Going for the gold with his horses

If swimmer Michael Phelps, gymnast Carly Patterson, and sprinter Justin Gatlin can leverage Olympic victories into sales of Wheaties cereal, can horses get the same bump?

Jorge Gabriel will soon find out. Tomorrow, he will hold an auction on his Tyngsborough farm to sell 13 Lusitano horses. The Portuguese Lusitano and their Spanish Andalusian cousins made an impressive showing during the Summer Olympics, capturing a silver for the Spanish dressage team. Dressage is a competition in which riders guide horses through a course. Judges grade the horses on how gracefully they move.

''If you do well competing, people become interested in the bloodline of the horse," said Kathy Von Ertfelda, a top international horse show competitor who may bid on a Lusitano at the auction.

Most horses are sold privately, but Gabriel decided to hold an auction to raise the profile of Lusitanos, stallions bred for generations to learn the intricate movements of dressage. Gabriel is starting bids at $18,000 to $60,000, depending on the horse's maturity. He hopes to fetch $25,000 to $75,000 for each horse. Assuming an average price of $40,000, the entire stock is valued at more than $500,000, he said.

The Luistano, a recreational horse, could become a popular breed in a region where the sport of riding and showing horses is growing. Membership in the Massachusetts Horsemen's Council has surged to about 1,000, from fewer than 300 a decade ago.

''It's not the sport of kings anymore," said Nicole Lamoureux, chief operating officer of the American Horse Council, a trade and lobbying group. ''The median income is $60,000 for people who own a horse."

Gabriel, a former bullfighter from Portugal, partnered with the Brazilian farm Haras Modelo in So Paulo. He regularly flies there to shop for horses for clients who pay $25,000 to $150,000 for each horse.

Said Gabriel: ''I'd like that people leave here thinking this is the horse of the future."

Joyce Pellino Crane can be reached at crane@globe.com