[1] His sire Graustark had a brief but promising racing career before becoming a very successful breeding stallion whose progeny included Prove Out, Key To The Mint, Avatar and Jim French.
[2] As a yearling, Caracolero was offered for sale at the Keeneland and was bought for $75,000[3] by representatives of María Félix, a Mexican actress and wife of French financier Alex Berger.
Mount Hagen took the lead early in the straight but was soon overtaken by Caracolero, who established a clear advantage 200 metre from the finish and stayed on strongly to win by one and a half lengths Dankaro, with Kamaraan and Mississipian in third and fourth.
Racing on firmer ground than he had previously encountered Caracolero reached fourth place early in the straight but then dropped away to finish eighth of the thirteen runners, almost twenty lengths behind the winner English Prince.
There was no International Classification of European two-year-olds in 1973: the official handicappers of Britain, Ireland and France compiled separate rankings for horses which competed in those countries.
The independent Timeform organisation gave him a rating of 131, making him their top-rated three-year-old alongside Dankaro, Comtesse de Loir, Nonoalco and Sagaro.