ARAZI's >MOVE' LONG OUTLIVES HIS HYPE
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MONDAY, JULY 5, 2021 SPENDTHRIFT'S YOUNG GUNS AT F-T JULY ARAZI'S >MOVE' LONG by Christina Bossinakis OUTLIVES HIS HYPE Generally well-represented at most sales venues throughout the yearling season, Spendthrift Farm offers a sextet of homebred youngsters, dominated by the offspring of a trio of the nursery's fledgling stallions, at the Fasig-Tipton July sale, set to take place July 13. And while the operation has reached great heights with its marquee stallions--the late Malibu Moon and Into Mischief--the reputation of Spendthrift's program has been largely built on the continuous replenishment of young stallions offered at affordable fees. AWe want breeding to work for everybody involved,@ explained Spendthrift General Manager Ned Toffey. AOf course, we are always looking for the caliber of superstars of the late Malibu Moon and Into Mischief, but we haven't forgotten that Into Mischief initially stood for $12,500 and, in his second year, he stood for $6,500. We also appreciate the fact that good horses can come from anywhere.@ Cont. p5 Arazi winning 1991 Breeders' Cup Juvenile | Horsephotos The Week in Review, by T.D. Thornton IN TDN EUROPE TODAY Off the top of your head, how many Thoroughbreds can you KENTUCKY TO EUROPEAN HORSEMEN: WE name who have been immortalized by having their characteristic in-race "move" named after them? WANT YOU Bill Finley pens an invitation to European Only three leap to mind for me: The "Silky Sullivan move" was horsemen from Kentucky Downs in southern Kentucky. Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. coined in the late 1950s in honor of a California fan favorite who made a career out of lagging far behind and closing with a flourish, sometimes from more than 40 lengths off the pace. This phrase made its way into the lexicon of other sports and even American politics to signify an improbable victory under last-to-first circumstances. A generation later, Secretariat's audacious seizure of the lead, rocketing from sixth to first through the first turn in the 1973 GI Preakness S., stood out so emphatically as a display of raw-torque dominance that inhaling the field with an outside rush on the clubhouse bend became known as the "Secretariat move." This tactic is not often attempted, primarily because of how difficult the move is to execute successfully to win a race. And then there was the AArazi move@ unleashed in the 1991 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile. Right up until he died peacefully last week in Australia at age 32, the compact chestnut with the jagged white blaze and offset right knee managed to carry outsized cachet here in the States on the basis of our collective respect for one of the most jaw-dropping, sluice-through-the-pack winning runs ever uncorked in a race for 2-year-olds. 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Yet when Arazi retired late in 1992 after finishing well-beaten in his career finale, Joseph Durso of the New York Times hinted at a lasting legacy by writing, "So, they won't have Arazi to kick around anymore as a media superstar. But the mystique and the mystery will linger." Phenoms who don't follow through generally don't get remembered kindly--if they get remembered at all--in our sport. Arazi couldn't live up to his premature stamp as the defining Thoroughbred of his era. But he retained iconic status in America almost entirely on the basis of that one sublime, sustained run at Churchill Downs Nov. 2, 1991. When the France-based colt (who had never before raced on dirt or over a counter-clockwise layout) blasted into contention at the head of the lane in the Juvenile after dropping far back from the undesirable 14 post, even Breeders' Cup announcer Tom Durkin seemed taken aback by the "menacing rush" that left America's top 2-year-olds "stunnedYwith the move here of Arazi, and he's pouring it on! Just an incredible move as they come to the top of the stretch!" As Arazi kicked clear, widening by five lengths under wraps, Durkin speculated that the son of Blushing Groom (Fr) out of a Northern Dancer mare could have easily won by 10, exuberantly punctuating the performance by exclaiming, "Here, indeed, is a superstar!" It's impossible to recall Arazi's aura without placing into proper context the outlandish hype he generated in that pre-internet era. He became the immediate winter-book favorite for the 1992 GI Kentucky Derby (back when you had to actually go to a Las Vegas casino to get down a futures wager on America's most important horse race). His odds were as low as 8-5 even though it was well-reported that Arazi had undergone arthroscopic surgery in Kentucky to remove bone spurs on both knees four days after the Breeders' Cup. "Personally, I don't think that his knees are any better now Three weeks later, the colt returned to France, where than they were before," Boutin allegedly said (later claiming he old-school trainer Francois Boutin was not overly enthused was mis-translated). "If anything, they are more of a problem about providing the detailed status reports about Arazi's than they wereY. At the time of the operation, I didn't think it progress that American turf writers constantly craved. was necessaryY. He does not need to do better to win the Prepping his star in private on the wooded trails of Les Aigles, Kentucky Derby." Boutin legged up Arazi by training him five miles a day at Then in mid-March, a different controversy broke in the press: differing gaits and speeds. In the weeks prior to Arazi's one and Arazi's connections were apparently already looking past a only pre-Derby prep race, Boutin unintentionally created a presumed win on the first Saturday in May, and were at odds media frenzy by criticizing the decision by co-owners Allen over whether Arazi would pass up the final two U.S. Triple Paulson and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum to have Crown races to try to become the first winner of both the Arazi undergo the knee surgeries. Kentucky Derby and the Epsom Derby. TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 12 • THETDN.COM MONDAY • JULY 5, 2021 "This is where we may have a problem," Boutin said at a press luncheon. "If it was left to me as trainer, if I was to arbitrate, my preference would be for the Epsom Derby." On Apr. 7, 1992, Arazi easily won the Listed Prix Omnium at Saint-Cloud. With 25 days to the Kentucky Derby, the fervor intensified, with Arazi drawing rave comparisons to Secretariat. Bear in mind that even though Secretariat was followed in the late 1970s by a string of elite Triple Crown aspirants like Seattle Slew, Affirmed, Alydar, and Spectacular Bid, none of them had been seriously or widely compared to him. Arazi was different, though. Even Daily Racing Form's Joe Hirsch, the ultra-conservative dean of American turf scribes, couldn't resist the hyperbole. "[Arazi] is such an extraordinary animal that he makes other great horses look like hacks," Hirsch wrote. On the eve of the Derby, sports media columnist Richard Sandomir of the New York Times previewed ABC's Derby broadcast as a "90-minute Arazi Show" that would use 24 cameras and 164 microphones "to show Arazi's expected coronation." Arazi, though, was essentially a no-show for his own Derby party. Trying to mimic his move in the Breeders' Cup, jockey Patrick Valenzuela parked the 9-10 favorite at the back of the pack.