GleamBlog

Eight days after he won the Belmont Stakes and established his value at about $25 million, Swale dropped dead yesterday morning.

The cause of death remained uncertain, even after pathologists conducted an autopsy in the afternoon. It was originally thought the colt had suffered a heart attack, but that "seems very unlikely at this time," said Dr. Helen Acland, a pathologist at the New Bolton Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

Acland said Swale's body parts would be sent to various laboratories for tests and analysis, including a histopathological test (microscopic examination of tissues) and a toxicology exam (to see if any foreign substances are present). Acland said the results of the tests would probably not be available for two weeks, and indicated that a definitive answer to what killed Swale is not assured.

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"We may never find the answer, just the same as with humans," she said. " . . . We have seen no evidence of foul play. That doesn't mean that it can necessarily be ruled out. But if so, we would expect to see a sign of an injection or something like that, and there was none. If that was done, it was done extremely subtly."

It is not known how much insurance his owners had on Swale, but it is believed to be at least $10 million. One of the colt's owners is William Haggin Perry of Middleburg, Va. He was not available for comment last night. The other owners were Seth Hancock, president of the famed Claiborne Farm in Paris, Ky., his sister Dell, Peter Brant and Edward Cox.

The colt had completed a routine 1 1/2-mile gallop around the Belmont Park track at Elmont, N.Y., and had returned to trainer Woody Stephens' barn. There, a groom had begun to sponge him off when, in Stephens' words, "He just sat back and went down."

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Swale died almost immediately, at 6:45 a.m. Within five minutes, three veterinarians had rushed to the barn, but there was nothing they could do.

"He seemed like he was in perfect health," Stephens said. "On the way back to the barn, he was very playful. He never showed any symptoms that anything was wrong. He never was sick a day in his life; he never had so much as an aspirin. We had him examined every time he raced--but this type of thing wouldn't show up in the regular examination."

Swale's victory in the Belmont had brought him to the peak of a checkered career.

The colt was bred by Claiborne Farm, but was not sold at auction as a yearling because Hancock was disgruntled by the prices his horses had commanded in recent years. Instead, Hancock formed a partnership that included Brant, Perry and Cox to race Claiborne-bred horses, and he never had reason to regret it.

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Swale was the country's second-ranked 2-year-old last season, when he was overshadowed by his more brilliant and more glamorous stablemate, Devil's Bag.

But while Devil's Bag was faltering this spring, Swale had clearly matured and improved. He won the Florida Derby with an impressive performance. Then, after a mediocre prep race, he won the Kentucky Derby by 3 1/4 lengths, the biggest winning margin in more than a decade.

Swale's bid for the Triple Crown was spoiled by his seventh-place finish in the Preakness, but he came back to win the Belmont by four lengths, leading all the way. That victory increased his career earnings to $1,583,662.

Stephens had planned to rest Swale for a fall campaign, with the rich Breeders' Cup as his main objective. If he had beaten older horses in that championship event, he might have been remembered as a genuinely great racehorse, but now he won't be.

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Swale was more erratic than a great horse ought to be. He accomplished his Derby and Belmont victories with the aid of near-perfect racing luck; the rivals he beat were an undistinguished lot. Nor did he run impressively fast.

Despite the shortcomings of his record, Swale was a very promising stud prospect. His own sire, Seattle Slew, is the most valuable stallion in the world, and Swale would have been the first of his stakes-winning sons to go to stud. After the Belmont, Hancock said he thought the colt could be syndicated for $25 million.

Swale would have returned home to Claiborne at the end of this year to start his stud career in 1985. Instead, his body will be sent there this week for burial.

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