Small-Time Trainer From Brazil Has His Kentucky Derby Shot
By John Scheinman
Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
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.
"After he won the San Pedro, I had a chance to run seven furlongs in February [the San Vicente Stakes, won by Georgie Boy], but I decided to skip it because we had only three weeks [since the prior race] and I wanted to freshen him up a little bit. Then I wanted to go directly to two turns in March."
Two turns meant it was time to ask the question about Gayego's ability to perform in a route, not just sprint. Lobo said in preparing, he practiced the lessons learned from his father.
"The most important thing he passed on to me is you have to have patience, and you have to respect the horse in every way."
On March 15, in the 1 1/16 -mile San Felipe, Gayego finished second in one of the most exciting races of the Triple Crown prep season. He stalked the pace of Bob Black Jack, who over the winter set a track record at Santa Anita, and forged to the front at the top of the stretch.
Bob Black Jack refused to go away and the two hooked up in a mesmerizing struggle, until another colt, Georgie Boy, came from third place to catch them both on the wire.
From there, Lobo decided he needed to see if Gayego could transfer his ability from the synthetic surface at Santa Anita to dirt, which he would run on if good enough to make it to the Kentucky Derby. While many of the other top California horses remained home for the Santa Anita Derby, Lobo and Gayego lit out across the country for Oaklawn Park in Arkansas.
Gaining perfect striking position in a field of 13, Gayego won the $1 million Arkansas Derby by three-quarters of a length in a race that lacked top Kentucky Derby contenders but produced excellent speed figures.
Now, Lobo heads to Churchill Downs full of confidence. He believes Gayego only needs to improve a little more and get a clear trip to win.
"It's going to mean a lot to me," he said of victory. "Again, for everybody, when you work in another country, it's tough. It's not easy."
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