Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew is being removed from stallion service in central Kentucky indefinitely and his return, if ever, to service will depend upon what is in the best interests of the horse, according to a press release by Three Chimneys Farm owner Robert N. Clay on behalf of stallion manager Mickey Taylor and syndicate members. Barrie Grant, DVM, Dipl. ACVS, of San Luis Rey Equine Hospital in Bonsall, Calif., who performed a neurological examination on Seattle Slew yesterday at the farm, will head the team that will perform an anterior inter-body fusion on the horse’s neck vertebrae scheduled for this week.

Seattle Slew, 28, was taken yesterday to Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital near Lexington for X rays and a myelogram. He was found to have further spinal cord compression due to arthritic changes in the vertebrae. The compression is at a site other than where the anterior inter-body fusion was performed two years ago. An examination of that area showed the Bagby basket fusion around vertebrae No. 6 and 7 to be functioning properly. Seattle Slew now is troubled by compression between vertebrae No, 4 and 5 and between No. 5 and 6. A Bagby basket will be inserted. around each of the two problems areas.

Seattle Slew is the only living winner of the Triple Crown (1977).

Grant said that the minimum recovery time from surgery of this sort is six to eight weeks. Seattle Slew currently is back at Three Chimneys near Lexington