 Bred by Ralph C. Wilson, Jr., owner of the NFL Buffalo Bills, he was bought at the Keeneland Sales in Kentucky as a weanling for $350,000 by American businessman Allen E. Paulson.Chairman of Gulfstream Aerospace and a pilot, Paulson named the horse for the Arazi aeronautical navigational checkpoint in the Arizona desert.Paulson owned racing stables in the United States and Europe; he sent Arazi to France, where trainer François Boutin took charge of his conditioning.