Derby, and
he'd done too much to give up on that off only a couple of races. We had a lot
of options."
Buda performed admirably in the Grade 3 Risen
Star Stakes in Louisiana in his next start. He was gobbling up ground at the
finish, losing by a diminishing three lengths. "He came out of that race
bouncing," said capeside. "It was almost like he didn't lose, he just ran out of
room at the end. That was it for me. After that, I was convinced that we should
take the Bluegrass Derby route after giving him a bit of time off."
A short breather was exactly what Buda With
The Slew needed. He came back with a stirring triumph in the Grade 1 Corkscrew
Stakes in Kentucky, closing like a rocket to win easily in a performance that
reminded everybody that this was the defending two year old champion. Buda was
back on the Derby trail in a big way.
Off to the sunny climes and sandy beaches of
California came next. In a workmanlike effort, Buda scored his second
consecutive Grade 1 triumph in the Santa Clara Derby. Now, there was little
doubt who the horse to beat in the Bluegrass Derby was.
"I've never had a horse come up to a big race
as well as Buda came into the Bluegrass Derby," recalled capeside. "He was just
monstrous. He was killing the exercise riders in the mornings. You couldn't
handle him in the shedrow. He was all over the place, snorting, bucking,
rearing, kicking. He was always a nicely muscled individual, but I remember him
then like it was yesterday. The ripples in his coat were awesome. And he just
shined, like you had coated him with oil, every time he stepped out into the
sun. I was scared to death, because I knew what I had, and I was aware that the
only thing that would get him beat in Kentucky was me."
Not even capeside could hold Buda back in the
Derby. A scary incident had the trainer on edge in the final days leading up to
the big race. Buda was being his usual rambunctious self on the track the
Wednesday before the race when he went out for his final pre-race blowout.
Suddenly, he reared up on his hind legs, tossed the exercise jockey, and flipped
right over. capeside was stunned. "My first thought was, 'oh sh&^!'. We took
him right back to the barn after we got him settled down, and he had a sizable
bruise on his right fore where he had belted himself pretty good when he
flipped. I was beside myself. So close, and now this? But, we iced him down
overnight, and by Thursday morning, it was barely noticable. We took him back
out, and he fired off five furlongs in 58 and change. I knew then that we would
be fine. But that was a helluva scare. We didn't tell anybody, and we held it
back from the press- you covered him for the Derby, and you didn't even know
about it. I think I aged about five years in two days."
Nothing can restore a man's youth like the
Bluegrass Derby. It's the place where dreams come true for a select few. Men in
wheelchairs have been seen dancing in the aisles after the Derby. And on a
beautiful spring Kentucky day, the likes of which seem to only happen on the
first Saturday in May in the Bluegrass state, Buda was about to take his
somewhat disheveld trainer to the fountain of youth.
"I was confident, but you never know. There's
all this stuff about the Juvenile hex, the first time at a mile and a quarter
and how some horses just get smacked between the eyes by the quarter pole, all
that garbage to deal with. Then there's the field. 20? That's unreal. It's like
a cavalry charge out of the gate, and that's only your first problem. You get
bumped and bothered for the first half mile. Sometimes you get slammed. It's
almost impossible to get a good trip. Horses are moving up, falling back,
stopping, weaving the whole damn race. I've never been associated with a race
that takes as much luck as it does quality of the animal to win as does the
Bluegrass Derby. It rips your heart out, then gives it back to you a thousand
times over. It's almost surreal," mused capeside.
Fortunately, by this time, veteran jockey Mike
Dorsey knew Buda With The Slew as well as anyone. Dorsey is one of the keenest
minds you'll ever find on the back of a horse, and he's got, as they say,
wonderful hands. Horses work magic in the hands of Mike Dorsey, trainers like to
say. Maybe it's the other way around. Maybe Mike Dorsey uses his hands to work
magic on horses.
"My job with Buda was simple," Dorsey
explained matter of factly. "Don't do anything stupid, and keep him out of
trouble. He's an easy horse to ride. He's not stubborn, and he doesn't get
rank. He knows how to play the game. He's not one of those who has to
have the lead, and he's not lazy like some who wind up in another zip code after
a half mile. Buda goes out there and does his thing, and lets me make my move
when I want to. Perfectly tractable. Perfect temperment. And he's pretty much
push button."
Mike Dorsey pushed the button nearing the far
turn in the Bluegrass Derby, and the response was devastating. Buda circled
seven horses around the far turn, but still found himself four lengths back at
the top of the stretch. "I wasn't worried," Dorsey recalled. "I knew we had
another gear." Dorsey shifted Buda into overdrive at the top of the lane and he
gobbled up ground, drawing away to a three and a half length win that would
propel him into Sim history.
"It's an eerie feeling," capeside remembered.
"It's like you're floating. There's this deafening roar of some 150,000 people,
but you can't hear anything. You feel your heart pounding, because you
know that this is your moment. You know it's the horse's
moment. I've never been so proud in my life."
With his third consecutive facile Grade 1 win,
Buda With The Slew had the sim faithful thinking the unthinkable. This was Ali
in his prime. This was the 1960's Packers. This was Ruth at the plate, in his
house, motioning to the fences with his bat. The immovable object, the
unstoppable force. Triple Jewel.
The fateful day of May 19 finished up as
scripted. Another win for Buda With The Slew, another Jewel in the holster, the
fourth consecutive Grade 1 win. Just another day at the office,
right?
Wrong. "Buda had to work for that win in the
Middle Jewel Stakes like he never had to work before. He usually puts horses
away in mid stretch and coasts under the line. But that day, he gave his life
out there. He showed what a huge heart he had. And I think it cost him dearly,"
capeside mused.
Dorsey concurs with the trainer. "It was
tough, the Middle Jewel. Dirty Mat just wouldn't give it up.
Buda was giving me everything he had, and it turned out to be just enough. In
hindsight, maybe it was too much."
In a stretch duel not to be soon forgotten,
Dorsey pummeled Buda With The Slew some 20 times to just get up over Dirty Mat
in the final strides of the Middle Jewel Stakes. Every one of those 20 cracks
with the whip was needed to overcome a dead game challenge to Buda's throne of
supremacy. "I could hear him groaning in the final strides," said Dorsey. "I've
never had a horse do that, never had one put up such a superhuman effort like
that. But that's what makes the great ones great. Sometimes, it's also what
hurts them. But it's a difficult spot to be in. We don't play this game to lose.
Nobody remembers who finishes second. First place is the only thing that
matters. Second place is first loser."
In perhaps the gamest performance of his
career, Buda had put the second Jewel in his impressive collection. But it came
at a sizable cost.
"He was just dead after the Middle Jewel,"
stated capeside. "He came back blowing like a freight train, and he wouldn't
touch his feed for two days. The luster went out of his coat. His hair started
to fall out. He'd given his all."
capeside originally had planned to skip the
New Yorker, the final Jewel. "But you can't imagine the pressure," he stated.
"It's like carrying a 500 pound weight around with you every single day. Here
you are, sitting on a chance to make history, a once in a lifetime chance. It
will never come again, never. So you're put into this awful spot.
Everybody looks at you like you're from Mars or something, 'what do you mean
you're not running in the New Yorker? You have to! Do you know what
you're dealing with?' If I heard that once, I heard it a thousand times. It's
overwhelming."
So, after giving Buda a week off, he shipped
to the Big Oval to prepare for his date with destiny. The preparations were not
good. "He wouldn't get into the bridle for his works. He had to be pushed to
run. He had never done that before. Where there was once eagerness was now
reluctance. He was telling me something, and I tuned it out because of the
expectations. Never again."
Buda was never in the hunt in the New Yorker.
He put in a dull effort, and the dreams of a Triple Jewel winner evaporated
midway down the backstretch when the horse with the biggest of hearts had no
more left to give. He returned to score impressively about five weeks later in
the Grade 2 Buckeye Derby, but has fallen on difficult times since
then.
Buda With The Slew's legacy lives on, though.
The fact of the matter is that no three year old colt- not a single one- could
come close to duplicating the glorious run that took him to heights seldom seen
by any other horse.
"I'm very, very proud of what he's
accomplished, capeside explained. "His last few months have been tough,
but that's the nature of the game. You know, champions in all walks of life
go through adversity. How well they handle adversity determines their true
greatness. I have no doubt that Buda With The Slew will be back in a big way. He
is a champion, and he's proved it time and time again. What he's going
through reminds of that old song, The Boxer. You know, you take your
knocks and you keep on going. You stand tall and be proud of what you've done.
And I am proud of Buda, and I will stand tall when I accept the Eclipse
for him. He's as deserving as they come."
In the clearing stands a boxer, and a
fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders of every
punch
That laid him down and cut
him
Till he cried out in his anger and his
pain
'I am leaving, I am
leaving'
But the fighter still
remains.
Buda With The Slew will be the last one
standing at the Eclispe Awards this week. A true warrior, deserving of the
accolades and admiration that go with his numerous triumphs. The first, and to
this point, only winner of back to back Eclipse Awards.
You just know he'll be
back. With the same certainty that you know that groom with
the wrinkled tuxedo will be back with him.
Buda With The Slew. The Eclipse Award Champion
Three Year Old Colt for 2001.
Buda With The Slew. The first and
only repeat Eclipse champion. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't
it?
Past Performances:
Buda With The Slew's Past Performances
| BUDA WITH THE SLEW | ID# | ( - - - - ) |
| capeside | 4 Year Old Colt | (DANZIG x SEATTLE SLEW x NIGHT INVADER) |
| Divisional Ranking: | 3 | Races | Wins | Places | Shows | Earnings | |||
| Low Tag/Year: | N/A | Total | 24 | 9 | 1 | 5 | $3,192,231 | ||
| Non M/C/O/S Wins: | 8 | Dirt | 15 | 6 | 0 | 3 | $2,828,616 | ||
| Turf | 9 | 3 | 1 | 2 | $363,615 | ||||
| Routes | 22 | 8 | 1 | 4 | $3,159,395 | ||||
| Sprints | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | $32,836 |
Past Performances:
| Race ID | Trk | RST | S | D | Race | Time | SP# | # | PP | C1 | C2 | C3 | FIN | Jockey | Odds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1243.3307 | E1 | 3yo | T | 10 | Alw-56500 | 2:02 1/5 | 87 | 8 | 1 | 7 6-3/4 | 7 10-1/2 | 5 9-1/2 | 4 20-3/4 | C Roadcap | 1.40 |
| 1201.5514 | A3 | 3yo | T | 12 | 
-G1 |
90 | 14 | 14 | 11 6 | 10 9-1/4 | 11 7-3/4 | 10 17-3/4 | Y Carpenter | 3.40 | |
| 1187.4015 | NC | 3yo | D | 10 |  --
Owner Restricted -Alw |
2:03 | 87 | 13 | 2 | 10 8-3/4 | 10 14 | 10 16-1/4 | 9 14-3/4 | M Durham | 3.10 |
| 1166.0514 | LA | 3yo | D | 10 | LA Derby -G1 | 2:01 2/5 | 107 | 13 | 12 | 7 6-1/2 | 6 9-1/2 | 3 6 | 4 6 | P Davidson | 4.40 |
| 1145.2815 | OT | 3yo+ | T | 8 | Canada Mile -G1 | 1:33 3/5 | 104 | 14 | 11 | 13 8 | 13 12-1/2 | 14 14-1/4 | 8 14-1/4 | K Cogswell | 16.80 |
| 1131.0106 | CA | 3yo+ | D | 10 | CA Classic -G1 | 2:01 4/5 | 97 | 14 | 4 | 10 8-1/4 | 10 13 | 10 14-3/4 | 9 13-1/2 | M Dorsey | 10.20 |
| 1103.0315 | KY | 3yo | D | 9 | It's My Birthday And I'll Cry If I Want To Stakes -G1 | 1:47 3/5 | 107 | 12 | 6 | 12 9-1/4 | 11 14 | 10 12-3/4 | 5 8-1/2 | N Cohen | 3.70 |
| 1089.1114 | OH | 3yo | D | 9 | Buckeye Derby -G2 | 1:48 3/5 | 110 | 14 | 3 | 11 5-1/2 | 11 7-3/4 | 2 3-3/4 | 1 5-1/2 | O Smith | 3.40 |
| 1054.0415 | NY | 3yo | D | 12 | The New Yorker -G1 | 2:30 4/5 | 91 | 14 | 7 | 8 7 | 8 11-3/4 | 8 16-1/2 | 8 21-1/4 | M Dorsey | 3.50 |
| 1033.0815 | MD | 3yo | D | 9.5 | Middle Jewel Stakes -G1 | 1:54 4/5 | 111 | 14 | 7 | 7 4-3/4 | 7 6-1/2 | 2 2-1/4 | 1 1/4 | M Dorsey | 4.70 |
| 1019.0315 | KY | 3yo | D | 10 | Bluegrass Derby -G1 | 2:02 2/5 | 106 | 20 | 10 | 9 5 | 9 7-1/4 | 2 4 | 1 3-1/2 | M Dorsey | 8.00 |
| 991.0115 | CA | 3yo | D | 9 | The Santa Clara Derby -G1 | 1:49 1/5 | 103 | 12 | 6 | 8 4 | 7 5 | 3 2-1/2 | 1 1-1/2 | M Dorsey | 2.50 |
| 977.0315 | KY | 3yo | D | 9 | Corkscrew Stakes -G1 | 1:49 | 105 | 12 | 9 | 10 7 | 8 10-1/4 | 2 5-3/4 | 1 4-3/4 | R Ellison | 2.70 |
| 942.0514 | LA | 3yo | D | 8.5 | Risen Star Stakes -G3 | 1:42 4/5 | 99 | 11 | 2 | 8 5-1/4 | 8 7-1/2 | 6 6 | 3 3-1/4 | A Baldinger | 2.30 |
| 928.3113 | OK | 3yo | T | 8.5 | Rantofan Handicap -G3 | 1:42 3/5 | 105 | 12 | 9 | 7 5 | 7 7-1/2 | 3 5 | 2 3/4 | G Alexander | 2.90 |
| 914.0412 | NY | 3yo | D | 8.5 | StarHandicapping.com Stakes -G2 | 1:42 4/5 | 90 | 12 | 7 | 8 6 | 8 9-1/2 | 8 10-1/2 | 7 10-3/4 | P Lewis | 4.00 |