Arazi, portrait of a champion

As a lifelong horse racing enthusiast, I was thrilled when I was commissioned to paint a portrait model of Arazi, the 1991 Breeders Cup Juvenile winner. Arazi was inconsistent but brilliant, and few BC Juvenile winners have sparked so much hype leading up to the Kentucky Derby.

Foaled in 1989 into a crop that included the likes of A. P. Indy, Bertrando, Pine Bluff, Devil His Due, and Dr. Devious, Arazi was as regally bred as they come. The small chestnut colt with the crooked blaze was by French champion and top sire Blushing Groom out of a G3-placed daughter of Northern Dancer. Arazi was born in the heart of the Kentucky bluegrass, and like so many youngsters, he was sold as a weanling at Keeneland. Allen Paulson, who later owned the great Cigar and Azeri, purchased him for $350,000 and sent him to France to train, a logical move given Arazi's pedigree. Paulson, a longtime pilot as well as the CEO of Gulfstream Aerospace, frequently named his horses for aeronautical navigational checkpoints. "Arazi" is just such a point for aircraft enroute to Yuma, Arizona.

As a two year-old in France, Arazi began his career with a second place finish at Chantilly, but that would be his only loss for nearly a year. He put together a string of 6 victories including the G1 Prix Morny at Deauville and the G1 Prix de la Salamandre and G1 Grand Criterium at Longchamp, earning him the title of Champion 2 Year-Old in France as well as the Cartier Award for best 2 year-old in Europe.

Paulsen then daringly shipped the colt to Churchill Downs for the 1991 Breeders Cup Juvenile. Sent off as the slight favorite over Bertrando, the impressive winner of the prestigious Norfolk Stakes, Arazi broke from the far outside post and trailed most of the field through the first turn and down the backstretch. Entering the second turn, Arazi suddenly unleashed an incredible turn of foot that still gives me chills no matter how many times I watch it. Weaving through traffic and passing horses with ease, Arazi caught the leader Bertrando before they reached the top of the stretch and, as Tom Durkin said in astonishment as he called the race, "ran right by him!" He blew the turn and entered the stretch wide, still running on his left lead, but it made no difference. He won by daylight in what is one of the most impressive Breeders Cup wins of all time.

Photo by Racing Post

Footage of Arazi's astonishing performance is available here. The race begins at about the 4 minute mark, but there is some interesting footage of Arazi winning in France leading up to the race.

Not surprisingly, Arazi was named champion 2 year-old in the United States as well. He wintered in France and had minor surgery to remove chips from his knees. As a European-based horse, he was prepped for the Kentucky Derby as most trainers would do so for the Epsom or French Derby---to wit, with only one prep. He won said prep, a one mile Listed race, with Steve Cauthen (of Affirmed fame) in the irons. He won as he pleased by 5 lengths, but his time was absurdly slow. It was little more than a paid workout. Nonetheless, the hype surrounding Arazi in the weeks leading up to the Derby suggested he was practically invincible. Many were already speculating about the Triple Crown before he had even competed for the first jewel.

That said, any student of Kentucky Derby history can tell you that a schedule consisting of one prep in six months simply doesn't work for a race like the Kentucky Derby. And yet Arazi made a huge move again on the far turn, looking for all the world like he really was the second coming of Secretariat. He was absolutely flying, gaining with every stride, and he nearly made the lead. But as they straightened for home, the game little chestnut flattened out, and though he battled on willingly, he faded and could only finish eighth.

Arazi returned to Europe where he ran 5th at Royal Ascot before being given the summer off. In the fall, he finished 3rd in a G3 and then won a G2 before returning to the United States to contest the Breeders Cup Mile where he finished an uncharacteristic eleventh. He was retired after the race, and as a stallion, he traveled just as much as when he was racing. His stallion career began at Dalham Stud in Newmarket, England. He later moved to Three Chimneys in Kentucky, then to Japan, on to Australia, a season in Switzerland, and once again to Australia. In 2012, he was pensioned there and is happily enjoying his retirement.

 

Arazi had only modest success as a sire. His best known son Congaree proved to be a terrific miler, and surprisingly, Arazi's daughters have produced several top stayers including Americain (Melbourne Cup winner and champion stayer), Electrocutionist (Dubai World Cup winner), and Lahudood (champion turf mare). Interestingly, Arazi also sired a number of top steeplechasers.

My customer chose the John Henry model for the Arazi portrait, and the tack was created by Lisa Merrill of Painted Daisy Studio.

Arazi may not have lived up to the media hype his BC Juvenile win engendered, but many still wonder how he might have fared in the Derby with a proper schedule of preps. He also crossed the Atlantic no less than 6 times in the span of a year which had to take its toll. Most horses hardly even travel across the country in a given year, let alone the ocean. He is generally thought of as being "just" a talented two year-old or miler, but I can't help but think that there was more to him than we ever got to see.

Pining for the Fjords

I had so much fun painting CollectAs before Christmas that I had to acquire a new batch of them to paint. I went a little Fjord crazy as you can see. I bought another Safari Percheron as well because it's such a nice, hunky little sculpture. He was sculpted by Jane Lunger who is better known as the sculptor of Breyer's G3 and G4 Stablemates. The CollectA Fjord of course was sculpted by well-known hobby artist Deb McDermott. I am willing to take commissions on these bodies ($75 each ppd in the USA, overseas shipping will be extra). Just shoot me an email at whitehorsepro (at) yahoo (dot) com if interested. Thanks!

Uffda!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Here's hoping for health and prosperity for all of my readers in 2015! I rang in the New Year relatively quietly with some cleaning and organizing in preparation for serious downsizing of my collection in the coming months. The number of horses, especially in the body box (now a body shelf), has gotten completely out of hand. I've been meaning to do this for quite a while, but finding the time has always been a challenge.

Happily, I closed out 2014 with a flurry of activity in my studio. I finished up and mailed out a number of commissions (pix of those soon!), and in between, I worked on a small herd of stocking stuffer models to sell. I had a great time painting these guys, and now that they all have gone off to new homes, I have room for more. Although that would defeat the point of emptying the body shelf.  But they're all roughly Pebbles scale or a bit smaller, so they won't take up much space. Right?

Seriously though, working in this scale was hugely fun for me. The models are just big enough to not strain my eyes, but small enough to be able to paint easily while working on batches of larger scale models. All of them were sculpted by artists familiar to hobbyists, too, so they have a great deal of detail packed into a tiny package while also having excellent ABCs.

CollectA Hanoverian (sculpted by Deb McDermott) in flaxen chestnut

Safari Percheron (sculpted by Jane Lunger of G3 and G4 SM fame) in bay roan

CollectA Fjord (sculpted by Deb McDermott) in bay dun skjevet (tobiano)

CollectA Fjord in grullo

G1 SM ASB (Maureen Love mold) in flaxen chestnut

Safari Icelandic (sculpted by Jane Lunger) in bay minimal tobiano

 I can't wait to paint more of these guys! Stay tuned!

Fall colors

Red...

Yellow...

 

 Orange...

 

 Lavender?

 

Prepping progress

My weekend wasn't exciting, but at least it was productive!

Cigar: America's Racehorse, April 18,1990 - October 7, 2014

The racing world has lost a legend, and to many BreyerFest goers, it feels like we've lost a member of the family, too. Cigar truly was America's horse, both while racing and in retirement. He captured the imagination of the whole country while he strung together a record-equaling 16 straight wins, and in many ways, he served as an ambassador of the sport in his long tenure at the Hall of Champions at the Kentucky Horse Park. I visited him there every year, and I'm sure many other collectors did, too.

Racing under Allen Paulson's star-spangled colors, Cigar was a late bloomer. He ran at three and four with moderate success, but he didn't really come into his own until the end of his four year-old year in 1994. In his last start that year, he captured the G1 NYRA Mile Handicap in spectacular fashion, defeating the mighty Devil His Due by 7 lengths and leaving the likes of Bertrando and Harlan far in his wake. It was a taste of things to come.

At five, he was absolutely unstoppable. He began the year with an allowance win before kicking off a string of victories all across the country from Florida to California to Arkansas to New York. He won all 10 of his starts that year, eight of them G1s including the Donn, the Oaklawn Handicap, the Hollywood Gold Cup, the Woodward, the Jockey Club Gold Cup, and the Breeders Cup Classic. In the latter, Cigar took command rounding the final turn, and Tom Durkin famously called him home as the "unconquerable, invincible, unbeatable Cigar."


At six, Cigar traveled 6,000 miles to Dubai to compete in the inaugural running of the world's richest horse race, the $5 million Dubai World Cup. He prevailed by half a length after a thrilling stretch duel with fellow American runner Soul of the Matter. Though he continued to run well at six, traveling halfway around the world took a lot out of him, and he did not go undefeated that year. Still, he tied Citation's record of 16 straight victories, and his wins in the Donn, the DWC, and the Woodward as well as near misses in the Pacific Classic and BC Classic secured Horse of the Year honors for him for the second year in a row.

Cigar retired as America's richest racehorse with just shy of $10 million in earnings, and his career was celebrated with a spectacular send-off at Madison Square Garden. He then was sent to  Coolmore's Ashford Stud, but unfortunately he proved to be infertile. In some ways, this may have ultimately proved to be a blessing for him. Cigar's pedigree was not the most fashionable, and had he failed at stud in the usual way, he might have ended up in a breeding backwater. Instead, he was graciously allowed to live out his life at the Kentucky Horse Park where his adoring fans from all across the country could visit him year round. He was truly America's racehorse.

My heart goes out to the KHP employees who loved him best. The Hall of Champions just won't be the same without him there. Rest in peace, champ.

Highland Ponies

I've been a Celtophile for most of my life, and not surprisingly, that has translated into an interest in the native ponies of Scotland and Ireland. Unfortunately, I've had only limited exposure to these breeds in person. As a kid, I took lessons on an aged Connemara gelding named Bullet (who, despite his 30+ years, could really move when he deemed it necessary). And while in college, I had the pleasure of visiting the first breeding pair of Highland Ponies imported to the United States, Quartz of Croila and Nora of Croila. I don't have any pictures of Bullet on hand, but I do have these of Quartz of Nora.

Quartz of Croila, aged 2 or 3, with owner Bill Begg-Lorimer

Nora of Croila and Bill

Sadly, Bill passed away not long after my visit, and his pony herd was dispersed. Quartz proved to be a well-regarded stallion here for over a decade before being exported back to Europe last year. I'm still trying to track down Nora.

Though I only spent an afternoon with Quartz and Nora, it solidified my already growing interest in Highland Ponies. I couldn't have the real thing, but I was interested in at least procuring some model  versions. Frustratingly, the hobby was decidedly lacking in HP models, so I was pretty thrilled to find the Beswick Mountain and Moorland series Highland at BreyerFest that July. He's not the most detailed piece, but beggars can't be choosers, and the M&M Beswicks are some of their nicest molds.

 

Since then, a handful of resin Highland Ponies have hit the market, but for the most part, they are sadly lacking in correct anatomy, conformation, and type (or all three). However, Donna Chaney's curio scale Highland Pony, like most of her native breed resins, stands head-and-shoulders above the competition, and I was quite delighted when my friend Carra M. asked me to paint two of these resins for her.

The first pony had been painted by Sheri Rhodes but had suffered some damage to the legs. He also had white markings which are not acceptable for purebred Highland Ponies, so fixing his cracks provided a good reason to add some shading to his points. The lovely dappling is all Sheri's work.

Glenfinnan Chibera champed at his first show!

Carra's second AA Highland had likewise suffered from cracked legs. Because these resins are solid cast, they're quite heavy, so they're prone to cracking if you look at them wrong. Once repaired, the second pony received a flaxen chestnut coat. It's a very rare color in Highlands.

Lassair of Lonmay

Working on Carra's AA resins inspired me to pull my own AA Haflinger off the shelf. It's the same mold as the Highland, but with slightly different hair. I decided it was high time I painted him---he's been kicking around my studio for years---and besides that, I hadn't painted anything for myself in ages. I thought he'd make a nice portrait of Quartz.

Dunharrow Quartz of Croila

Moving on to plastic models, Brigitte Eberl's new classic pony mare for Breyer makes a very passable Highland though she was not sculpted as such. Carra sent two of these to me as well for new paint jobs. Talk about HP heaven!

Several years ago, Carra visited the Brownbread Highland Pony Centre, a farm that is home to a couple of very rare silver dapple Highlands. The color traces back to ponies from the Scottish island of Rhum, and Brownbread is working hard to preserve the beautiful color. Naturally, one of the Eberl ponies had to be silver.

Brownbread Bell Heather

And the other is a classic grulla.

Coventry Skye Blue

My painting mojo continues to flow, and with models like these to work on, it's no wonder! Carra's ponies will be shipping out this week, and other commissions will be following soon. Stay tuned!