While wondering when Hong Kong might see the return of the Brazilian Magic Man- Joao Moreira- another Brazilian is certainly doing more than keeping his saddle warm.
Silvestre de Sousa, 42, is weaving his own brand of magic and winning over owners, trainers, the racing media, and Hong Kong racing fans who are very much results driven. Go through a barren spell and expect to hear about it.
After Saturday afternoon’s races at Shatin, de Sousa, the 2015, Champion Jockey of Britain, who won the same title in 2017 and 2018, had ridden fifteen winners and something like twenty five placings. The law of averages says this is quite something.
As it did with Joao when first arriving in Hong Kong, feeding the hunger of this will to win at all costs might have cost him a spate of suspensions for careless riding, but it’s something he’s taking in his stride. He sees it as part of racing and learning from one’s mistakes.
Also like Joao Moreira, Silvestre, The Brazilian Cat, can ride light. It means that instead of The Zac Attack having an even longer conga line of winners at every race meeting, which could get boring for everyone, he once again has some serious competition. Zac thrives on it. It challenges him to raise his game to an even higher level. It’s a scary thought to other riders.
To racing fans it’s entertaining theatre. It’s kinda like watching a Sylvester and Tweety Bird cartoon.
Of course, the top Australian rider has competition every time he rides in a race. The difference is that Silvestre de Sousa comes armed with an impressive international portfolio built on big race successes, and can give as good as he gets. This just takes everything and everyone up a notch. It’s good for the game.
Everything achieved by SDS has been quite a ride from his days as a teenager in São Paulo and when told by leading Brazilian rider- Fausto Durso, twice Champion Jockey of Macau and who was mysteriously stabbed to death in 2015, the day he returned to his homeland- that he had “the build” to be a jockey.
And so began the journey that led to SDS’s riding career and somehow finding himself trying to make it as a complete unknown in Britain.
With stints riding for Dermot Weld- this was very short lived- David Nicholls, Mark Johnston and Godolphin- it’s been a career that’s not always gone according to script. But what in life actually does?
Often, change is good and forces one to make decisions we once might not have had to think about.
What’s important is that SDS who has ridden in Hong Kong previously during his winter breaks,and gave up riding here last year at the last minute to take up an offer in Saudi Arabia, is riding with a sense of commitment that points to him being in the city for the long run.
Having him in the riding ranks in what can be seen as being on a more permanent basis seems to have also had a chain reaction of positivity with everyone else.
They’re raising their game as Silvestre The Cat has been thrown into the chicken coop and just maybe some feathers have been ruffled.
Who knows, but Lyle Hewitson, Luke Ferraris, and Hong Kong born riding talent like Matthew Chadwick, Vincent Ho, Matthew Poon, Derek Leung and constantly improving new apprentice Angus Chung, are riding better than ever.
Competition is necessary in any business to improve the quality of the product and raise the interest in it by its audience.
SDS will be out there competing during next month’s Hong Kong International Races. Especially interesting is going to see him riding against all the marquee value riders invited to Hong Kong, some of whom he’s ridden against in Britain and who’ll be part of the International Jockeys Championship, an event he knows all about as he won the title in 2018.
As he’s doing every race day- when not serving out a suspension- the international SDS brand adds credence to the Hong Kong racing product.
Like the city itself, a brand like his gets things moving in ways which are maybe only now starting to become clear.
It’s also obvious that racing fans who follow Hong Kong racing like what they are seeing.
