SATURDAY, 3 JULY 2021 SELECT ECLIPSE THE FOCUS ON SATURDAY BREEDERS= CUP CHAMP Tactical nuance will be the order of the day in Saturday=s ARAZI DIES G1 Coral-Eclipse, with Sandown=s prestige affair hosting a trio of male Thoroughbreds who have been tested and proven internationally and just one other very much on the fringe. With the big three of Mishriff (Ire) (Make Believe {GB}), Addeybb (Ire) (Pivotal {GB}) and St Mark=s Basilica (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) responsible for nine top-level victories between them in this country, France, Dubai and Australia, this renewal really does offer something different. All of them have a largely consistent profile with valid excuses for any rare dips in form and so the two imponderables that will dictate the outcome could be the way the race will be run on the day and whether the ever- contentious 10-pound weight-for-age differential in favour of Ballydoyle=s 3-year-old is simply too much. There is a sense that for all that St Mark=s Basilica has now won three Group 1 races in succession in the Dewhurst, Poule d=Essai des Poulains and Prix du Jockey Club, he is still a work in Arazi with trainer Francois Boutin. Click to watch Arazi=s progress whose ceiling has not been approached. Breeders= Cup Juvenile victory | racingfotos.com Cont. p4 By Kelsey Riley Arazi (Blushing Groom {Fr}BDanseur Fabuleux, by Northern Dancer), whose five-length victory in the 1991 GI Breeders= Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs is regarded as one of the greatest performances ever at the Breeders= Cup, has died at 32 at Stockwell Thoroughbreds in Victoria, Australia. In a feat rarely seen nowadays, Arazi traveled to the Breeders= Cup in 1991 to take on the best American colts on the dirt. The chestnut was favoured even though he had never run on the surface and despite the presence of leading American 2-year-old Bertrando, so dominant had his campaign been in France. Second on debut at Chantilly, AraziBbred by Buffalo Bills football team owner Ralph C. Wilson Jr. and bought by aviation magnate and racehorse owner Allen Paulson as a foal for $350,000 at Keeneland NovemberBsubsequently rolled through five Mishriff | Horsephotos consecutive victories for trainer Francois Boutin, all in stakes company including the G1 Prix Morny, G1 Prix Salamandre and G1 Grand Criterium under Gerald Mosse by a combined 11 IN TDN AMERICA TODAY lengths. So tall was Arazi=s reputation that by the time he lined THIS SIDE UP: HAPPY DAYS HERE AGAIN up in the starting gate at the Breeders= Cup, Sheikh Mohammed Chris McGrath looks ahead at some of the racing highlights of had purchased a 50% share in the horse for a reported the July Fourth weekend. Click or tap here to go straight to $9-million. Cont. p2 TDN America. TDN EUROPE • PAGE 2 OF 12 • THETDN.COM SATURDAY • 3 JULY 2021 Breeders= Cup Champ Arazi Dies cont. from p1 on that occasion the 133-1 Andre Fabre-trained Arcangues Breaking from the extreme outside gate 14 under the Twin (Sagace {Fr}) in the GI Breeders= Cup Classic. Spires and partnered by leading American rider Pat Valenzuela Arazi=s feat in the Breeders= Cup Juvenile was masterfully for the first time, Arazi was soon among the back markers in the immortalized by legendary American race caller Tom Durkin, Breeders= Cup Juvenile on the short run into the first turn. who exclaimed as Arazi made his move: Athere goes the Meanwhile, Bertrando had broken like a rocket and grabbed the European star Arazi, he=s coming with a menacing rush to early advantage, allowing him Bertrando, and now the to control the race stage is set as they move uncontested through moderate toward the top of the fractions while Arazi stretch...and Arazi runs right languished a dozen lengths in by him! Bertrando stunned behind with just one horse at the inside with the move beaten. Suddenly, however, of Arazi and he=s pouring it Arazi was languishing no more. on.@ Kicking into a scarcely Arazi was named Europe=s believable gear with about a Horse of the YearBthe only half mile to run, Arazi and horse still to have achieved Valenzuela weaved their way that honour as a juvenile-- through the field, suddenly and America=s champion arriving alongside Bertrando at 2-year-old. He is also the the quarter pole. only horse ever to have And just as quickly as he got been a finalist for Horse of there, Arazi buried his rival, Arazi on his 32nd birthday at Stockwell Thoroughbreds in March the Year in America off a effectively bolting off the turn Photo courtesy Stockwell Thoroughbreds single North American start as he left Bertrando in his wake and charged down the middle of as a 2-year-old. the track on the wrong lead. Arazi pulled further clear with each Arazi began his 3-year-old campaign with a facile five-length stride, building up an advantage of as much as 10 lengths by the win in the Listed Prix Omnium going a mile on the grass at Saint- time Valenzuela eased him approaching the wire, with the Cloud under Steve Cauthen three weeks out from the official margin coming in at five lengthsBa record for the race at GI Kentucky Derby, prompting a press frenzy in the lead-up to the time. Arazi became the second European-trained winner of America=s greatest race. Another victory at Churchill Downs a Breeders= Cup dirt race, the first having come just hours earlier seemed a foregone conclusion, leaving reporters and racing fans when Sheikh Albadou (GB) (Green Desert) won the GI Breeders= to speculate as to what might come next. Would the French- Cup Sprint. trained colt stay in America for a crack at the Triple Crown, or Bertrando was a further 3 1/2 lengths clear of any other rival would he head to England and attempt to become the first in the Juvenile. In a cruel twist of fate, Bertrando would again be horse to win the Kentucky Derby and the Epsom Derby? Words second at the Breeders= Cup two years later, once again stunned like Amythical@, Amystical@ and Aextraordinary@ were tossed by the freak performance of a French-trained horse on the dirt, around in the media. TDN EUROPE • PAGE 3 OF 12 • THETDN.COM SATURDAY • 3 JULY 2021 Cont. In the end, however, racing displayed its uncanny ability to humble. After making a move on the turn at Churchill Downs eerily similar to what he had done six months earlier, Arazi came up empty at the top of the stretch, struggling home eighth behind longshot Lil E. Tee (At The Threshold). Arazi had had bone chips operated on between his 2- and 3-year-old Senior Vice President campaigns, something Boutin had reportedly been against, but Gary King of course whether that was a culprit in his below-par 3-year-old Twitter: @garykingTDN campaign cannot be known. Arazi ran four more times, [email protected] returning to Europe to finish fifth in the G1 St James=s Palace S., + 1.732.320.0975 third behind Arcangues in the G3 Prix du Prince d=Orange and winning the G2 Prix du Rond Point before returning to America International Editor for one more shot at recapturing the glory at the Breeders= Cup Kelsey Riley in the 1992 GI Mile. Arazi was sent off the favourite but could Twitter: @kelseynrileyTDN [email protected] manage no better than 11th of 14. He was retired to stand at Darley=s Dalham Hall Stud in Newmarket with nine wins from European Editor 14 starts and earnings of $1,212,351. Emma Berry Arazi later embarked on a globetrotting stud career. Following Twitter: @collingsberry his stint at Dalham Hall, the chestnut relocated to Three [email protected] Chimneys Farm in Kentucky and later stood in Japan, Switzerland and Victoria, Australia. His stud career was not Associate International Editor nearly as storied as his racing one, but he can lay claim to Heather Anderson Congaree, winner of the GI Hollywood Gold Cup, GI Swaps S., Twitter: @HLAndersonTDN GI Carter H. and two renewals of the GI Cigar Mile. Arazi also Marketing Manager sired the French Group 2 winners First Magnitude (Ire) and Alayna Cullen America (Ire), and his legacy will also be felt as a broodmare Twitter: @AlaynaCullen sire; his daughters have produced six Group 1 winners including [email protected] the G1 Dubai World Cup scorer Electrocutionist, GI Breeders= Cup Filly & Mare Turf victress Lahudood (GB) and G1 Melbourne Contributing Editors Cup winner Americain. Alan Carasso Arazi had lived out his final years at Stockwell Thoroughbreds Christina Bossinakis in Victoria, which said in a statement, AIt is with immense Cafe Racing sadness that Stockwell Thoroughbreds announce the passing of Sean Cronin one of the racing world=s most revered champions, Arazi, at the Tom Frary grand age of 32 years. The little chestnut with a crooked blaze [email protected] that made him almost instantly recognisable captured the minds of racing people around the globe when in 1991 he produced Irish Correspondent one of the most memorable performances seen on a racetrack Daithi Harvey in coming from last to take out the Breeders= Cup Juvenile by an Regular Columnists easing five-length margin. Farewell to our mate--you were Chris McGrath | John Berry | Kevin Blake indeed a superstar.@ Amy Lynam | Melissa Steele Stockwell=s Mike Becker said, AIt has been an honour never lost on us to have been guardians to such a beloved horse.