Among the scraps of paper that comprise the evidence of a rewarding career are three $2 win tickets purchased in the span of five weeks during the spring of 1977.

They are souvenirs of a rollicking Triple Crown journey, the author's first, from Kentucky to Maryland to New York. Uncashed, they are worth considerably more than they were at the mutuel windows, because Seattle Slew not only was a sentimental favorite, but also the odds-on choice in all the races that certified his legend.

TWO DECADES LATER, THE lone horse to win the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes while undefeated still is a physical marvel. Although Slew is retired to stud at Three Chimneys Farm outside Lexington, his is not a sedentary life. During former trainer Billy Turner's most recent visit, the horse galloped two miles.

"He didn't do well in the breeding shed until they exercised him," Turner said Monday. "He was born to run. Put the tack on him and he performs." The fruits of his labor include A.P. Indy, Swale, Slew O'Gold, Capote and Landaluce.

Slew was one of three extraordinary thoroughbreds in the 1970s -- following the incandescent Secretariat and preceding by one year the resourceful Affirmed -- to win the Triple Crown. A sweep of the demanding races hasn't been achieved since. Silver Charm has a chance to join the roll call of four-legged immortals Saturday when he goes to the starting gate at Belmont Park, a fitting manner in which to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Slew's achievement.

SEATTLE SLEW'S POPULARITY WAS not merely a matter of talent but of circumstance. He was sold at the 1975 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky summer sales for the bargain-basement price of $17,500 to a young Washington couple who bought their first racehorse only two years earlier. He was trained by Turner, a former steeplechase rider who never had handled a championship horse. He was ridden by Jean Cruguet, a journeyman of suspect skill never previously entrusted with a mount of such potential.

Along with veterinarian Jim Hill, who picked the horse for the Taylors at auction and turned out to be a quiet partner in the transaction, they formed the Slew Crew.

"Slew's become a people's horse," Karen Taylor said a few days before he made his first start as a 3-year-old in a 7-furlong allowance at Hialeah. He finished first and then won the Flamingo Stakes and the Wood Memorial handily.

By the time he reached Churchill Downs, he was an equine celebrity.

HE WAS THE RESULT OF A union between Bold Reasoning and My Charmer. A stakes-winning grandson of Bold Ruler, Bold Reasoning died 11 months later following a breeding-shed accident. Slew was My Charmer's first foal. The Fasig-Tipton sale where he was presented on July 19, 1975, was an inexpensive alternative to the prestigious Keeneland Sales.

"The weather was bad that day," Mickey Taylor remembered two years later. "People were leaving and not coming back. Some people were getting stuck in the parking lot. We bought four horses that day and Slew is the only one we kept."

Hill introduced the Taylors to Turner, a quiet, intense man with a wry sense of humor. "I knew I had a horse with phenomenal ability," Turner recalled. "My job was to teach him to control his energy and get him out there healthy on race day." He took no chances.

WHEN SLEW KICKED HIS STALL at Saratoga, Turner pushed back the start of his juvenile campaign until the fall. The horse had three races at Belmont and won them all, including a 9-length romp in the Champagne. Still, the trainer was criticized in some quarters for shipping Slew to Churchill Downs with a lifetime resume of six starts.

"I think most people beat up their horses before the classics," Hill countered. "It's not necessary."

Turner's mentor, Horatio Luro, had counseled against "squeezing the lemon" and the 37-year-old trainer was careful not to ask anything more than necessary of Slew. In Louisville, the public apparently agreed with the approach. They bet the horse down to 1-2 and were rewarded with a comfortable victory. That only increased the pressure on Turner, who rubbed his hands together vigorously enough to start a fire and said, "The plot thickens."

AFTER SADDLING SLEW AT THE Derby, he had bolted for parts unknown somewhere inside Churchill Downs. I was determined to follow him at Pimlico. He proceeded through the paddock and into the clubhouse, then weaved in and out of traffic to a bar at the far end of the vast room.

"A double vodka and tonic," he said, slapping his money on the counter. The conditioner of the 2-5 favorite then turned around and watched his horse win the Preakness on a television monitor. The bettors who recognized him became the first to shake his hand.

Clearly, Turner was the people's trainer.

The hype at Belmont Park was smothering and Turner retreated to Esposito's, the nearby tavern that he identified as his office. Two days before the Belmont, he recounted a visit by artist Leroy Neiman, who slid a canvas into Slew's stall to gather hoofprints. "He said, 'Marvelous, marvelous,' " noted the trainer. "I came over here and had a drink."

At Esposito's, it was traditional to paint the fence outside in the colors of the Belmont winner. For Slew, they performed the ceremony six days before the race. The tavern was party central throughout that memorable week.

"Before he goes to Kentucky, my mother tells him, 'Billy, he must be a big horse,' " said John Esposito, the proprietor whose death last winter leaves a void. "Billy said, 'Why do you say that, Mom?' She said, 'Because he carries so many people.' "

HE CARRIED THEM ALL THE WAY to a Triple Crown. In fact, his only difficulty in the Belmont Stakes was getting to the paddock. Starting from distant Barn 54, he arrived so late that officials had to set back post time by five minutes. The holdup was the glut of cars in the stable area, residue of the second-largest crowd in the history of the race: 71,026.

"He was the people's horse," Turner said Monday. "He made the world realize anyone could go out and buy a horse that could win it all."

This anyone had to settle for win tickets on the horse that won it all, tickets that represent fond memories.

Joe Gergen is a sports columnist for Newsday.

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