Arrogate: 'He'd give any horse ever a race - he was that good'

Fans' Favourites is a weekly feature in the Racing Post Weekender in which we talk to those closest to racing's most popular horses and find out why they tug on our heartstrings. This week's subject: Arrogate

It was fleeting, but it was thrilling. A criticism of the Flat is that horses sweep in, steal our hearts and then depart to stud in the blink of an eye before they’ve been properly tested, but there are rock-hard chasers who might have winced at the schedule undertaken by the Bob Baffert-trained Arrogate.

Within a year of his debut, he had become the sport’s highest earner, a title he subsequently ceded to Australian darling Winx, and in that short spree he roared to four top-level wins under Mike Smith, including the most dramatic of Dubai World Cups.

That winning streak propelled him to become champion of the world in 2016 and 2017 with an exalted figure of 134 – a rating surpassed by only the fearsome Cigar (135) and one shared by American Pharoah when it comes to US horses, which were included in official end-of-year rankings from 1995.

The exceptional Dubai Millennium is the only other horse to produce a dirt performance of that quality in that time, and in the last 20 years only turf stars Frankel (140), Sea The Stars (136) and Harbinger (135) have outstripped the $560,000 yearling, a rare purchase at the sales for the late Khalid Abullah’s Juddmonte empire.

“Prince Khalid wanted horses in California again,” explains Garrett O’Rourke, who manages the operation’s interests in the States. “We didn’t have any, so he said, ‘Let’s go out and buy them then’.

“I think Arrogate came in the second year doing that and he wasn’t a big yearling, but became big from the middle of his two-year-old campaign to the late part. He was leggy, but short-coupled and well-balanced – a correct, lovely mover with a lot of presence.”

Baffert, among the sport’s most famous faces in the US and a Triple Crown winner with American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify three years later, was part of the scouting process and recalls: “We made a list and the prince would have the final okay. He wanted to stay between $400,000 and $600,000, nothing crazy.

“Arrogate had a growth spurt and got big and tall – he was rangy – but at the sale he looked like he would have a lot of speed. He was very sound and had good bone, but sore shins meant he had a slow start.

“I send my horses to Los Alamitos with one of my assistants, Mike Marlow. He breezes them before they come to me at Santa Anita and he said he was a serious horse. Mike’s a black and white kind of guy and he said that about Pharoah, him and just a handful of others. The really good ones will tip you off immediately, they do everything effortlessly.

“When Pharoah retired we were in a horse depression because of the excitement those horses bring. Then it’s all gone and your phone’s not ringing, and you think you’ll never have another horse like him again, but Arrogate came and filled those shoes, and took it to another level.”

Arrogate did not make his debut until the April of his three-year-old season when he was third at Los Alamitos.

“The Triple Crown would have been a rush and Juddmonte always let us take our time,” Baffert says. “I think he could have made the Belmont Stakes if I’d squeezed him, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to bring him at our pace and manage him carefully, although his first start was a disaster.

“He had blinkers on and didn’t need them, and was all over the place in the warm-up. He didn’t break well and kept getting boxed in, and every move he made was the wrong one. He finally got loose and was flying at the end, but that defeat didn’t matter because he got a lot of experience out of it. From then on, he was just brilliant.”

Bob Baffert with Arrogate and work-rider Dana BarnesCredit: Edward Whitaker

That brilliance was showcased in three minor wins before Arrogate announced himself to the wider world in the Travers Stakes, the historic August event that is the most prestigious in the Saratoga calendar.

The grey needed a new rider there, however, as Rafael Bejarano was required to partner stablemate American Freedom, a classy sort who had just finished second at the highest level in the Haskell Invitational.

“I was training Arrogate for the Travers and was going to run American Freedom in the Pennsylvania Derby, but his owner Gary West wanted to run in the Travers,” Baffert says.

“I told him I didn’t want to run, but he said the Travers was more meaningful and wanted to be there.

“I said we could run, but that we had another horse I really liked. He said he didn’t care if I had five! We decided to run, but I mentioned we might need another rider.

“He asked, ‘What’s wrong with Bejarano?’ I told him he’d be on this other horse and he said he felt Bejarano should stick with American Freedom and that he’d been loyal to him. I told Bejarano, so Mike Smith got the mount on Arrogate at the last minute and, just before the race, Bejarano told Mike, ‘Your horse, he cannot lose!’”

Stall one was the only complication. “He could be a bit of a boy in his barn, but as long as you had a carrot or an apple you were all right,” says Smith. “He was kind and brave when you were on him, a beautiful horse to ride, very straightforward. He was so focused and I think that’s what made him special as well – there were no games about him; he’d just march. You’d point him in a direction and he’d run through a wall.

“The first time I ever sat on him was in the Travers and I was excited. Bob said he’d stepped up his training and wouldn’t be surprised if we could pull it off.

“He was in the one hole and Bob said he needed me to get him out of the gate and get him going and, if we did that, we’d have a big chance.”

Baffert echoes that memory. “We told Mike he’d have to get out well. I didn’t want him to be stuck down there because Arrogate hadn’t had that many races, but I said, ‘Mike, he can really run, we’ve just never turned him loose.’”

When he was let loose, Arrogate romped away by 13 and a half lengths in the fastest time ever recorded in the race, first staged in 1864.

“Did he feel as good as he looked that day? And more,” Smith reminisces. “When he ran his race, he was a train, unbelievable. He had a great mind to go along with his talent, and you almost felt like you were going downhill when you rode him because he had such a high cruising speed that never seemed to stop. He just kept going faster and faster and faster.”

Mike Smith on Arrogate: 'When he ran his race, he was a train, unbelievable'Credit: Cliff Hawkins (Getty Images)

The performance also had Baffert purring. “I knew he could win, but didn’t know he could put on a show like that,” he says. “He just opened up. American Freedom was second and he thought he’d won because he was so far back!

“The first thing Mike said was, ‘You guys were right, he can really run!’”

Next was an almighty Breeders’ Cup Classic showdown with California Chrome, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner in 2014, who had rebounded right back to his best in 2016 and arrived on a six-race unbeaten streak that included the Dubai World Cup.

There was an element of cat and mouse about the way Smith tracked Victor Espinoza on California Chrome, who earned his highest Racing Post Rating in finishing a half-length second to the new superstar.

“Chrome had everything his way,” says Smith. “I was trying to stay in behind so he couldn’t see me and then make a big, surprise attack.

“We headed for home and Chrome took off. I thought we wouldn’t catch him, but as soon as he did, Arrogate hit another gear and I thought, ‘Wow, where did that come from?’ We were flying.”

Arrogate beats California Chrome by half a length in the 2016 Breeders’ Cup ClassicCredit: Edward Whitaker

There was mild surprise at that moment from Arrogate’s trainer, who says: “I was hopeful coming into the Classic, but California Chrome looked fantastic and was a great older horse. I thought we’d give him something to think about, but he took off and I thought we’d be second.

"Then, all of a sudden, Mike tapped Arrogate and he lowered his head and caught another gear we didn’t know he had. It was a thrilling finish; it took a great horse to run down California Chrome and Arrogate showed he was the best.”

It was not just Baffert saying that as Arrogate was, in this week five years ago, crowned world champion for 2016 with that sky-high rating of 134, 5lb clear of Europe’s top horse Almanzor and 10lb ahead of Postponed and Found, the best of the British and Irish.

The Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park, which came days after that honour, had recently been inaugurated and, at the time, offered a staggering purse of £12 million, making it the most valuable race on the planet.

Having his first start as a four-year-old, the son of Unbridled’s Song recorded a comfortable triumph to swell his earnings further before his ultimate date with destiny in the Dubai World Cup two months later.

“I thought the Classic was incredible, but there was a lot of pressure on me for Dubai,” Baffert remembers. “The prince didn’t really fancy taking him. They left it up to me and said I could take him, if I thought he could win.

“There were bragging rights on the line, a Saudi horse against the Dubai horses, but he was doing well.”

Arrogate was not doing so well when the stalls opened and he collided with Furia Cruzada, an incident that almost had Smith pulling up the heavyweight favourite.

“He missed the break and something cut him up and he was last,” Baffert says. “I thought, ‘I’ve brought him all the way for this?’ I thought the prince would be so mad and I was watching the race in total disgust.”

Arrogate (third left) races in last place from the break before winning the Dubai World Cup in 2017Credit: Edward Whitaker

Smith had no time to be disgusted as he attempted to make some inroads.

“He literally had to stop so he could start again,” says the Hall of Fame jockey. “It was crazy. I didn’t think we had any chance after that, but thought I’d get back little by little and see what he could do – it was still a huge purse and maybe I could pull off third or something like that.

“When we hit the back straight, he levelled off and started catching horses so easily and so fast. I went, ‘Holy crap! If he can cut a corner somewhere I can win this!’

“Not only did he win, he beat Gun Runner and beat him like he was nothing. I geared my horse down the last sixteenth of a mile and he coasted home.

“That’s probably the most impressive race I’ve seen any horse run because of the start; he got smashed leaving the stalls, cremated.

“He wasn’t supposed to beat a horse like Gun Runner after getting eliminated like that and, to this day, if he was to run the way he could he’d give any horse ever a race – he was that good.”

It was a rollercoaster of emotions for Baffert. “It was hard for me to get happy and excited because I was so mad and upset at the start. I was in awe of that horse. Secretariat has always been the bar of American racing, but Arrogate is the type of horse who would have given Secretariat a run for his money. That, in Dubai, was a Secretariat move.

“I felt so relieved he won for the prince, who was such a nice man. It was great for the whole team and we walked away having witnessed greatness.

“Winning the Triple Crown with American Pharoah was something, but what Arrogate did that night was what you see in the movies. Everyone got goosebumps.”

Arrogate did not win again and his whirlwind programme, particularly that monumental Meydan effort, may have left its mark.

Arrogate at Juddmonte Farms in Lexington, Kentucky in November 2018Credit: Edward Whitaker

Three defeats – against opposition he’d have dismissed running backwards according to Smith – followed and Baffert concludes: “He ran so hard in Dubai. It was a ‘drop the mic’ race and I probably should have turned him out for a while [to recover]. It really bothered me he got beat by horses who should have never beaten him, but he’s one of the all-time greats.”

Arrogate was retired to stud but died in 2020, the year before his progeny first hit the track.

“There aren’t many who come around like that – one of the best dirt horses of modern times,” says O’Rourke. “Juddmonte has had some big dirt horses, but he was the pinnacle.

“It came to a premature end, but hopefully we’ll get one by him to carry on his legacy.”

And that legacy, albeit a short-lived one, is certainly worth continuing.

Read more from our Fans' Favourites series:

Desert Orchid: 'People thought it was an act of lunacy to run over three miles'

Lostintranslation: 'He's completely different – he's back with a vengeance'

One For Arthur: 'For other horses it was a test but for him it was easy'

Denman: 'He could pick you up and chuck you out the box or take your arm off'

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