Santa Anita: Dr Action, Big Cazanova make U.S. debuts
ARCADIA, Calif. – Sunday at Santa Anita, trainer Peter Miller starts two South American imports who could play roles in turf stakes this year.
Big Cazanova, a maiden who placed in several group stakes in Argentina and Peru, starts in an optional claimer over 1 1/8 miles on turf.
Later, Dr Action, a multiple stakes winner in Peru last year, makes his American debut in the $75,000 Thunder Road Stakes. Later this year, Miller said that Lideris, a Group 1 winner in Peru on March 15, and Kung Fu Mambo, a Group 1 winner in Peru in 2012, will join his Southern California stable.
If they can translate their South American form in California, they will be welcome additions to turf stakes divisions that have been light in depth in recent years.
Big Cazanova and Dr Action race for Oscar Pena’s Dona Licha stable.
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Dr Action has won 4 of 6 starts. He won consecutive Group 2 turf races over about 1 1/4 miles and 1 1/2 miles in Peru last autumn before finishing 15th at odds of 5.90-1 in the Group 1 Carlos Pellegrini in Argentina last December, his final start in South America. The Pellegrini is the most prestigious race for older horses in South America.
“He was a very good horse in Peru,” Miller said. “He was 6-1 in the Pellegrini, and that’s a big race down there.”
Miller considers the Thunder Road to be a starting point for the American career of Dr Action, an Argentine-bred by the Storm Cat stallion Hurricane Cat.
“I think he’ll be better with more distance,” Miller said. “That’s kind of my gut feeling that it’s too short for him.”
Big Cazanova is winless in 11 starts, but was disqualified from first to second in a Group 1 race in Peru last June. Sunday’s sixth race will be Big Cazanova’s first start since a 10th in a Group 3 races in Peru on Jan. 12.
“He’s a maiden, and we’re running him over his condition,” Miller said. “If he gets beat, we can run him in a maiden race.”