KENTUCKY DERBY DAILY REPORT : Little Horse, Arazi, Gets Big Welcome at Workout

An extraordinary media swarm, perhaps the largest for a single horse since Silky Sullivan arrived in Louisville, Ky., from California in 1958, greeted Arazi at Churchill Downs Tuesday morning as he made his first visit since his auspicious victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile six months ago.

“He’s not a very big horse,” Jack Price said, watching Arazi graze next to his barn after the 3-year-old colt cantered around the one-mile track on a crisp, bright morning. “But then, my horse wasn’t very big, either.”

Price owned and trained Carry Back, winner of the 1961 Kentucky Derby. In a rare attempt for an American horse, Carry Back went to Paris in 1962, finishing 10th in the Arc de Triomphe, France’s most important race.

Silky Sullivan, with his exciting come-from-way-behind style, had won the Santa Anita Derby and went off at 2-1 in the Kentucky Derby. He and jockey Bill Shoemaker were far back early, and the colt never found his finishing kick, running 12th in a 14-horse field.

Arazi has come to the United States for the second time, trying to add Saturday’s Kentucky Derby to his Breeders’ Cup victory.

Dr Devious and Thyer, Derby horses who accompanied Arazi on the flight from Paris to Louisville on Sunday, left a quarantine building across from Churchill Downs on Monday night and were vanned to their barn at the track. Arazi didn’t move over until 7 a.m. Tuesday.

He was on the track about 90 minutes later, acting lively while his exercise rider, Raymond Lamornaca, jogged him for a few minutes before they went on their canter. While Arazi was on the track, another horse--not a Derby contender--got loose, but he was well clear of Arazi and didn’t interfere with the Blushing Groom colt’s work.

Francois Boutin, who trains Arazi, was scheduled to arrive in Louisville from Paris Tuesday afternoon and will supervise the rest of Arazi’s Derby preparations.

With an estimated 150 photographers and reporters on hand, Arazi was accompanied by his stablemate, Akiko, for his trip around the track.

“He’s as well as at home,” Lamornaca said through an interpreter. “The traveling didn’t affect him at all as far as being tired.”

Last fall, before the Breeders’ Cup, Arazi wheeled around after a morning canter and dumped his jockey, Pat Valenzuela. On Saturday, for the first time since the Breeders’ Cup, Valenzuela will ride Arazi.

Kent Desormeaux, who could have ridden Snappy Landing in the Kentucky Derby, will ride Al Sabin instead. Jorge Velasquez has taken the mount on Snappy Landing.

Randy Romero, who rides Sir Pinder, is at the start of another comeback. Several years ago, Romero, 34, almost burned to death when a reducing box exploded at Oaklawn Park in 1983. He was aboard Go For Wand in the 1990 Breeders’ Cup Distaff the day she broke down and was destroyed on the track. Romero suffered eight broken ribs and an injured shoulder, and after a couple of false starts, he didn’t resume riding until last Friday at Aqueduct, after nine months without a race.

Casual Lies, whose Derby status had been clouded, worked five furlongs Tuesday in one minute flat, with Gary Stevens aboard for the first time. Stevens also will ride Casual Lies in the Derby. The third-place finisher in the Santa Anita Derby ate some wood shavings from the floor of his stall, had a bad reaction and his training schedule had to be adjusted. “I’ve always heard that when you come to the Derby, don’t do anything different,” trainer Shelley Riley said. “This all changed when he got sick.”

Other workouts for Derby horses at Churchill Downs Tuesday included Al Sabin’s 1:01 3/5 and Conte Di Savoya’s 1:03 for five furlongs; and Pine Bluff’s 47 2/5 seconds for a half-mile.

At Belmont Park, Devil His Due worked 1:39 2/5 for a mile, and Snappy Landing’s time for five furlongs was 1:01 2/5 at Garden State Park. Devil His Due and Snappy Landing will arrive in Louisville on the same plane today.

The weather forecast for Saturday is temperatures in the 70s, with a chance of showers. It has rained on Derby day only three times in the last 21 years, and the only off tracks in that time came in 1989 and 1990.