“And Arazi runs right by him!”
Real Writing on Racing 💯
The absolute astonishment in the voice of the great race caller Tom Durkin was what struck me most about the day Arazi turned the racing world upside down. Durkin, the Babe Ruth of announcers, had called every single Breeders Cup race ever run as he stood in the booth high above the hallowed grounds of Louisville’s Churchill Downs that November day. His highly enthusiastic calls, weaved with surgical precision, were known for his inclusion of clever quips and phrases adroitly describing the action unfolding on the track. Durkin’s ability to gradually raise his tone and cadence as the stakes in the races grew larger was similar to how a conductor directs an orchestra, the call reaching its crescendo as horses drew close to the shadow of the wire.
Not on this day though. No on this late fall afternoon the strung out field of the 1991 Breeders Cup Juvenile still had a quarter mile left to travel down the long Churchill stretch when Durkin boomed out incredulously:
“And Arazi runs right by him!”
‘Him’ was a tall, dark bay, two year old colt by 1986 Breeders Cup Classic champ Skywalker. Going into the Juvenile, Bertrando was undefeated, a multiple graded winner from California who had dominated his western competition, scoring by over nine lengths in his previous race, the grade one Norfolk Stakes at Santa Anita. He would go on to be named champion older horse in North America as a four year old, racking up over three million dollars in purse earnings while capturing prestigious races such as the Pacific Classic and Woodward. Bertrando was no slouch.
Yet on that day he might as well have been a motor scooter driving down the autobahn when the diminutive chestnut blur from France carrying the red, white and blue silks of the late Allen Paulson cruised by like Bertrando was running in quicksand. Arazi’s electric dash from the back of the pack in the 8th Juvenile still conjures chills some thirty years later. The sheer suddenness of his burst of speed on the turn, catapulting him to the lead as he left the classy pacesetter and others in his wake, has not been repeated. Other horses have won by more lengths, others have won with faster times but no horse before or since has showed up on the scene quite like Arazi did that crisp, sunny autumn afternoon in Kentucky.
That Arazi was a talented colt surely wasn’t taking anyone by surprise. Bred in Kentucky by former Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson, he was a son of champion sire Blushing Groom out of a Northern Dancer mare. After being purchased at auction as a weanling for $350000, he failed to resell as a yearling and Paulson shipped him off to Europe to the yard of legendary French trainer, Francois Boutin. Two weeks after finishing a good second in his debut at Chantilly, Boutin launched Arazi’s stakes career at the now defunct southern Paris track Evry in a listed stakes. After making short work of three overmatched foes in that event he went on to easily win the grade three Prix du Bois and grade two Prix Robert Papin before crushing a grade one field at Deauville in the Prix Morney. Another grade one score in the Prix de la Salamandre at Longchamps cemented his status as Europe’s best two year old which was hammered home when he cruised home in the grade one CIGA Grand Criterium on the undercard of Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe day, French racing’s biggest stage.
Arazi was now European racing’s biggest star. He not only was named the champion two year old in France but won the Cartier award for top two year old male in all of Europe. His greatest honor though was receiving the Cartier for European Horse of the Year, the first and only Old World two year old to ever earn that distinction.
Yet his shining moment, at least in our New World eyes, was yet to come.
European horses then as they do now had a great deal of success in Breeders Cup races since it’s onset in 1984. The prior years’ Cup had two grass events (Mile and Turf) and both were captured by Euros. Twenty three shippers from the UK, France and Ireland were sent to compete in the 1991 Breeders Cup card yet those horses being pointed to non-turf races were mostly lightly regarded as only Ibn Bey and Dayjur had even come close on the dirt in the seven previous runnings. Arazi of course was going to be one of the favorites despite the previous poor track record of his continental comrades but he drew the dreaded post 14 and with a short run to the first turn, a left-handed one at that, new jockey Pat Valenzuela had some tough choices to make.
Sheikh Albadou became the first European based Breeders Cup dirt winner when he shocked the field in the Sprint to kick off the 91 card. The optimism that the Euro dirt trend was improving came crashing down quickly as Culture Vulture a very highly regarded two year old filly from England absolutely bombed in the second Breeders Cup race of the day, the Juvenile fillies. After Dance Smartly trounced the Distaff field at a short price and Paulson’s US based runner, Opening Verse upset the Mile field at 25-1, it was time for Arazi’s unveiling to the North American crowd.
Bertrando took early money and shared co-favoritism with Arazi at 2/1 with Champagne winner Tri to Watch and MC Hammer’s both at 9/2 as the large field was loaded into the starting gate. In the era before ADW’s and huge amounts of late money injected into the betting pools, these odds stuck. Valenzuela made his choice and took Arazi back to the rear of the bulky group and looked to save ground around the first turn. In the meantime, Bertrando under Alex Solis jumped out to quickly establish a comfortable lead heading into the clubhouse turn. As the two year olds completed the first turn and started down the backstretch straight it was a tale of two trips for the two favorites. Bertrando/Solis was setting the pace seemingly getting exactly what they had hoped for and Arazi/Valenzuela finding themselves in deep water, far back in 13th place.
“…and Arazi, the European star is a dozen lengths from the front, “ Durkin explained as the field approached the 1/2 mile marker, meaning less than five furlongs remained for him to make up that sizable deficit.
“Bertrando coasting on an uncontested lead, and he is moving at a quick pace…it is still Bertrando out there unchallenged, he leads by two,” Durkin exhorted, his tone suggesting he was now the horse to beat as they headed towards the final turn.
Except something was happening behind Bertrando and that seemingly comfortable margin.
Thirty years has passed since NBC sports covered the 1991 Breeders Cup yet, it’s still a struggle to watch the actual live viewing of a thoroughbred horse race on major network coverage. The producers constant cutting from one camera view to another interrupts seeing the natural progression that occurs in a race that a simple pan shot provides. Though it actually seems worse these days with the plethora of different views including overhead drone shots, the 1991 Juvenile producer missed the mark even without all those other options. As Tom Durkin said, “it’s still Bertrando out there he leads by two…” with a narrow angle showing the just the top half of the field, Arazi had already commenced the greatest rally ever seen in a Breeders Cup event.
By the time the NBC camera and Durkin (to be fair) picked up Arazi, he had zig-zagged through the field coming from 13th to briefly be fourth while angling off of the rail to avoid literally running over the top of the slower competition. It was only briefly 4th because Arazi was running so fast at that juncture, that as Durkin emphatically called him moving, he was already charging past Bertrando to snatch away the lead.
“Arazi hits his best stride, and there goes the European star Arazi, he’s coming with a menacing rush to Bertrando and now the stage is set as they move to the top of the stretch…”
The stage wasn’t set though. It wasn’t set at all as Arazi simply inhaled Bertrando and a stunned Alex Solis.
“And Arazi runs right by him!”
The sheer power of Arazi’s sustained burst of speed was something that still to this day brings chills, even for jaded hard boots who have seen the replay a thousand times. His momentum carried him out towards the middle of the track, the vanquished field disappearing as the star of the show strutted down the red carpet of Churchill’s home stretch. Perhaps a dress rehearsal for the following year’s Kentucky Derby? His failure to change leads was lost to most as jockey Valenzuela took hold of him nearing the wire, cantering home five lengths clear of Bertrando as Durkin exclaimed, “he could have won by ten perhaps”.
Arazi was stamped as the prohibitive Derby favorite before he had even returned to the winners circle that day yet things just aren’t that easy in horse racing. There was a minor knee injury, then surgery against the wishes of Boutin, at least that was the murky storyline out of Paris. He did return to the scene of his greatest triumph, and yes he was the favorite on 1992’s first Saturday in May and he did make a menacing run from the back of the pack to reach contention at a familiar point of the far turn. The fairytale was over though, he wasn’t able to sustain his move and by mid-stretch where six months earlier he was drawing away, this time he was in full retreat.
The remainder of his career was like most sequels to great movies, the magic has gone and any similarities to the original pale in comparison. He did win one more graded race but his second act at the Breeders Cup was a miserable 11th place finish in the Mile at Gulfstream. That same day AP Indy captured the Classic on his way to a horse of the year title before embarking on a legendary career as a stallion. The feeble end of Arazi’s racing days unfortunately foreshadowed his own issues as a stallion, his record at stud was poor with Congaree being his only high class runner. Had Arazi simply won the 1991 Breeders Cup Juvenile his legacy surely would have faded like so many other top runners whose lack of success in the breeding shed often denigrates their on track accomplishments.
He didn’t just win though, Tom Durkin’s voice bellowing, “And Arazi runs right by him!” will forever echo in the minds of all those who witnessed it.
RIP Arazi you were a ⭐️
