![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/pm2052024020-1024x683.jpg\")
FRANCISCO LEANDRO FERNANDES GON\u00c7ALVES, KENLOVA (yellow cap); JOAO MOREIRA, OBATAYE (black cap) \/ G1 Grande Pr\u00eamio S\u00e3o Paulo \/\/ Cidade Jardim \/\/\/ 2024 \/\/\/\/ Photo by Jockey Club de S\u00e3o Paulo<\/p>\nFrancisco Leandro Fernandes Gon\u00e7alves is hoping to follow the lead of his friend and idol Joao Moreira when he heads to Sapporo in late August to contest the two-day World All Star Jockeys.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Moreira won the title in 2024 \u2013 his second success in the competition \u2013 and is a familiar and popular face among horsemen and fans in Japan where he has ridden with sensational success on short-term Japan Racing Association (JRA) licences and had a Group 1 treble during one month this spring, winning the Takamatsunomiya Kinen, the Oka Sho and the Satsuki Sho.<\/p>\n
For Gon\u00e7alves, the Brazilian ace who is the standout in Argentina as the country\u2019s eight-time champion jockey, the WASJ will be a first experience of Japanese racing. But he has long observed from afar Moreira\u2019s impact in Asia: first the man from Curitiba\u2019s dominance in Singapore, then his game-changing achievements in Hong Kong, and his short-term hits in Japan that have brought 215 JRA wins, including five Group 1s, at an incredible 30 percent win strike rate.<\/p>\n
Moreira is, Gon\u00e7alves says, \u201cmy idol.\u201d The two jockeys go back to their days riding for the Sao Paulo stable of trainer Antonio Luis Cintra Pereira when Moreira was the young emerging champion. Gon\u00e7alves was the shy and even younger apprentice from Brazil\u2019s northeast who would become known to fans in his homeland as Leandrinho.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I started riding as an apprentice I joined Cintra Pereira and Joao Moreira was the number one rider there, so I was the young kid with Joao riding out together at morning exercise,\u201d Gon\u00e7alves says.<\/p>\n
\u201cJoao used to talk to me all the time, helping me, telling me, \u2018Keep going.\u2019 He has always been a person with an open heart, he doesn\u2019t keep secrets inside of him, he likes to share: normally I didn\u2019t ask much, but I was watching all the time, and I didn\u2019t have a car so he used to take me to the Campinas training centre.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAt that time Joao was a young rider fighting for the championship against two experienced jockeys, Altair Domingos, who went to Argentina, and Nelito Cunha who is now a trainer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moreira, \u2018O Fantasma\u2019 \u2013 The Ghost \u2013 as he was known back then, established his reputation as a champion in Brazil and then moved on to Singapore where he smashed records \u2026 then moved to Hong Kong, where he not only smashed records but also found international renown.<\/p>\n
FRANCISCO LEANDRO FERNANDES GON\u00c7ALVES, KENLOVA (yellow cap); JOAO MOREIRA, OBATAYE (black cap) \/ G1 Grande Pr\u00eamio S\u00e3o Paulo \/\/ Cidade Jardim \/\/\/ 2024 \/\/\/\/ Photo by Jockey Club de S\u00e3o Paulo<\/p>\n
Gon\u00e7alves, 36, says he watched Moreira\u2019s record-breaking early exploits in Asia from afar, even though it wasn\u2019t easy to find video footage back then. He had opportunities to take the same route but chose not to, opting instead to carve his name in the annals of South American racing by setting his own records.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s funny because since the beginning I thought about Singapore,\u201d he says. \u201cI had an invitation to ride in Singapore back in 2015, but I was in front in the championship in Argentina, so I decided to stay, then I had an injury and nothing happened: I didn\u2019t get first place or the Singapore adventure.<\/p>\n
\u201cLater I received another invitation but I was facing the records, so when I beat the record, it was like the path opened: in my mind, I was always thinking about going abroad but chasing the records always kept me in Argentina.\u201d<\/p>\n
His 2023 season\u2019s tally of 541 wins is an outright South American record, and that followed his taking down of Jorge Ricardo\u2019s Argentine season\u2019s record he had long been aiming at, the 467 that the world\u2019s all-time winning-most rider had set in 1993.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the beginning, my goal always was to beat the record for one season in Argentina,\u201d Gon\u00e7alves says. \u201cI started to make a goal to make the 467 total \u2026 the same year that I broke the record in Argentina, I also broke the South American record: I tried to go even higher and I managed to reach third all-time in the world with 541 wins in a season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gon\u00e7alves was raised in Sobral in the state of Cerea in northeastern Brazil. His father was a farm worker and he grew up around animals, riding horses from about the age of six, \u201cjust normal horses in a field,\u201d for fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up in the country,\u201d he says. \u201cMy parents had no connection to horse racing, but there were cows and horses, so at first I learned by myself how to ride.\u201d<\/p>\n
But his brother, Escobar, was a jockey and trainer on the local circuit and at age 12 Gon\u00e7alves, too, started to ride professionally at the area\u2019s two tracks, Sobral and Fortaleza.<\/p>\n
He did that for four years, learning all he could, until he was accepted into the Sao Paulo jockey school in August 2006: he was 16.<\/p>\n
That led to a strong yet removed connection to Moreira\u2019s old mentor, the legendary jockey and trainer Ivan Quintana.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe connection is all coincidence,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I first arrived there at the Jockey Club in Sao Paulo, Ivan had been deceased only two months. But Ivan\u2019s son Matheus was there in the school, too, we were the same age. But Matheus was too tall and he became my agent, and Talita is Matheus\u2019 sister.\u201d<\/p>\n
Talita Quintana is Gon\u00e7alves\u2019 wife and they have two daughters. His family will not go with him to Hong Kong at first though.<\/p>\n
Gon\u00e7alves\u2019 career gained lift-off in Sao Paulo in the years after Moreira had moved to Singapore and Hong Kong.<\/p>\n
\u201cI won two championships in Brazil in 2012 and 2013,\u201d he says, \u201cand I was in front the next season when I went to Argentina.\u201d<\/p>\n
He had ridden in Argentina twice before then and had finished second in South America\u2019s biggest race, the G1 Gran Premio Carlos Pellegrini on the Brazilian raider Veranaio, at the end of 2011.<\/p>\n
\u201cA Brazilian journalist told me a good trainer in Argentina was interested in a Brazilian rider, and I\u2019d fallen in love with the Argentinean horses and racetracks when I had ridden there, so took the opportunity, not knowing or imagining the success I would have,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
He was scouted by owner Nacho Pavlovsky and teamed up with him and trainer Jorge Neer, but for the first six months in Argentina he was only allowed to ride for his sponsoring connection. Despite that restriction, his first season riding at Argentina\u2019s three big tracks \u2013 San Isidro, Palermo and La Plata \u2013 was a success and turned heads.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a big surprise,\u201d Gon\u00e7alves says. \u201cMy first Grade 1 was during that first six months. Only with one owner, even then I was third, so the next year, the expectations were big and I was in front of everyone but I had a horrible fall and broke my leg.\u201d<\/p>\n
That happened at Palermo, right at the start in a 1000-metre straight race. His mount fought for its head, veered to the rail and pitched Gon\u00e7alves into it. He was out for five months and the title was gone from his grasp.<\/p>\n
He recovered, was crowned Argentina\u2019s jockey of the year for the first time in 2016, and has dominated that title every year since 2018. Those championships and his records bring him the greatest sense of career achievement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not like winning an isolated Graded Stakes,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s the result of years of consistency, so that is why this is so important, in the achievement. Also, it\u2019s my name in the history of South American horseracing, which is nice, especially as a Brazilian guy, because in Brazil, we get little recognition.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a strong fan base in Argentina, especially at Palermo, the city racetrack, like Happy Valley: fans taking pictures every time, which is something I\u2019m grateful for because in Brazil no one would take a picture or ask for a photo. In Brazil, people (generally) don\u2019t know who I am or who Joao Moreira is, but in Argentina, people will recognise me outside of the race track.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moreira has a strong fan base in Japan, and if Gon\u00e7alves can make a good first impression in Sapporo, he too will experience firsthand the idolising force of Japanese racing fandom. \u220e<\/p>\n
![\"Joao](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/JoaoStates.jpg\")
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Joao Moreira<\/p>\n
\u201cI Often Wonder\u201d: The ‘Sliding Doors\u2019 Moment That Took The Brazilian To Hong Kong Instead Of America<\/p>\n