Chile's TEAO wins Gran Premio Latinoamericano at Monterrico

TEAO did more than win a race at Monterrico. He carried Chile to the top of South American turf racing, capturing the 42nd Gran Premio Latinoamericano in Peru and delivering a breakthrough for jockey Luis Torres and trainer Julio Orellana on the region’s biggest stage.

The Chilean colt settled the issue in the final straight of the 2000-meter turf test at Hipódromo de Monterrico in Lima, where the race was run Sunday, April 26, 2026, at 5:30 p.m. as the 10th event on a 12-race card. Under clear skies and temperatures around 24 degrees, TEAO took the $300,000 Group 1 prize before a packed crowd and held off a competitive field that had been advertised with 13 participants.

The win carried extra meaning because TEAO is bred in Chile by Haras Don Alberto and is by Ya Primo, the horse who won the Gran Premio Latinoamericano in Santiago in 2019. That makes TEAO a second-generation winner of South America’s premier race, a pedigree line that now ties Santiago to Lima and links two generations of Chilean staying talent in the same continental event. The victory was also described as Chile’s 11th in the Latinoamericano, strengthening a record that already gives the country one of the strongest claims in the race’s history.

Uruguay’s Galikovic ran second, with Argentina’s The Gladiator’s Hat third, giving the finish a distinctly regional stamp even as Chile claimed the headline. The result underscored how the Latinoamericano remains the most important measuring stick for Southern Hemisphere middle-distance horses, a place where national prestige, breeding reputation and training depth all collide in one race.

For Torres, the ride delivered the kind of career-defining result that travels well beyond one afternoon in Peru. For Orellana, it validated a campaign built for the continent’s marquee test. And for Chilean racing, TEAO’s victory at Monterrico was a reminder that when the best in South America meet over 2000 meters, the sport’s hierarchy can still be rewritten in a single stretch run.