Leandro Goncalves rode Russell Welch's Gurkha Gold to an upset victory in Saturday's fifth race at Sam Houston Race Park in Texas to give the Brazil native his 2,000th career victory in North America.
Trained by Karl Broberg, Gurkha Gold won the maiden special weight race for 3-year-old fillies going 1 1/16 miles on turf by 1 1/2 lengths and paid $20.80 to her backers.
Goncalves was on horses herding livestock by the age of 7 and two years later was riding in Quarter horse races. He attended Brazil's jockey school at age 16 and became the school's top apprentice. Goncalves moved to England briefly in 2004 but came to the U.S. the following year, struggled to break through, but won his first American race in 2007.
He's won as many as 298 races in a single season in 2011 and his mounts earned over $7.2 million the following year.
In 2017, Goncalves proudly became a naturalized U.S. citizen.
Congratulations to Jockey, Leandro Goncalves on a milestone achievement! He achieved his 2,000th career win in Race 5 aboard #2 Gurkha Gold (IRE). @MarthaClaussen @SHRPRacing @DRFRampellini pic.twitter.com/y5gwXJxePL
— Sam Houston Race Park (@SHRP) March 28, 2021
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