Churchill Downs hosts the Breeders' Cup again this weekend - 19 years on from Arazi's stunning win there in the Juvenile.
Boutin's flying machine the greatest of them all
When Frankel, Dream Ahead and Saamidd went head to head in this year's Dewhurst Stakes anticipation had reached fever pitch. 'The greatest two-year-old race of all time' they proclaimed and it was hard to argue with the hype. Both Frankel and Dream Ahead had produced outstanding form in the run-up to the Dewhurst, while Saamidd's, though some way behind, would have been good enough to ensure him favouritism in most renewals.
The winner would be undisputed juvenile champion and it got the handicappers and ratings bods all in a tizzy about how high the winner's figure could actually be. Of course it got them reminiscing. And the benchmark, the gold standard, the greatest juvenile performance of all time, they said, was Arazi's. The 1991 Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs, where he simply tore the opposition apart.
Dream Ahead and Saamidd ran well below-par in the Dewhurst, meaning Frankel's win, as brilliant as it was, couldn't quite be rated in the stratosphere. Yet the comparisons with the 1991 Breeders' Cup Juvenile hero were still bestowed upon the winner, albeit by his own trainer Henry Cecil who said: "I've never had a two-year-old who works like him. The last horse (juvenile) I saw (of this calibre) was Arazi."
Bred for the job
Arazi was the son of Blushing Groom, a sire most famous for producing the brilliant Nashwan, winner of the 2,000 Guineas, Derby, Eclipse and King George in the summer of 1989. Nashwan only raced twice as a juvenile, winning both starts, but Arazi's two-year-old campaign was much more aggressive. He raced seven times, victorious in all, the last four of those races at the top level.
Trained by Francois Boutin, the handler of 1987 and 1988 Breeders' Cup Mile heroine Miesque, Arazi won his first race at Evry on the outskirts of Paris. Freddie Head rode him that day, but it was Gerald Mosse who partnered him on his next five victories. They won at Longchamp, Maisons-Laffitte and at Deauville in the Prix Morny, before returning to Longchamp to win the Prix De La Salamandre and Grand Criterium.
Already, Arazi had confirmed himself a juvenile of precocious excellence and versatility. He had won on ground that was officially soft, good to soft, good and good to firm and had raced over five, six, seven and eight furlongs. He had blown all of those that witnessed his victories in France away. Yet if he was to prove himself the best juvenile in the world he had to take on America's finest, in their own backyard at Churchill Downs, over nine furlongs on Dirt.
Doing it the hard way
Boutin booked Pat Valenzuela to ride Arazi in the Breeders' Cup and the pair drew stall 14 in the 14-runner field. From the widest pole position, he'd have to do it the hard way against the best the States had to offer - MC Hammer's (yes, that's right, MC Hammer's!) Dance Floor, Tri To Watch, a runaway winner of the Champagne Stakes, and the unbeaten Bertrando from the west coast, who destroyed the Norfolk field by nine lengths.
Bertrando and Arazi vied for favouritism in the run-up to the race, but it was the French-trained horse who was eventually sent off the 21/10 market leader, with the Californian colt clear second best at 5/2. As the starting bell rang and the stalls opened, Bertrando flew into an early lead while Arazi was anchored in the rear by Valenzuela. Racing into the first turn, Bertrando was already over 12 lengths clear of the European favourite.
And then they watched in awe
What happened next is the stuff of Breeders' Cup legend. Valenzuela, easy to spot in the bright red, white and blue silks emblazoned with the AP letters of owner Allen Paulson (Sheikh Mohammed had bought a 50 per cent share in the horse just before the Breeders' Cup), began to make his move at the top of the back stretch. Showing electrifying speed, Arazi stormed through the field from last to second, where he ran into the final turn on the heels of Bertrando.
Arazi soon flew past his main rival and scooted clear up the stretch, Bertrando having nothing more to give in second after setting a searching gallop. As the field toiled in behind, Arazi poured on his dominance and eventually won by five lengths - but as commentator Tom Durkin observed, it could've been 10. "And Arazi runs right by him," called Durkin in an astonished tone as Arazi breezed past Bertrando rounding the final turn. It was an astonishing performance and one that has stood the test of time.
Following knee surgery Arazi failed to train on as a three-year-old, finishing a well-beaten eighth in the Kentucky Derby before winning just one of his three races in Europe before the 1992 Breeders' Cup. Sent off the 6/4 favourite for the Breeders' Cup Mile at Gulfstream, he finished well down the field and was retired afterwards. It was a sad end to the career of the greatest juvenile, who thrilled all those who saw him put in THE benchmark performance for two-year-olds at Churchill Downs in 1991.
