| Fraise | |
|---|---|
| Sire | Strawberry Road |
| Grandsire | Whiskey Road |
| Dam | Zalataia |
| Damsire | Dictus |
| Sex | Stallion |
| Foaled | 1988 |
| Country | United States |
| Colour | Bay |
| Breeder | Allen E. Paulson |
| Owner | Madeleine A. Paulson |
| Trainer | William I. Mott |
| Record | 34: 10-5-6 |
| Earnings | US$2,613,105 |
| Major wins | |
|
Round Table Handicap (1991) Breeders' Cup Turf (1992) |
|
| Horse (Equus ferus caballus) | |
Fraise (1988–2005) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the 1992 Breeders' Cup Turf. Bred by Allen E. Paulson, he was sired by Strawberry Road, the 1983 Australian Horse of the Year which Paulson acquired in 1986. The French dam of Fraise, acquired by Paulson in 1983, raced in France and the United States, notably winning the Grand Prix de Deauville and the Grade I Oak Tree Invitational Stakes.
Fraise, which is French for strawberry, was raced by Madeleine Paulson, who won the colt on a wager with her husband by beating him in a golf game.
Trained for racing on turf by future U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee Bill Mott, Fraise did not race at age two but made ten starts in 1991 at age three, notably winning the Round Table Handicap at Chicago's Arlington Park. Age four was Fraise's best year in racing when he won five of his ten starts. He got his first Grade I win in the Sword Dancer Handicap at Saratoga Race Course and capped off his year with a huge upset in the 1992 Breeders' Cup Turf.
The October 31, 1992 mile-and-a-half Breeders' Cup Turf was hosted by Gulfstream Park Racetrack in Hallandale Beach, Florida. Facing a top class international field, Fraise was sent off at odds of 14:1. He was up against the even-money favorite from Canada, Sky Classic, that year's winner of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, Subotica, and two Epsom Derby winners, Dr Devious (1992) and Quest for Fame (1991).
Coming from dead last at the half-mile mark, jockey Pat Valenzuela got Fraise into sixth place with half a mile to go, and at the top of the stretch was second behind Sky Classic which he beat to the finish line by a long nose.
Fraise returned to racing at age five, winning the Grade II Pan American Handicap at Gulfstream Park in Florida and the Grade I Hollywood Turf Cup Stakes at Hollywood Park Racetrack in California. At age six, Fraise won his second consecutive Pan American Handicap before being sold to Japanese interests.
In Japan, Fraise was raced only briefly before being retired to stud duty, at which he was unsuccessful. Eventually gelded, he was used as a lesson horse at the Olympic Riding Club in Chiba, Japan. In the summer of 2005, original owner Madeleine Paulson provided the Old Friends Equine retirement facility in Georgetown, Kentucky with a substantial gift to enable them to acquire the horse, bring him home from Japan, and look after him during his retirement years.
On November 7, 2005, the seventeen-year-old Fraise died suddenly from a ruptured blood vessel in his abdomen. He was cremated and his remains were interred in the Old Friends Dream Chase Farm cemetery.