Peruvian Huracan Americo Targets Florida Derby for Zanelli Jr.

Nine years after running third in the Florida Derby (G1) with a Peruvian Group 1 winner making his North American debut, trainer Dante Zanelli Jr. is targeting Gulfstream Park’s signature race with another South American import. Huracan Americo, owned by Oscar Pena’s Dona Licha Stables, is being pointed to the $1 million Florida Derby April 1 with a possible prep in the $400,000 Fountain of Youth (G2) March 4 at Gulfstream.

A chestnut son of 2010 Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Drosselmeyer, Huracan Americo raced twice in Peru last year, finishing fourth in his debut before winning the 1 ½-mile Derby Nacional (G1) Nov. 6 at Hipodromo De Monterrico in Lima. He arrived at Gulfstream on Jan. 20.

“We’re looking at the Fountain of Youth. The horse will have to tell us,” Zanelli said. “The Florida Derby is the first definite target. However, the Fountain of Youth is a possibility the way this horse allows you to work with him. We’ll see what happens as we get closer to the two races. We are pointing to the Fountain of Youth as long as the horse keeps moving forward.”

Zanelli followed a similar pattern in 2008 with Tomcito, who won back-to-back Group 1 races in Peru including the 2007 Derby Nacional for Jet Set Racing Stable prior to the Florida Derby where he rallied from dead last to beat nine horses, 12 ½ lengths behind winner Big Brown.

“I suggested to Mr. Pena that we could try to do this the same way we did in 2008 with my other client and take a crack at it and give it a chance,” Zanelli said. “If I have to compare the two, I like our chances a little better this time around. I think there’s a lot of upside with this horse the way he’s so easy to handle and gets in position in a race much better than Tomcito. He’d fall behind and make a huge run.”

Zanelli also felt Huracan Americo’s physical makeup would be a plus compared to Tomcito, a son of Street Cry that ran sixth in the Lexington (G2) following the Florida Derby and never made it to any of the Triple Crown races.

Huracan Americo was bred in Florida by Dr. K.K. and Dr. V. Devi Jayaraman, the owner-breeder of 2009 champion 3-year-old male Summer Bird.

“He’s not a big horse. He is very classy, very well-balanced [where] Tomcito was a very heavy, big horse,” Zanelli said. “It’s hard to train in America with the big body and the big head; it took a lot of pounding on his body. The horse can only sustain so much to train, especially when you’re pointing to those big races.

“I think it’s quite different with this horse. This horse is easy on himself and does everything you ask him to,” he added. “We are planning to adjust him to the American ways and see what we can come up with. I think he’s always going to be a dark horse because we don’t know how the form is going to translate to the United States.”

Huracan Americo had his first breeze at Gulfstream on Thursday, going five furlongs in 1:02.69 over the main track with Hall of Fame jockey and Peru native Edgar Prado aboard. Arturo Bruno Morales Cavieres, his trainer in Peru, was on  hand for the work.

“He was working up to a mile and worked before he traveled but these horses go into quarantine for seven days and in his case it was almost eight days, and they tend to lose their condition,” Zarelli said. “We just wanted to have an easy work and let him do a little bit the last quarter-mile, which he did, and he finished really well.

“The trainer from Peru flew in to look at him and make sure we’re doing everything right, and so far he’s accomplished what we wanted,” he added. “He came out of the work super and he ate his whole meal and the horse is doing very nice. He’s adjusted very well. We could not be any happier with him.”

Source: Gulfstream Park