Landaluce: The Story of Seattle Slew's First Champion

by Mary Perdue, Jon White (Foreword by)

Overview

When Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew retired from racing in 1978 to stand at stud at Spendthrift Farm, no one could be certain he would be a successful sire. But just four years later, his dark bay daughter Landaluce won the Hollywood Lassie Stakes by twenty-one lengths—a margin of victory that remains the largest ever in any race by a two-year-old at Hollywood Park. California horse racing had a new superstar, and Slew was launched on a stud career that would make him one of the most influential sires in North America. Like her father, Landaluce soon became a national celebrity, and was poised to become the next American super-horse. But those dreams ended when the two-year-old died in her stall at Santa Anita four months later, the victim of a swift and mysterious illness. Today, with her "I Love Luce" bumper stickers long gone, the filly has been largely forgotten.

In Landaluce: The Story of Seattle Slew's First Champion, Mary Perdue tells the story of a horse whose short but meteoric career could have changed racing history forever. Sparking comparisons to Ruffian, Landaluce helped elevate California horse racing to the national stage and could have been the first filly to ever win the Triple Crown. In telling this story, Perdue explores the lives and careers of Landaluce's breeders, owners, and trainer, D. Wayne Lukas, as well as her famous sire Seattle Slew—and shows not only how one filly captured the imagination of racing fans across the country, but also set the stage for another filly turned super-horse, Zenyatta, in the decades to come.

Find out more at landalucebook.com

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813195537
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	07/12/2022
Series:	Horses in History
Pages:	346
Sales rank:	420,235
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.15(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Mary Perdue is a freelance turf writer and a winner of the Equus WINNIE award.

Table of Contents

1. Prologue
2. Chapter One: Leslie and Myrtlewood
3. Chapter Two: Cambridge Stables and the Spendthrift Connection
4. Chapter Three: Seattle Slew Day
5. Chapter Four: Slew In the Shed
6. Chapter Five: April 11, 1980
7. Chapter Six: Growing Up
8. Chapter Seven: Wayne and Terlingua
9. Chapter Eight: Thoroughbreds All the Way
10. Chapter Nine: One Bay Filly
11. Chapter Ten: Stalwart Hopes
12. Chapter Eleven: Good From the Beginning
13. Chapter Twelve: "She Just Went"
14. Chapter Thirteen: Her Sister's Shoes
15. Chapter Fourteen: Miss California Becomes Miss America
16. Chapter Fifteen: Pleasant Surprise
17. Chapter Sixteen: Making the Grade
18. Chapter Seventeen: Hurray for Hollywood
19. Chapter Eighteen: Starlet
20. Chapter Nineteen: Last Race
21. Chapter Twenty: Grieving
22. Chapter Twenty-One: Getting Through
23. Chapter Twenty-Two: Futurity
24. Chapter Twenty-Three: Eclipse
25. Chapter Twenty-Four: Legacy
26. Chapter Twenty-Five: Forever a Champion
27. Epilogue

Editorial Reviews

As the West Coast version of Ruffian, Landaluce deserves a full-throated telling of her story. Mary Perdue is up to the challenge, providing us with the tale of the transcendent filly's feats and the inner feelings of her human connections. A sensitive and well-researched presentation of the heights and tragedy that accompany great Thoroughbreds.

Lenny Shulman

Fame can be fleeting, even for an Eclipse Award winner like Landaluce. The first Eclipse Award winner sired by Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew and the first conditioned by Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, Landaluce drew comparisons with the indomitable Ruffian before her racing career was cut short by a fatal illness at the end of her two-year-old season. Mary Perdue, a skilled writer and one of Landaluce's most loyal fans, weaves the filly's perfect juvenile season into a rich narrative that brings her breeder, owners, and trainer to life. Landaluce: The Story of Seattle Slew's First Champion is a great read and a worthy tribute to the best filly of her generation.

Milt Toby

I always thought I knew the Landaluce story but after reading Mary Perdue's captivating account of how Landaluce came to be—and then became a Champion—I realized that I knew almost nothing about her and the people who surrounded her. Perdue's character development of people I already knew was both spot on and insightful. I found myself learning new and interesting details about people I had either known for years or heard of forever. If you're like me, you'll read the story because you like horse racing or know one or more of the people who are portrayed but you'll walk away feeling enriched and enlightened by a great story, well told.

Donna Brothers

In an all too brief but brilliant career, Landaluce wowed crowds every second she spent on a racetrack. Felled suddenly by illness, this filly left a lasting impression on all those who saw her race and Mary Perdue's chronicle of her short life will do the same. Readers will relish every page as racegoers relished every time they got to see this great filly run.

Jennifer S. Kelly

There is no more powerful force in racing than the promise of greatness, and no racehorse in history promised more than Landaluce, the filly who won her first five starts by a breathtaking 46 lengths and evoked comparisons to the best runners in history. Here, author Mary Perdue takes readers on a riveting journey not just through Landaluce's two years on earth, but across decades of horse racing history, from the Great Depression to the 1980s, from Kentucky to California, from breeding shed to euthanasia. The great Landaluce was sui generis, but her story is all too familiar: brilliance teased, ending in tragedy. Perdue's work centers on one horse, but taps racing's every vein—it is essential reading for fans of the sport.

Tim Layden

One of the more difficult things to achieve as an author is to take a life and career cut way short and stretch it into a full-length book, Although the brilliant Landaluce raced only five times before her tragic death, Mary Perdue has been able to tell her story in great detail and keep the reader enthralled throughout. Although it does not have a feel-good ending, it is a feel-good story about a filly who was destined to become one of the greats of all time and the people who guided her up to and through her meteoric rise. Perdue does them all proud.

Steve Haskin

Landaluce gave life to William Cullen Bryant's reverence for a 'rose that lives its little hour.' Now author Mary Perdue has delved into the life of this flying, but tragic, filly, with diligent research. Thanks to her artful prose, an unbeaten and compelling race horse in 1982 is again a figure to cheer, to admire, to savor. 

Edward L. Bowen