Lobo looking for another big win in Keeneland Turf Mile

The trainer who won the marquee races at the 2020 Keeneland fall meet and the 2021 Kentucky Downs meet is based primarily at the Thoroughbred Training Center in Lexington, Ky.. In and of itself, that’s quite an upset.

Paulo Lobo, best known for winning the 2002 Kentucky Oaks with Farda Amiga, is the trainer of Ivar, winner of the $750,000 Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland last October, and Imperador, winner of the $715,105 Kentucky Turf Cup on Sept. 11 at Kentucky Downs.

“I’m very happy to be in Kentucky,” said Lobo, a 52-year-old Brazilian who trained for nearly 20 years in Southern California before moving his operation to the Thoroughbred center in spring 2019.

As the 2021 fall meet at Keeneland nears, Lobo is looking once again to foil the mega-stables that tend to dominate the elite stakes ranks here and elsewhere. From the 20-horse stable he oversees at the Thoroughbred center (he also has stalls at Keeneland), Lobo is planning to run the 5-year-old Brazilian-breds Ivar and In Love in the $750,000 Keeneland Turf Mile, the richest race of the 17-day meet, next Saturday (Oct. 9).

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“They are both doing very well, and we are excited to run them,” said Lobo, who also is training Imperador, a 5-year-old Argentine-bred, straight into the Breeders’ Cup Turf on Nov. 6 at Del Mar off his Kentucky Downs win.

Ivar will be ridden by Joe Talamo, while In Love, a last-out winner of a restricted stakes at Kentucky Downs, will have Alex Achard back aboard for the Grade 1 Keeneland Mile.

The Keeneland Mile is one of 10 stakes, nine of them graded, on the huge FallStars Weekend, which opens the meet Friday through Sunday. It was a $1 million race for six years (2014-19) before its purse was cut last fall amid the pandemic. In the aftermath of the March 24 death of Sheikh Hamdan of Shadwell Farm, the farm is downsizing, and its management decided over the summer not to renew the title sponsorship it had maintained since 2004.

The FallStars lineup is very familiar to longtime Keeneland fans. It opens Friday with the Grade 1 Alcibiades and Grade 2 Phoenix, then hits its peak Saturday with five stakes – the Keeneland Mile, the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity, the Grade 1 First Lady, the Grade 2 Thoroughbred Club of America, and the Grade 2 Woodford. Sunday brings the Grade 1 Spinster, the Grade 2 Bourbon, and the Indian Summer.

Unlike the last three Keeneland meets affected by pandemic restrictions, ontrack fans are being welcomed back. General admission, which is available only through online purchase, is $7 in advance and $10 on race day. A Thursday press release from Keeneland said attendance on its biggest days will be limited to about 20,000 so as “to give patrons the most enjoyable experience possible.” There was no mention of COVID-19 vaccinations or masks in the release.

The attendance limit might well have to be enforced on the first Saturday because the LSU-Kentucky football game is being played later that night at nearby Kroger Field.

Entries for the Friday opener will be drawn Tuesday.