It was seven years ago when Eurico Rosa da Silva, the jockey with a big smile and even bigger aspirations, began riding at Woodbine three weeks after the start of the 2004 Thoroughbred campaign. Each year he has been in Ontario has been better than the one before and he hit the heights in 2010 with his first Sovereign Award for outstanding Canadian jockey.
Fresh off a winter campaign riding at New York’s Aqueduct racetrack, Da Silva accepted the Sovereign and, with much emotion, thanked everyone from his agent, Don Parente to trainers such as Reade Baker as well as the horses, for the honour. Da Silva had won 500-plus races over a five-year span while competing in Brazil and close to 300 victories in four and a half years in Macau, including a victory in the Brazil Derby, a two-mile Grade 1 turf race, among his top triumphs.
The native of Sao Paulo got in touch with Irwin Driedger, a former champion rider and former president of the Jockey’s Benefit Association of Canada, eager to learn the ropes of Canadian racing. “I don’t know how long it will take for me to be a top jockey here,” noted da Silva. “But that’s what I’d like to achieve. I want to win all the races I’m in. My heart is in my throat when I win. It’s as though I am saying, “I can do it.” It’s a great feeling.”