2002 American Horse of the Year

May 6 - Azeri

Azeri, one of those rare female Horses of the Year, one of the last great horses was raced by Allen Paulson.

When Mr. Paulson passed away, well, it proved what Mark Twain said, "You never really know someone until you split an inheritance with them." Mr. Paulson had a few children (I think four of them.) One of them, Michael, loved the horses and wanted to keep one of the greatest racings stables this country has ever seen together. Michael did everything in his power to keep Azeri in the family. She had a colt that was named Valenzeri because he was born on Valentine's Day, her first foal and he was by AP Indy. Michael had hoped to raise Vallenzeri and felt that he had a potential Derby horse on his hands.

(I'm throwing this factoid on here because of its timeliness. Michael asked me who I thought he should use to train Vallenzeri. I told him Kenny McPeek and gave him my reasons.)

But back to the Mark Twain quote - the forces that were such that all the horses had to be sold to appease all the heirs. Valenzeri was sold and renamed Take Control.

Michael loved Azeri as much as any horse owner I've known loved any of their horses. She was a living breathing connection to his father. It broke his heart to have to run back throw the sale a second time after thwarting her sale the first time.

She is in Japan, retired from broodmare duties but I've been told she's a great "pasture mom". She could not be at a better place than Mr. Yoshida's farm where the mares are revered and given the greatest care. The Yoshida family has been breeding horses for over a half a century and during that time, they have NEVER sold their mares. It is an amazing long-term strategy! Please, don't worry about our girl, she will be loved and cared for with respect and dignity forever.

The chestnut mare who was once described as a homely, short-coupled yearling grew up to become one of the most decorated older females in modern American racing. Azeri was foaled on May 6, 1998, in Kentucky and bred by Allen E. Paulson, the aviation magnate whose racing empire produced Cigar and a generation of international champions. She was sired by Jade Hunter, a son of Mr. Prospector and a Grade 1 winner of the Donn and Gulfstream Park Handicaps, out of the Ahonoora mare Zodiac Miss, an Australian-bred from John Messara's Arrowfield Stud — an unusual cross that placed Northern Dancer 5×4 in her page and gave her a pedigree blending classic American speed with Australian stamina. After Paulson's death she was campaigned by his Allen E. Paulson Living Trust and trained for most of her career by Laura de Seroux, with Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas taking the shank for her final season.

Her racing record reads almost like a typo. In 2002 alone she won seven of eight starts, capped by a runaway victory in the Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) at Arlington and including the Santa Margarita Invitational, Apple Blossom Handicap, Milady Breeders' Cup Handicap, and Vanity Handicap — all Grade 1s. That year she became the first filly or mare ever to be voted Horse of the Year without facing male company, and she carried her championship form forward through 2003 and 2004. Her division had no answer for her: she was named Champion Older Female three years in a row (2002–2004), the only mare to do so since the Eclipse Awards began. Among her many distinctions was a third Apple Blossom Handicap in 2004 — at age six, in her first start under Lukas — a feat no horse, male or female, had ever managed.

She retired with 17 wins from 24 starts and earnings of $4,079,820, which at the time was an all-time record for a female racehorse, and was inducted into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame in 2010. As a broodmare she went to Japan, returned to the United States after she was deemed infertile, and produced only a few foals, none who emulated her on the track. But her legacy was never going to depend on her offspring. For three consecutive years, Azeri was the standard of her division and, for one of them, the standard of the entire American sport — a mare whose strapping bay-chestnut frame and finishing kick made her a fan favorite long after her last race.

Sources:

• Azeri (horse) — Wikipedia

• Azeri — National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame

• Azeri — Horse Racing Nation

• Azeri (horse) — American Classic Pedigrees

• Leading Female Earner, Horse of the Year Azeri Retired — BloodHorse