Lobo saddles two South American imports in Yellow Ribbon
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Trainer Paulo Lobo will be represented by a quarter of the field when he saddles two South American imports in Saturday’s Grade II $200,000 Yellow Ribbon Stakes for older fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course.
Kiss Me Now, a 4-year-old Brazilian-bred, will be making her U.S. debut and first start since January 7 in a graded stakes in Argentina.
Pretty Girl, a 6-year-old Argentine-bred mare, was brought to the U.S. a year ago to run in the Grade I Beverly D Stakes on Arlington Million day at Arlington Park in Chicago. Turned over to Lobo and brought to California, Pretty Girl made her last three starts in the Grade II Santa Ana, Grade II Royal Heroine and Grade I Gamely at Santa Anita from March through May.
She was second, beaten 1 ¾ lengths by Goodyearforroses in the Santa Ana, fifth to Yellow Ribbon rival Hillhouse High in the Royal Heroine, beaten two lengths, and fifth, beaten 4 ½ lengths by Lady Eli, in the Gamely.
“Kiss Me Now won two Grade I stakes in South America. She’s a good filly, she’s been training well and she’s ready to go,” Lobo said recently at his stable here. “Pretty Gal has been running well (in Southern California), always against very good competition and we’ll see if she likes Del Mar.”
The Yellow Ribbon has long been a target for both.
“The distance and the timing of the race were good for both,” Lobo said.
Lobo, 48, a native of Brazil, moved to Southern California in 2001 and proceeded to win 13 Grade I or Grade II stakes in the next decade. His top campaigners were Farda Amiga, who won the Kentucky Oaks and Alabama Stakes in 2002, and Brazilian-bred Pico Central, who took the San Carlos Stakes at Santa Anita plus the Vosburgh and Metropolitan Handicap in New York in 2004.
Lobo moved his headquarters to New York in 2008, but in 2010 went back to Brazil to work privately for an owner. He was there for three years and has been back in Southern California for the last three.
He has one win from 36 starters in 2017 and will be seeking his first Del Mar stakes victory.
The field from the rail: Amboseli (Victor Espinoza, 15-1), Kiss Me Now (Tiago Pereira, 20-1), Frenzified (Santiago Gonzalez, 12-1), Juno (Gary Stevens, 8-1), Hillhouse High (Corey Nakatani, 4-1), Pretty Girl (Mike Smith, 8-1), Cambodia (Drayden Van Dyke, 5-2) and Avenge (Flavien Prat, 8-5).
Source: Del Mar Thoroughbred Club
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