Cadillac Colt The favorite to win the Kentucky Derby, Arazi races like the Second Coming of Secretariat

By ADAM ZAGORIN SAINT-CLOUD

( AS NINE SLEEK THOROUGHBREDS exploded out of the starting gate in the $38,000 Prix Omnium II at the Saint-Cloud racecourse outside Paris earlier this month, all binoculars were trained on a single horse. In the diffident manner that marks his style, the diminutive three-year-old, a crooked white blaze crossing his handsome forehead, hung well back. He settled into sixth place in the 1,600-m contest, moving along at a leisurely gallop that offered no hint of the fireworks to come.

Then, suddenly, Arazi made his move. Shooting past two horses in the back straight, he swiftly overtook the rest of the field and, with turf-devouring nonchalance, loped to victory by five lengths. In the winner's circle, tossing his head like a young virtuoso after a brilliant performance, the horse drew the fond gaze of his jockey, Steve Cauthen. Said Cauthen: "Arazi rides just like a Cadillac."

If Arazi can repeat his latest performance in this Saturday's Kentucky Derby, where he is the favorite in a field of such impressive challengers as A.P. Indy and Pistols and Roses, the young stallion could earn the right to graze in horse racing's Elysian Fields alongside the greatest track legends of all time. Already the winner of six major-stakes races in France worth $700,000, as well as the $1 million Breeder's Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs last year, Arazi is fast winning a reputation as the second coming of Secretariat. Says Joe Hirsch, a columnist with the New Jersey-based Daily Racing Form: "He is such an extraordinary animal that he makes other great horses look like hacks."

Many great horses have been bigger and stronger. Arazi is small -- he stands 5 ft. 2 in. at the shoulder -- and is vulnerable in the knees. Five months ago he underwent arthroscopic surgery to remove bone spurs in both his front legs, though he is now fully recovered. Yet he retains one outstanding quality: enormous acceleration. Explains Arazi's French trainer Francois Boutin: "It is not his speed that counts as much as his courage to overtake other horses at the right moment and win races." With each appearance in the winner's circle, speculation has also grown over the mutually exclusive ambitions of Arazi's wealthy co-owners. One of them is American Allen Paulson, the chairman of Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. of Savannah, who bought him as a foal in 1989 for $350,000. Paulson, the owner of bloodstock valued at more than $100 million, wants his prize horse to compete in the three Triple Crown races: the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes. Winning them all would be worth nearly $1 million in prize money, plus a bonus of $5 million.

Arazi's other owner, United Arab Emirates Defense Minister Sheik Mohammed bin-Rashid al-Maktoum, whose family possesses more racehorses than anyone else in the world, has other ideas. He would like Arazi to shoot for an unprecedented transatlantic double by running in the Kentucky Derby and then going on in June to the $1 million Epsom Derby, Britain's premier flat race. Contesting Epsom as well as the full Triple Crown is impossible because the events are spaced too closely on the calendar.

"Sheik Mohammed has spent several fortunes trying to win glory in the English Derby and has never done it," says Lord White of Hull, the chairman of Hanson Industries, whose Ever Ready subsidiary sponsors Epsom. "Paulson, on the other hand, has a very pragmatic attitude toward the financial rewards represented by the Triple Crown. You've got two very strong-willed men; the question of where Arazi runs may, in the end, come down to money."

Sheik Mohammed purchased his 50% share in Arazi from Paulson six months ago. Sheik Mohammed had tried several times before to buy the horse through intermediaries, but Paulson refused. Finally, during last year's $1.5 million Arc de Triomphe at Paris's Longchamps racecourse, the Arab prince pressed Paulson face to face, asking him to name his price. Trying to come up with a figure that would be too high to be taken seriously, Paulson proposed $9 million for half the horse; to his surprise, Sheik Mohammed immediately closed the deal on a handshake.

The two owners agreed that in races in the U.S., jockey Pat Valenzuela would ride Arazi wearing Paulson's red-white-and-blue silks, while in Europe the British-based Cauthen would be in Sheik Mohammed's maroon and white. What the pair did not resolve was which contests Arazi would enter; instead, they determined that if they could not agree, trainer Boutin would make the choice in the horse's best interest.

There is no guarantee that Arazi will continue his winning ways. As Sheik Mohammed points out, "He could get a headache or a cold and lose, as other great horses have." Yet extending his string of victories would not only bring glory but give a lift to the depressed international racing industry. Track attendance -- and prices at horse auctions -- have been hit hard in both the U.S. and Europe. If Arazi can take the two Derbies or the Triple Crown, his triumph will reflect on all of racing, a sport that requires superstars at least as much as the movie business. So far, Arazi is shining as brightly as any horse in racing's firmament.