COMMENTARY / HORSE RACING : Latest Flop by Arazi Indicates Greatness Label a Bit Premature

Remember all that Arazi hype? Best horse since Secretariat. Best horse in Europe in the last 50 years. Wonder horse. Pegasus reborn, but with more speed.

Well, never mind.

Assessments of Arazi’s greatness were, apparently, premature.

The undisputed 2-year-old champion of the world has become a lout at 3 under the masterful handling of a cigar-chomping, arrogant Frenchman who has said nothing of Arazi this season in neither French nor English that has even flirted with truth.

It was possible to forgive Arazi’s swoon at Churchill Downs. One thing about Boutin is that once he has lied, he claims to have been misquoted then tells a withering truth or fabricates another yarn opposite of the first. Arazi, who was fit and ready when he arrived at Churchill Downs according to Boutin, was underprepared and, bless his heart, out of sorts in Kentucky.

Now, Arazi seemed fine at Churchill Downs during the week before the Derby. This horse must talk to Boutin because he certainly appeared calm and relaxed. The trainers, on the other hand, said nothing about Arazi’s emotional state until after the race, when suddenly this calm, docile animal who almost seemed to pump himself up when he walked onto the racetrack was a basket case in his trainer’s eyes.

Arazi’s pre-Derby works were strong. Lucien Lauren, who trained Secretariat, commented on Arazi’s appearance and calmness in the midst of clamor. After he finished eighth, however, Boutin said the horse indeed had been ill-prepared for the task. That he had run the horse only to please the owners. That Arazi was depressed by the unfamiliar surroundings.

Arazi’s return to competition of Tuesday was much less an event than the Kentucky Derby. Boutin, now that Arazi had been back in Chantilly for a while and had recovered from his week in Louisville, chose the mile St. James’ Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, England.

Arazi, reports from England indicate, showed no sign of distress at Ascot and the British bettors send him to the post an 11-10 favorite. Steve Cauthen, who never again will mention Arazi and Affirmed in the same breath, was up. But he was up on the horse who was about to finish fifth behind a 25-1 shot named Brief Truce.

In Kentucky, Arazi at least sustained a serious, if aborted move that evaporated at the quarter pole. To complicate matters, he was ridden terribly by Pat Valenzuela. In England, his move was sustained for all of a half-furlong and he was without other excuse. From there on, a mystified Cauthen said, Arazi was struggling.

In Europe, horses with big reputations often are retired after the veneer begins to peel away. Great horses do not run such dull races back to back.