Arazi

MIAMI -- The phone rang all morning at Sonny Hine's house."Did you hear?" callers asked the horse trainer. "Did you hear?"Hine heard. By midmorning yesterday, every horse trainer with a Kentucky Derby contender had heard.Arazi roared in Paris, the shock waves flickering Derby hopes from Florida to California. The colt who scorched America's best 2-year-olds in early November at Churchill Downs trounced his French brethren so easily in yesterday's Derby tuneup that jockey Steve Cauthen said "he wasn't doing that much in the last furlong."

NEW YORK -- No defending U.S. Open champion has ever lost in the first round here -- but it was close last night.On the Arthur Ashe Stadium court, Patrick Rafter met the tricky, troublemaking Hicham Arazi, who forced the defending champ to five sets before bowing, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-1.It was an improvisational end to an otherwise status-quo day."A few things agitated me throughout the night, and I tried to make a point," Rafter said. "The ball wasn't responding the way I liked and my first volley wasn't going the way I wanted.

CHANTILLY, France -- I was at the gate of a 16th century Renaissance castle, trying to tell a security guard that the next Secretariat was not, as he thought, on the Riveria "making babies."Stay with me here. There is an explanation.On my way home from the Olympics, I set aside a day to locate Arazi, the colt who won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile by a million or so lengths last fall, leading to speculation that he might run away from all comers in the 1992 Triple Crown.Born in Kentucky and owned by an American, he trains in France because his handlers originally thought he would run faster on European grass.

HALLANDALE, Fla. -- Allen Paulson, the co-owner of Arazi, got a fax from France yesterday from his trainer, Francois Boutin, indicating that Boutin wants the 3-year-old colt to run in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Mile on grass here Saturday at Gulfstream Park.Arazi, winner of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile a year ago but a disappointment this year, is eligible for the Mile as well as the $3 million Breeders' Cup Classic, a 1 1/4 -mile dirt race.Paulson, who has a 50-50 partnership in Arazi with Sheik Mohammed al Maktoum, said last week he preferred the horse run in the Classic.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Jockey Pat Valenzuela climbed off Arazi after his morning workout at Churchill Downs yesterday and said the horse can run on the outside fence and still win the Kentucky Derby.Some of those words had a prophetic ring almost an hour later, when the 6-5, early-line favorite drew the 18 post position in the 19-horse field.Arazi was not the only big name that drew the outside. A.P. Indy, the 7-2 second choice, will start from the 16 post.Only one horse, Gato Del Sol in 1982, has won the Derby from the 18 post position.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Local residents are used to mob scenes at Kentucky Derby time.But even the natives marveled yesterday when about 2,000 people, many of them the racing beautiful people, lined the rails of the backstretch at Churchill Downs at 9 a.m. Others stood four-deep near the finish line and parked along streets and peaked through the chain-link fence.They were there to catch a glimpse of Arazi in his first, and only, speed work before tomorrow's big race."I've never seen anything like this, even in 1973 when Secretariat was here" said John Fililiatreau, who has covered 20 derbies and is now a writer for Louisville Magazine.

HALLANDALE, Fla. -- Allen Paulson, the co-owner of Arazi, got a fax from France yesterday from his trainer, Francois Boutin, indicating that Boutin wants the 3-year-old colt to run in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Mile on grass here Saturday at Gulfstream Park.Arazi, winner of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile a year ago but a disappointment this year, is eligible for the Mile as well as the $3 million Breeders' Cup Classic, a 1 1/4 -mile dirt race.Paulson, who has a 50-50 partnership in Arazi with Sheik Mohammed al Maktoum, said last week he preferred the horse run in the Classic.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The media event of Kentucky Derby week happens about 9 a.m. today.At that time, Arazi is scheduled to work seven furlongs under Pat Valenzuela, his Derby jockey, and the nation's horse-racing press will get its first real look at the France-based horse expected to win this American classic. And after he is done, all of them will have their say concerning the horse's fitness and his chances.Arazi has limbered up with a pair of easy gallops this week, but for the first time he will run around the track and a stopwatch will be put to his effort.

LEXINGTON, Ky. It was almost 20 years ago when a writer wondered why Penny Chenery got more television time than Indira Gandhi. The answer was simple: Secretariat.As Arazi has proved again, few phenomena turn the media world on its axis like the promise of a superhorse. Life changes for the humans living inside the vortex."It creates a great deal of pressure because everybody wants to know what you're doing with your horse every minute," Chenery said, recalling the year her family's Meadow Stable raced Secretariat to the Triple Crown.

ARCADIA, Calif. -- On the first Saturday in November, jockey Pat Valenzuela grabbed the reins and held on tight as Arazi dazzled the racing world with an electrifying stretch run to win the Breeders' Cup Juvenile.Six months later, on the first Saturday in May, Valenzuela and Arazi will be reunited at Churchill Downs for their first race together since then.At the Breeders' Cup, they were a novelty act. Arazi, who had raced exclusively in France for trainer Francois Boutin, was making his first start on dirt and was an unknown commodity outside Europe.

The 1992 Triple Crown is two-thirds over.Here are some random observations about what has gone on in the past few weeks.*My own personal theory about why Arazi lost the Kentucky Derby: If Steve Cauthen had ridden the horse, he might have won.It's not that Pat Valenzuela isn't a good jockey. But he moved too soon on Arazi in the early stages of the race.European horses are trained to be "covered up" early, to tuck in behind horses and only run when they see daylight.When Valenzuela moved the horse to the outside on the first turn, Arazi simply took off as he was trained to do and ran his race from the three-quarter pole to the quarter pole.

It was a pretty good horse race yesterday, and, when you start handing out the credit, don't forget Arazi.Yeah, that's right, Arazi. Remember him? The best horse since Secretariat? The best thing out of France since nouvelle cuisine? He's back home -- 3,000 miles and an ocean removed from Pimlico, feeding on pate de foie gras or whatever it is horses dine on in old Chantilly -- licking his wounds.But the reason you can't forget Arazi is that when he faded down the stretch at Churchill Downs two Saturdays ago, he managed to save the Preakness in the process.

It sounds as if they're getting ready for a coronation at Pimlico Saturday. Best Pal is that much of a favorite in the 27th running of the $700,000 Pimlico Special.There's no doubt Best Pal deserves to be the betting choice.The 4-year-old, who'll be top-weighted at 126, is undefeated (4-for-4) in 1992. He has been carefully prepped for this race. He's been on the Pimlico grounds since April 16. His 6-furlong work here Sunday in 1:12 delighted trainer Gary Jones.On Best Pal will be his regular rider, former Maryland champ Kent Desormeaux, who has four wins and a second since taking over the mount.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- All of a sudden, the Preakness is going to be one heck of a horse race.A full field of 14 horses, including the Kentucky Derby winner, Lil E. Tee, as well as six other Derby starters, are expected to compete in the Pimlico Race Course classic May 16.They will face a large array of newcomers, such as the well-regarded Canadian colt and Derby Trial winner, Alydeed, who bypassed the Louisville race in favor of the Preakness.Another possibility is A.P. Indy, the Derby's early second choice, who was scratched the morning of the race.

What Arazi and the rich men who own him found out is that no amount of money, plus social connections, either foreign or domestic, will assure entrance into the exclusivity of the winner's circle. Certainly, not the Kentucky Derby.But hold on. The loss is not at all distressing. To the contrary, it's a momentous gain for racing. A stimulus.The Arazi pratfall at Churchill Downs underlines again that the number of dollars invested can't be correlated to buying immortality. All kinds of drum-beating and trumpet-sounding preceded the arrival of the copper-colored colt bred in Kentucky, raised and raced in France, and supposedly destined for inclusion among the elite of all-time.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- One myth exploded, but there was a happy ending to an old story yesterday when Lil E. Tee reached the wire first in the 118th Kentucky Derby.Pat Day, who has been the nation's leading rider four times, but never had won the Derby, finally won the race in his 10th try.The victory came at the expense of Arazi, the 4-5 favorite and hailed as the second coming of Secretariat, who wilted in the stretch and was a well-beaten eighth."I knew when Pat Valenzuela [jockey on Arazi]

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Even though Allen Paulson, co-owner of Kentucky Derby favorite Arazi, bases his vast racing and breeding empire in Kentucky, he is a big supporter of Maryland's thoroughbred industry.He still owns 50 percent of Opening Verse, the son of The Minstrel, who won the Breeders' Cup Turf last year and then was retired to Northview Stallion Station in Chesapeake City.Paulson also owns 25 percent of two other Maryland stallions -- Allen's Prospect and Corridor Key, which stand at Country Life Farm in Bel Air.Paulson is an active supporter of all three stallions.

It was a pretty good horse race yesterday, and, when you start handing out the credit, don't forget Arazi.Yeah, that's right, Arazi. Remember him? The best horse since Secretariat? The best thing out of France since nouvelle cuisine? He's back home -- 3,000 miles and an ocean removed from Pimlico, feeding on pate de foie gras or whatever it is horses dine on in old Chantilly -- licking his wounds.But the reason you can't forget Arazi is that when he faded down the stretch at Churchill Downs two Saturdays ago, he managed to save the Preakness in the process.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The excuses flew. Flew a lot faster than Arazi."I think he could have used another prep race before this," jockey Pat Valenzuela said.The horse with wings suddenly was just another eighth-place finisher with mud in his eyes. It was not a pretty sight."To be honest," said trainer Francois Boutin: "I was pushed a little by my [owners] to bring him here. Our preparation was always rushed."Jet-propelled excuses instead of a jet-propelled colt. Too bad.No horse in Kentucky Derby history was treated with such fanfare.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Allen Jerkens is known as "The Giant Killer."But can the Hall of Fame trainer slay Arazi?"I don't know," the 63-year-old horseman said. "Arazi sure looks good to me. He's carrying weight over his hindquarters, and that's what you want in a racehorse."Jerkens is one of 17 other trainers hoping to catch Arazi on an off day, and beat the odds-on choice this afternoon in the 118th Kentucky Derby.No favorite has won the Derby since 1979, when Spectacular Bid trounced General Assembly.