Leandro Henrique, the 27-year-old Brazilian jockey who came up through a children’s pony school in Recife and reached the front rank of his sport, died in the early hours of August 19, 2026. The injuries came from a heavy fall on August 16 at Hipódromo da Gávea in Rio de Janeiro, in the second race on the Brazilian Jockey Club’s program that day, when his mount, Native Coffee, jumped the perimeter rail. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and an open pelvic fracture.
Track medics got to him within moments, and he was rushed to Hospital Miguel Couto, where he had remained hospitalized since the fall. He was moved on Tuesday, August 18, to the Humaitá-based Casa de Saúde São José, and he spent his final hours there in intensive care.
Henrique had made himself a fixture in Brazilian racing at an age when most riders are still finishing their apprenticeships, and the news hit the sport hard. He had booted home more than 1,000 winners, and at the time of the accident he sat second in the 2026 jockeys’ championship with 15 victories. He was regarded as arguably the leading domestic rider in Brazil.
“Leandro leaves behind a remarkable legacy in Brazilian horse racing and a profound void among family, friends, professionals, and admirers of the sport,” the Brazilian Jockey Club said in a tribute to the rider. Its racing commission had opened a routine review of the incident on August 17 and closed the inquiry a day later, a day before Henrique died, finding no intent during the running and penalizing none of the professionals involved. A wake was held at the Social Tribune at Gávea on Thursday, August 20, bringing together friends and family, and he was buried in Recife the following day.
From Pony School to Gávea
Born in Pernambuco, Henrique first got around horses at nine, when he enrolled at the Escola de Pôneis, the pony school in his native Recife. He was riding in races at Hipódromo da Madalena by 14, and soon after that he headed for Rio de Janeiro, where his talent found no ceiling.
Riding Urbanesco for Stud JIFE, he got his first win at Gávea on June 7, 2015. What followed was a rapid rise. The jockey premiership at Brazil’s principal racetrack went to him in the 2016/2017 season — a first for any member of the country’s jockey academy, and still the only occasion on which an apprentice from the Jockey Club Brasileiro’s Escola de Profissionais do Turfe has taken the title.
Jockey agent Danilo Aglio had been with him from the beginning and stayed an inseparable presence as the big races piled up. Haras Anderson signed him to ride in the colors of the Stabile family, and that opened the door to the top level. The Grande Prêmio Cruzeiro do Sul – Derby Brasileiro delivered his first Grade 1 in 2017, won aboard Emperor Roderic, running for Stud Pedudu.
Asked to name the best he partnered, Henrique answered without hesitation: London Moon, a son of the mare Agnes Gold by Beauty Harlan. The pair took the ABCPCC’s Copa Precocidade e Velocidade and three Group 1 prizes — the Grande Prêmio Jockey Club Brasileiro, the Grande Prêmio Estado do Rio de Janeiro and the Grande Prêmio Presidente da República on June 23, 2024, which proved London Moon’s final career start. The horse carried the colors of Haras Anderson first and later those of Haras Sweet Carol. His 1,000th career win arrived in 2021, and it came in style: the Grande Prêmio Henrique de Toledo Lara (G2), taken for Haras Santa Maria de Araras on the Argentine-bred Casa Blanca, a son of Roman Ruler.
A Celebration That Went Viral
Henrique and his wife, the jockey-turned-trainer Victoria Mota, had their first child midway through 2025, a daughter named Manoela.
The biggest race in Brazil, the Grande Prêmio Brasil (G1), came next, on June 22, 2025. Henrique won it aboard Sinsel, a son of Alpha running for Stud Red Rafa — and very nearly gave it away. With 50 meters to run he stood up in the irons and threw an arm out to the crowd, oblivious to a rival closing fast up his inside. The photo finish put Sinsel’s nose down first, ahead of runner-up Valparaiso, and the clip circled the world. Stewards were less charmed: they banned him 59 days and fined him.
“I want to apologise to Mr Esteves and to the owners, Stud Red Rafa. This will never happen again,” Henrique said afterward.
A Last Grade 1 and a Family in Mourning
He kept the promise, and he kept winning. Recently retained by Haras Santa Maria de Araras, Henrique steered the Hofburg-sired Passion Of Detail to victory in the Grande Prêmio Margarida Polak Lara – Taça de Prata (G1), run at Gávea in August 2026. That victory proved the last major success of a career that produced 11 wins at top level.
Mota and Manoela survive him. His wife is a rider of international standing in her own right, having finished third in the 2024 International Jockeys’ Challenge in Riyadh, ahead of a field that included Britain’s Ryan Moore. The Brazilian Jockey Club, in mourning, sent its condolences to Victoria, Manoela and Henrique’s family and friends, and held a minute of silence at Gávea on Sunday, August 23. The Jockey Club de Pernambuco paid its own tribute during the 29th Grande Prêmio Roberto Sá on August 31.
Gávea staged nearly all of it, and the track is also where jockey Frankie Dettori had his final ever ride. A boy from Recife arrived there at 14 and became one of its defining figures — and that is how a generation of Brazilian racing fans will now remember the place.