Seattle Slew
For the only time in his career, Seattle Slew was not the favorite, going off at 2-1 compared to Affirmed at 1-2. Affirmed and Seattle Slew were both known as front-runners but Seattle Slew's new jockey Angel Cordero Jr. felt that Affirmed had benefited from setting slow early fractions in his early races. He sent Seattle Slew to the lead and completed the first quarter in an easy 24 seconds, then picked up the pace down the backstretch to complete the half-mile in 47 seconds with Affirmed two lengths behind. Rounding the final turn into the stretch, Cordero allowed Slew to swing wide. Affirmed came up on the inside, but Seattle Slew responded to beat Affirmed by three lengths, with the third-place horse a further five lengths back. He completed the distance of miles in a time of 1:45, just two-fifths of a second off the world record set by Secretariat in the 1973 Marlboro Cup.