2002 Eclipse Award Champion Two-Year-Old Male
Vindication was a brilliant unbeaten two year old who looked like he might be the next Seattle Slew, only to have his career end before it really got started. He was foaled in 2000, a son of the great Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew out of the mare Strawberry Reason. He raced for Padua Stables, the operation of Indian software entrepreneur Satish Sanan, and he was trained by Bob Baffert. The connection to his legendary sire gave the colt extra meaning, since Seattle Slew was nearing the end of his life when his son made it to the racetrack.
Vindication never lost a race. He swept his four starts as a two year old in 2002, capping the year with a powerful win in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Arlington Park. With Jerry Bailey in the saddle, he rolled home an impressive winner over a strong field of fellow juveniles. The performance earned him the 2002 Eclipse Award as Champion 2-Year-Old Male and put him on the early radar as a future Kentucky Derby favorite. Racing fans dreamed of watching another son of Seattle Slew chase the Triple Crown.
Sadly, that dream never came true. Vindication suffered a chip in his knee during training the next spring and never raced as a three year old. Bob Baffert and his connections retired him to stud at Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky, joining other top stallions on that famous bluegrass nursery. He happened to be the last major graded stakes winner sired by Seattle Slew, who passed away on the 25th anniversary of his Kentucky Derby in 2002 not long after Vindication's Breeders' Cup victory. The connection added a bittersweet note to the colt's career.
Vindication had a few productive years at stud, siring a number of useful stakes runners before he too was lost much too soon. He died at just eight years of age from complications of laminitis, ending his stallion career early. Vindication is remembered as a perfect record juvenile champion, the last great racehorse son of Seattle Slew, and a colt whose enormous promise was only partly fulfilled before fate intervened. Bob Baffert has trained many champions, but few he wished could have raced longer than Vindication.
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