Goncalves Ready to Leg Up at Gulfstream West

Jockey Leandro Goncalves’ plan to ride year-round in South Florida is hardly based on a whim. When the 32-year-old journeyman rides in his first race Wednesday at Gulfstream Park West, he will be embarking on a long-range commitment.

 

The native of Sao Paulo, Brazil made the career choice to move his tack from the Midwest to South Florida two years ago when he purchased a house in Dania Beach.

 

“I’ve been looking forward to this for a few years, since Gulfstream decided to race year-round. That’s when I decided to come here, and that’s when I bought a house,” Goncalves said. “It’s a nice place to be year-round.  Gulfstream Park is a nice racetrack. The purses are good. I always wanted to come for the winter meet.”

 

Goncalves will ride Wednesday when Gulfstream Park West opens for the Fall Turf Festival. Parking and admission are free. First race post time is 1:05 p.m. and there will be a limited simulcast menu that will end after the last race from Santa Anita. The Wednesday feature will be the ninth race, a $50,000 allowance optional claimer featuring the stakes placed Red Minx, Yes Liz and Quinnkat.

 

Gulfstream will remain open for all simulcast wagering.

 

Goncalves has ridden successfully at Churchill Downs, Fair Grounds, Ellis Park and Indiana Downs for the past couple years before recently deciding that the time was right to move into his house and make a permanent home in South Florida.

“I did very well in Kentucky. I liked Kentucky, but you need to do a lot of driving and moving around. It gets old. It will also be easier for my son to visit me here,” said Goncalves, whose 12-year-old son Guilherme lives in Brazil. “The last time he visited me, he had to fly to Miami before getting on a plane to Chicago and another plane to Kentucky. He can come directly here from Brazil. He’ll be able to come stay with me for weekends.”

Goncalves’ own childhood in Brazil was a lot more complicated than airline arrangements and connections. After his family moved to western Brazil from Sao Paulo, Goncalves learned to ride horses at the age of 7 for the purpose of herding livestock. At 9, he began riding in Quarter Horse match races.

“It’s a straight run. You have rails on both sides of you, so no one can cross in front of you. They can have match races for as much $50,000, $100,000,” Goncalves recalled. “The jockey can get 20 percent, sometimes 30 percent. You can make real money, but I never saw it. My father took care of everything.”

 

At 14, Goncalves learned to become an exercise rider at a Thoroughbred training center, and eventually lost touch with his parents.

“My mother moved back to Sao Paulo. My dad lived on the farm and he’d come visit me once a month. But he passed away and I never knew,” he recalled. “It was really hard being away from my family for so many years. I was so young.”

At 16, he decided to attend jockey school in Sao Paulo, but before he could enroll, he needed to get his parents’ signatures. When he finally informed the school that he didn’t know where his parents were, TV and radio stations broadcast his plight to no avail. His grandmother’s old address on his birth certificate gave him a lead.

“My grandmother was still there and my mother lived next door – that’s when I found out my father passed away,” Goncalves said.

Goncalves went on to ride Thoroughbreds at Hipodromo de Cicade Jardim for five years in Sao Paulo before deciding to come to the U.S. Brazilian trainer Jose De Lima, who was based in Southern California, explained that it would be difficult to get a visa and advised him that he’d have a better shot of eventually coming to U.S. if rode elsewhere. He followed a friend to England in 2004 and rode five winners and learned English before making it to the U.S. He rode one race for De Lima at Del Mar before taking the trainer’s advice and heading east.

After a brief stop at Mountaineer Park in West Virginia, Goncalves faced financial hardship.

“I ran out of money and had to gallop horses. I started out galloping horses for John Ward at Keeneland and I came down to the training center in West Palm Beach to gallop there for six months. Then, I came back to Kentucky and galloped for Dale Romans and Greg Foley,” Goncalves said. “I galloped for a year and a half.”

An issue with his visa required that he return to riding in order to stay in the U.S. His time galloping horses helped him adjust to the American way of racing, and his riding career began to take off. Goncalves went on to capture three consecutive riding titles at Indiana Downs, two titles at Hoosier and one each at Tampa Bay Downs and Turfway Park.

In 2011, he finished third in the nation with 298 trips to the winner’s circle.

Goncalves, who has ridden 1492 winner’s since 2007, is hoping to find new homes in the winner’s circles at Gulfstream Park West and Gulfstream Park.

 

Source: Gulfstream Park Communications