Francois Boutin

If Arazi runs in the Breeders' Cup Mile, jockey Steve Cauthen wants to be along for the ride. Cauthen is Arazi's regular rider when the 3-year-old colt races in Europe; Pat Valenzuela gets the mount in the United States. But Cauthen, who rode Arazi to his first victory in six months on Sunday at Longchamp, said he deserves to be aboard the one-time wonder horse for the Breeders' Cup on Oct. 31 at Gulfstream Park.

While Arazi completed a gallop on the other side of the track, Dr. Bizzare, a 6-year-old who was twice voted horse of the year in Ohio, collapsed on the backstretch and died of a heart attack. Arazi was not near the fallen horse. On Tuesday, he was also clear of a horse that got loose on the track at the time of his gallop. Ron Hirdes, who was riding Dr. Bizzare, jumped off the horse when it started to wobble and escaped injury.

Today's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe has a huge field, a $1.5-million purse and a soft turf course, but no clear-cut favorite. The 1 1/2-mile race at Longchamp drew 23 entries, none of whom was able to dominate the top English and French events this year. Add to that the recent rains that made the grass footing soft, and it's a wide-open race. Wemyss Bight and Hernando were the early favorites, along with User Friendly, the runner-up last year behind Subotica.

Arazi will return to racing Tuesday in the one-mile St. James's Palace Stakes at Ascot. It will be Arazi's first race since finishing a badly beaten eighth as the odds-on favorite in the Kentucky Derby on May 2. Anthony Stroud, racing manager for co-owner Sheik Mohammed al Maktoum, said that Steve Cauthen would ride. Patrick Valenzuela rides Arazi in the United States for the colt's other owner, Allen Paulson. Cauthen worked Arazi at Chantilly grounds in Paris a day earlier.

Arazi, the highly regarded colt who came over from France to win the Breeders' Cup Juvenile on Nov. 2, could prep for the Kentucky Derby at Keeneland instead of in France. That became an option when Arazi was nominated for the 1 1/8-mile Blue Grass Stakes April 11 Keeneland. The 1 1/4-mile Derby will be run May 2 at Churchill Downs, the scene of the Kentucky-bred colt's awesome victory in the 1 1/16-mile Juvenile in his first race on the dirt and around two turns.

Allen Paulson, the horse owner who won two Breeders' Cup races a year ago, is suing trainer Dick Lundy, alleging improprieties in the sale and purchase of horses in the United States and Europe. Paulson filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court, accusing Lundy and Stephen Grod, a Newport Beach bloodstock agent, of "conspiracy to defraud." One of the horses named in Paulson's suit is Loach, who was recently sold to the owners of 1991 Kentucky Derby winner Strike The Gold.

Arazi's trainer would like to see the 3-year-old colt attempt a unique Kentucky Derby-English Derby double rather than go for the Triple Crown. Arazi, who won last year's Breeder's Cup Juvenile in spectacular fashion, is rated a favorite in the May 2 Kentucky Derby. But Francois Boutin, the French trainer, said Wednesday that Arazi's co-owners still must decide whether the American-bred colt also will run the Preakness on May 16 and the Belmont Stakes on June 6.

Arazi, the French colt who became the winter-book favorite for next year's Kentucky Derby with an overpowering victory last Saturday in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Stakes, has bone spurs in his right knee that could compromise his future. Instead of being flown back to France last Sunday, Arazi was sent to owner Allen Paulson's farm in Versailles, Ky.

There is an Arazi. The most-discussed, least-seen horse scheduled to run in Saturday's Kentucky Derby was scheduled to arrive at his barn at Churchill Downs Monday night. Arazi, expected to be the heavy betting favorite, was flown here from France Sunday and spent about 24 hours in the quarantine area, a converted warehouse across the street from the track.

Arazi, the winter-book favorite for next year's Kentucky Derby, underwent arthroscopic surgery on both knees Wednesday in Lexington, Ky., and although the surgeon and the colt's co-owner were optimistic about his future, the horse's Derby odds jumped from 8-5 to 5-2 in Las Vegas. Larry Bramlage, a Lexington equine surgeon who operated on Arazi, removed bone chips near the top joints of both knees. The chips were causing inflammation, and spurs were forming as the result of stress.