By John Clay
Herald-Leader sports columnist

LOUISVILLE — You can almost still hear it, the celebration was so spontaneous, and wonderful and exhilarating.

As soon as their horse hit the finish line first, the pack of delirious Brazilians flooded onto the track at Churchill Downs, whooping and hollering, tears streaming down their faces.

{ PHOTO: Kelsey Danner ponied Jody Pieper and Gayego to the track for morning training on April 30. David Stephenson | Staff ]This was 2002, when a filly named Farda Amiga, a 20-1 shot, won the Kentucky Oaks.

Her trainer was a little-known but talented Brazilian who had come to America a little more than a year before.
Welcome back Paulo Lobo.

It’s 2008, and the 39-year-old Lobo is back at Churchill Downs, this time with a Kentucky Derby horse, Arkansas Derby winner Gayego.

“I think,” the shy but friendly Lobo said Wednesday in front of Barn 33, “he is peaking at the right time.”

Lobo should know. Take Charge Lady was the 8-5 favorite that Friday back in 2002 when Farda Amiga shocked the crowd and ignited a happy eruption by the connections, who had trusted their filly to the young trainer.

“I remember the crowd,” Lobo said. “To win one of the most famous races in the world; we were happy to be here.”

Before that, Lobo admits, it had been tough coming from Sao Paulo, where he helped his father, Selmar, with a 200-horse operation.
“My father, he did not want me to go at first,” Lobo said. “But when he saw my desire, he support me.”

A group of Brazilian friends, already in America, went to the Keeneland Sales in 2000 and bought “five babies,” Lobo said. “One was Farda Amiga. They called and asked me to come over and train them.”

Lobo did. In January 2001, he settled in California, knowing no one but his wife, Maria Carolina.

“I think that is why my wife and I are so close today,” said Lobo, now the father of 2-year-old twin daughters, “because it was so hard at first.”

Farda Amiga made things easier. She ended up winning the Eclipse Award for 3-year-old filly champion after winning the Oaks, then running second to Azeri in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

Two years later, in 2004, Lobo trained the sprinter Pico Central to a string of impressive wins that helped draw better horses to his barn.
“Slowly,” he said, “it started to build.”

Gayego is his first Derby horse. The son of the sprinter Gilded Time was just a $32,000 yearling purchase by Cuban-born owners Carlos Juelle and Jose Prieto. The latter was once sentenced to death by Fidel Castro before receiving his release from Cuba in 1973. Juelle had come to the United States three years earlier. The two make a habit of coming to Lexington to buy a yearling each year.

They purchased Gayego in 2005, then sent him to Lobo, who needed only to watch a 3/8-mile breeze to know he might have something special in his new arrival.

Gayego broke his maiden at Santa Anita last November, finished second in an allowance race in December, then won the San Pedro Stakes at Santa Anita in January. He ran second to Colonel John in the San Felipe before Lobo decided to ship to Oaklawn for the Arkansas Derby.

“I wanted him to run on dirt,” Lobo said. “And many people say the horses that like Oaklawn, like (Churchill Downs).”

Many people are right. The 2004 Arkansas Derby winner, Smarty Jones, won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. Afleet Alex, winner of the 2005 Arkansas Derby, finished third in the Derby before winning the Preakness and Belmont. And last year’s Arkansas Derby winner, Curlin, also finished third in the Derby before winning the Preakness and the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Lobo hopes a similar path awaits, but distance doubters point to Gayego’s sire, Gilded Time, known more as a sprinter. “That was our biggest concern,” Lobo said, “but I think he’s proving the opposite.”

And his supporters say Gayego’s win at Arkansas proves that the best horses this year are from California.

“I think so,” Lobo agreed. “It’s a very nice crop in California.”

Just as it would be very nice for Lobo to repeat the feeling he experienced in 2002, only this time on the first Saturday in May.

“I would be very happy,” the trainer said.

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