Riding for Freedom

In his 16 seasons at Woodbine, Eurico Rosa da Silva won seven Sovereign Awards as the outstanding jockey in Canada. He rode horses to victory in two consecutive Queen’s Plate races and won the World All-Star Jockeys Challenge against jockeys from France, Australia, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and Japan. Born on a dairy farm in an impoverished community in rural Brazil, Da Silva determined at an early age that he would become a champion jockey. With implacable focus, he pursued his goal, first in Brazil, then through Macao to Canada, where he earned a reputation as an intensely focused and good-humoured competitor. But the real challenge in his life had little to do with horse racing. Even among the people who knew him best, few would have suspected that Da Silva faced far greater obstacles in his career than winning a few thousand horse races. Since his childhood in Brazil, he’d been engaged in a much more lethal contest against a deep-seated anger that sometimes threatened to derail not just his career, but his life as well. The negativity and self-doubt consumed him and sent him down a path of self‑destruction that led him to despair even in his moments of victory until, with the support of a qualified therapist, he began to free himself from the tyranny of his past. More than an account of Da Silva’s rise to international renown in the highstakes horse‑racing world, this is also the story of his conquest of the demons that haunted him throughout his career. From his birth and early years in Brazil, this book describes his ascent to the highest ranks of his athletic profession. It also lays bare his struggle to heal the emotional scars inflicted by an absent and negligent father, and his victory over the forces that threatened at times to end his life.