BREEDER’S CUP : CLASSIC : Too Stunned to Be Angry : Stevens, Bertrando’s jockey, and trainer Frankel don’t know what hit them after Arcangues’ record upset.

As Breeders’ Cups go, it was a rather formful afternoon.

And then came the Classic.

And with it, the hopes and dreams of thousands who placed a wager on the final Breeders’ Cup race vanished as Arcangues blew past Bertrando in the stretch to win the $3-million race.

But despite, or perhaps because of, the monumental upset, spirits weren’t down among the losers after the race. It was just one of those things. Who could have figured?

“I was looking forward to winning this race for the past month,” said jockey Gary Stevens, who looked every bit the winner on Bertrando. “So I’m kind of surprised at my reaction, that I’m not upset. I would have been mad if my horse hadn’t run the race he did. But my horse ran a great race. He gave everything he’s got. He just got beat.”

Even Bertrando’s trainer, Bobby Frankel, who has been known to be a bit surly after a losing race, seemed resigned to the result.

“I’m really kind of in shock,” said Frankel, who has not won with 22 Breeders’ Cup entrants. “I guess it just wasn’t meant to be. He ran great. I’m surprised that anybody was able to catch him. When Gary (Stevens) got off the horse he said, ‘Where did that (son of a gun) come from?’ and I had to say, ‘I don’t know.’ I guess it just wasn’t meant to be for me this year.”

Stevens thought Bertrando would win.

“I thought I had won it at the eighth (-of-a-mile-to-go pole),” Stevens said. “He was running the same race he ran at the Pacific Classic, (which he won by three lengths.) But then if you could have seen my face at the 16th, you would have seen one surprised person.

“I was beaten, but I didn’t know who had done it. I guess there was a French horse that I just didn’t know about.”

Neither did too many others, as evidenced by Arcangues’ win price of $269.20, a Breeders’ Cup record.

In his previous Breeders’ Cup start, the ’91 Juvenile at Churchill Downs, Bertrando was leading at the top of the stretch when another little-known French horse, Arazi, blew past him and won.

Best Pal never threatened and finished 10th.

“He just didn’t fire,” jockey Corey Black said. “I was in a good spot in the pocket, but I never had a chance to get outside. He just didn’t run.

“I feel bad for the people who love the horse and I feel bad for the horse. But everyone knows that wasn’t the kind of horse Best Pal is. Everyone knows he’s a much better horse.”

Eclipse Award voters probably expanded that thought to say it wasn’t Best Pal’s year. Trainer Gary Jones, who would normally be the one to address that issue, took the loss harder than most. He walked briskly past reporters, refusing to answer questions. If his horse didn’t fire, you couldn’t say the same for his escape. He fired.