So What Kind of Horse is Chucaro Acero BC?

I love it when foreign horses come to race in the United States.  Obviously, they are good horses otherwise why go through the expense of importing them, but the fun is figuring out the puzzle of what kind of race horse is it?  Will it be a cheap, middle of the road, or on a rare occasion a top class horse?  More interesting is trying to figure out what kind of horse it will be on its first North American debut.

In general, I have a pretty good idea of how they will be in the long run, but Saturday night there is a true mystery waiting to be solved in Chucaro Acero BC who comes to these shores a perfect 18 for 18.  The intriguing part is the horse comes from Argentina, a country not known for providing world beaters as those who saw the old Roosevelt International Trot could attest to.  Of recent years, the only Argentina horse who had modest success in the states was the double-gaiter Chucaro Ahijuna, who did most of his racing at Pompano Park and he earned $240,000 in North America.  Anyway Acero comes to these shores with his perfect record and earnings of $21,652 in Argentina racing in non-wagering events.  As such, he is able to race in Saturday's 1st race from the rail in a non-winners of 2 pari-mutuel events.  

How will he do?  On paper, he should do well but his connections report they don't think he is 100% yet and another source indicates he is having problems getting acclimated to this winter weather (but then it being the coldest in about 20 years, most people would say that too).  At a morning line of 5-2, I will pass on the race, but rest assured I will be watching with interest.

In the meanwhile, thanks to a link found by HRU, here is a video of one of Chucaro Acero BC's races in Argentina (this is the first heat of a race, the final follows).




And here is the final which took some work to find (thanks Daryl).





Those who follow Buffalo Raceway should be made aware that today and Saturday's cards have been moved up to 2:30pm post times due to problems with electrical power at the fairgrounds so moving the card to earlier in the day will avoid the need for lights.