Bernardo Pins his hopes on all the Silver linings he can find
- Duane Fonseca
- Dec 12, 2020
- 5 min read
By Duane Fonseca
Dubai: Every cloud has a silver lining. Bernardo Pinheiro learned the meaning of that at the age of six, on a day and in circumstances most kids his age would have bawled their heads off.
“My start in racing wasn’t planned,” Pinheiro said.
“I made a friend who was into racing out of the blue. He gave me a ride home one day after I missed the bus going home from school.
“I was six years old at the time: just a kid. My home is far away from school and I came home late at night. My mom was worried because at that time we didn’t have telephones and we live in the countryside. There aren’t many buses plying along the route: only three a day.”
With so many stories of child abductions turned into crime investigation documentaries on over-the-top content platforms, thankfully Anderson Ramilo turned out to be the proverbial Good Samaritan.
“No one in my family was into racing. This person (Anderson) was a work rider and he became a family friend of ours. After a few years he was the one who introduced me to the jockey life,” Pinheiro revealed.
“I started to dream about it and I decided to work hard for it.”
Ramilo was a work rider for Estrela Energia Stables, the owners of Gloria de Campeao, the horse that won the 2010 renewal of the Dubai World Cup: the first at Dubai’s marquee Meydan Racecourse.
Then, an ecstatic Ramilo, on his return from Dubai to Rio de Janeiro, told Pinheiro that he would one day win a Group race at Meydan.
Last Thursday, that prophecy came to fruition as Pinheiro pushed hard on the back of Jayide Al Boraq to win the Group 2 Bani Yas for Purebred Arabians. As soon as he and Khalifa Al Neyadi’s charge upset the odds to win, Pinheiro’s mind raced back to the moment with Ramilo.
“Anderson knew the place here and eight years ago when he was teaching me on a wooden horse he himself made, he told me one day you’ll be in Dubai winning a Group race and you’ll remember this moment. It’s so funny because it has just happened,” Pinheiro said.
Ramilo guided Pinheiro well, helping blaze a trail with the basic initial instructions that created a solid platform for the future and saw him claim his apprentice licence from Escola de Profissionais do Turf or more simply the jockey school in Rio de Janeiro in 2013. There Pinheiro further boosted his knowledge of riding under Marcelo Cardoso, who was a retired professional rider.
Still things didn’t pan out according to plan.
“I broke my arm soon after getting my licence and was out of action for six months, but Cardoso helped me a lot and was a great support to me,” Pinheiro explained.
“I was able to return to action in November that year and I started my apprentice riding. I had three rides on my first day racing and I rode my first winner on the same day. I rode out my claim of 180 winners in less than two years.
“That helped me get contracts with good owners in Brazil. It’s a big country, but the principal racecourse is in Rio de Janeiro where I started. I had to ride in different parts of the country and won the Triple Crown in the South of Brazil with the filly Perfect Bullet.
“We took her later to Uruguay and won a race there as well, which helped me believe I could become an international jockey.”
His international career includes stints in five overseas jurisdictions: Malaysia, Singapore, Uruguay, Bahrain and the UAE. Apart from that Triple Crown success, has the Group 1 Grande Premio Taca de Cristal at Porte Alegro, two Group Twos and six Group Three wins, all in Brazil, on his CV.
In 2019, Pinheiro won 33 of his 119 rides in Malaysia, including the Group 1 Selangor Gold Cup on Truson. His trip across the Johor Strait and into Singapore was studded with two massive hit and run instances aboard Mr Clint, who was a close runners-up in both the Group 1 Singapore Derby and the Group 1 Raffles Cup. Partnering Mr Clint, he was 12th in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup shortly after.
“I started riding in Rio but now I have five countries to show on my CV. I had a good season in Malaysia last year and in Singapore and had winners in Bahrain and Uruguay as well,” Pinheiro said.
“My ambition is to be one of the top jockeys. I am young right now and have a lot to learn and I believe I can improve a lot. Of course it won’t happen overnight, but I believe I am on the right path with these kinds of winners and it shows me I am doing the right job.”
Pinheiro started riding in the UAE first during the 2017/18 season. It was tough getting started with very limited interest on account of him being a freelancing newcomer to Emirati shores. “I didn’t have a job for the first two months,” Pinheiro recalls.
“I didn’t speak any English either so that was tough. In January 2018, John Hyde gave me a job to support myself at Dubai Stables because I needed one urgently. Hyde breaks young horses for Sheikh Hamdan and it was after I became work rider there that I started to find more support.
“Khalifa Al Neyadi is one of the first trainers to give me an opportunity and I rode my first winner for him and so far also Rashed Bouresly has also given me rides. Dubawi’s Thunder for Bouresly was my first winner at Meydan.”
The pieces started to fit thereafter. Pinheiro enjoyed four wins in his rookie season, 11 the next and a further eight in the season that followed. He started to get a lot of rides and this term he has scored eight times in 73 attempts already.
“I have 29 winners in the UAE overall and 470 around the world, so my next target is to reach 500,” Pinheiro asserted.
“I have had a short time here but I am very thankful for everything. Being a freelance jockey is not easy and thanks to God the trainers started giving me rides and I just improved.
“I love Dubai and live here only during the season, not full-time. I am very happy with what I have achieved here so far because a lot more trainers are starting to take notice. I need to have more opportunities in Thoroughbred races, but I know it’s not easy because most of the stables have their own jockeys, so it’s hard to get spare rides, but I am fully booked with Purebred Arabians.
“I have had a lot of winners for Khalifa Al Neyadi. He has supported me throughout my career here and winning a Group race on a horse trained by him felt really good.
“I feel happy. I live with my fiance and am very thankful for her because she supports me a lot and has always been beside me through the tough moments and kept me strong. She helps me with social media so that more people start to know me and that has worked.”
At 24, Pinheiro still has a long, long way to go. But as far as his ambition goes, he hopes to inspire in the same way he was inspired by Ramilo and the massive contingent of top Brazilian riders that ply their trade globally.
“Joao Moreira is an amazing rider. He rides in Hong Kong and I think today he is one of the top riders in the world. Also Silvestre De Sousa is a multiple Champion Jockey in Britain and he’s a big name rider as well. Everywhere in the world I believe there is one Brazilian rider who has done well and I hope I can be that person in the UAE.”
If the ongoing season is anything to go by, he is definitely on his way to being that person.
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