World's Leading Jockey (by number of wins) - Jorge Antonio Ricardo!

Jorge Antonio Ricardo

Brazil's equivalent of Laffit Pincay is the leading "winningmost" jockey in the world! Most of us have heard of Pincay, Shoemaker, Baze and Day and yet Jorge, at 46 (born on 30/9/61) has surpassed them all.

From whatever angle you look at it, Jorge's career has been extremely impressive. His annual win/place/rides total reads like a Rio phone number - 400-613-1421.

It is also worth considering that the Brazilian has won more races than a lot of senior jockeys have ever ridden! Jorge's annual win total is also more than some jockeys manage to obtain in a lifetime!

His record is all the more impressive when one considers that all but 151 of his victories have been at his local track in Rio de Janeiro, the Gavea racecourse.

Gavea stages 208 race days throughout the year on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays, which means that Jorge is averaging a double on every card throughout the year! In these races, there are eighty other jockeys and apprentices that Jorge rides against, and in 1999 his mounts earned 2.4 million Brazilian Cruzeiros - jockeys getting 10% in Brazil.

Jorge's father, Antonio Alfredo (known as "Banana"), and two uncles also used to be jockeys in the 1960s and 70s and Jorge followed them into the winners' circle in 1976. Only six weeks into his apprenticeship, after gaining his license on 11 November 1976, he had already posted 17 wins and 31 places from 74 rides (23%). He progressed so rapidly that seven months later, he became a jockey on 19 June 1977.

Since then, in 27 seasons, he has won 24 Brazilian Championships on the trot since 1982 and posted a 25% -plus winning percentage in 14 of these seasons, 5 of them being over 30% His best year was 1992/93 with 477 winners and in 1998, he posted the most rides -  1,612.

Jorge even rode in the Arc de Triomphe in the mid 1990's but his mount finished unplaced. Elsewhere outside Rio and abroad, he has ridden in the following places with 151 winners, as follows:

• Campos, 68
• Sao Paulo, 41
• Porto Alegre, 17
• Sao Vicente, 3
• Curitiba, 5
• Argentina, 8
• Uruguay, 5
• Chile, 1
• Peru, 1
• USA, 0
• France, 0

For the future, Jorge envisages riding for quite a while yet and horses will definitely still feature in his daily life. If not, there are always his two children, Jorge Antonio Jnr and Nicole Garcia, who may continue the family tradition.

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