Gayego Could Give Lobo a Thrill Ride

Small-Time Trainer From Brazil Has His Kentucky Derby Shot

LOUISVILLE, April 29 -- Paulo Lobo is not mentioned among the elite trainers running horses Saturday in the Kentucky Derby, yet he has won a handful of the most prestigious races in the country.

In Brazil, where Lobo grew up, the family name is renowned in racing circles. Lobo's grandfather, Trajano Lobo, won 13 training titles; his father, Selmar Lobo, was leading trainer for seven consecutive years at Cidade Jardim racetrack in Sao Paulo.

"I have an uncle who is a veterinarian," Lobo, 39, said. "I have a cousin who is a trainer. I have one brother who is a horse auctioneer. I love horses. You know, my father trained more than 100 stakes winners in Brazil. I was very fortunate to have seen and been around so many good horses that he trained. I had the opportunity."

On Saturday, Selmar Lobo will have the opportunity to watch his son when he saddles Gayego, an inexpensive but determined and fast colt with an excellent chance to win the greatest prize in racing.

Since coming to the United States in 2000, after 15 years as an assistant to his father and five on his own, Lobo has developed a champion -- the filly Farda Amiga, who won the Kentucky Oaks and historic Alabama at Saratoga in 2002 -- and a near-champion, the star Pico Central, who swept the three most prestigious New York sprint races in 2004. Yet his stable never appreciably grew and his star never rose.

Despite obvious expertise, Lobo has just 32 horses in his barn at Hollywood Park, and more people have called recently trying to buy Gayego than hire Lobo to train their stock. The number is a far cry from the 70 he initially brought with him from Brazil.

"Of course I want more," he said recently from his home in Pasadena, Calif. "Slowly my barn is growing, but when you are from another country, things are tougher. I don't see it as racist, but it's tougher. I've won the [Kentucky] Oaks. I've won the Met Mile. In three years, I almost had two champions, but I'm very happy with my situation."

Suzanne Cardiff, the California bloodstock specialist who selected Gayego for owners Carlos Juelle and Jose Prieto out of the 2006 September Yearling Sale at Keeneland, said Lobo's gentle nature may play against him in the often brusk world of racing.

"He's not out there hustling," Cardiff said. "He's shy; he's laid back. It's not his personality to go out there, but he's very, very good. He is there going over those horses at 5 o'clock in the morning, every single one of them."

Gayego may change everything for Lobo, who recognized the colt's talent from the moment he walked into the barn last fall and began planning for the Derby the day he won his debut in November.

"I knew myself," said jockey Mike Smith, who has ridden Gayego in each of his five starts. "As soon as he came back and won his second race, I said, 'This horse is good.' "

In his third start, the San Pedro Stakes on Jan. 20 at Santa Anita, Gayego chased a blazing sprinter named Sea of Pleasure through an astonishingly fast half-mile in 43 seconds then blew him away by 2 3/4 lengths.