ARCADIA — For Tiago Pereira, results on the racetrack have been superb lately. And life beyond his sport has been even better.
By day, the 48-year-old jockey is having perhaps his best Santa Anita season, rising to fourth in total wins at the Arcadia track after rallying Lady Claypoole to an 11-1 upset in the Santa Ana Stakes on Saturday.
By night, the doting father is thrilled to see his 8-year-old daughter Valentina thriving after undergoing open-heart surgery in June to correct a heart defect that had required her to receive supplemental oxygen.
The two pieces of good news are not unrelated.
“I’m happy because my daughter is (in) good (health),” Pereira said one morning this week at Santa Anita’s Clockers’ Corner. “When you’re happy, you relax. Before, I had a lot of stress.”
Pereira’s rise in the California standings began last fall at Del Mar after he hired veteran jockey agent Craig Stephen to book his mounts, but Stephen declined to take full credit.
“I think it’s all him, now that he’s happy and confident,” said Stephen, who counts the breakup of Pereira’s marriage as another distraction that’s in the past. “I think it’s showing up in his riding.
“It’s like he’s going to through life with blinkers on now,” Stephen said. “He’s really focused.”
Pereira had subsisted around the bottom of the top 10 in the Santa Anita and Del Mar standings for most of the decade since he moved here from his native Brazil.
The son of a father who grew tobacco, cornmeal and yucca, Pereira lost his mother when he was young. He first rode, at age 12 and barefoot, in a match race at a small track near the family’s home in south Brazil. He quit school after sixth grade to pursue riding professionally, and ended up recording more than 2,000 official victories in Brazil plus a few in other countries, the most famous coming aboard the globe-trotting Brazil-bred Gloria de Campeao in the $10 million Dubai World Cup in 2010.
By 2014, he was ready for new challenges, and made the audacious decision to come to California after catching a glimpse on TV of the sunny weather and picturesque downhill turf course at Santa Anita, whose leading jockeys at the time included Hall of Famers Gary Stevens, Kent Desormeaux, Mike Smith, Corey Nakatani and Victor Espinoza.
While winning some big races here, the biggest being Tripoli’s victory at 6-1 odds for trainer John Sadler in the $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar in 2021, Pereira has earned a reputation as a jockey who can provide trainers with helpful advice about the horses he has just ridden.
He’d like to be known, too, for wanting to ride any race, no matter how small it may seem. As Pereira tells it, after his Dubai World Cup windfall, he flew back to Brazil and jumped on a motorcycle to rush to his home track in time for the next day’s first race – which had a purse of $500.
“One hundred, one thousand, one million (dollars), I want to win,” Pereira said.
He’s also willing to ride horses with high odds.
“The horses don’t see the numbers,” he said. “If they come to the track, they have a chance.”
With Lady Claypoole winning the Grade III Santa Ana for trainer Richard Baltas last weekend and 5-1 Katonah winning the Grade II San Pasqual Stakes for Doug O’Neill in January, Pereira has the most North American graded stakes wins he’s ever had this early in a calendar year.
Although his 15.1% win rate (23 victories from 152 starts) isn’t high, his average winner is paying off at odds of nearly 8-1, thanks to 20-1 Wishtheyallcouldbe, 16-1 Tam’s Little Angel and 16-1 Heart Headed for trainer Hector Palma; 18-1 Friendly Confines for Baltas; 12-1 Supernal on Saturday for Steve Knapp; and 18-1 Lion’s Lair on Monday for Arnold Torres. Math majors will realize a flat win bet on all of Pereira’s horses this season would have produced a solid profit (more than 30%).
None of that is as important to Pereira as seeing his daughter healthy. She’s enjoying gymnastics, and was excited this month to advance beyond beginner level.
“Everything’s good,” Pereira said. “She’s happy, with no more problems.”
Pereira, who is studying to become a U.S. citizen, has business interests in Brazil, including co-ownership of a metal-products factory with a stepbrother. His new success in the saddle is coming at an age when many jockeys walk away. How much longer does he plan to ride?
“I had plans to stop at 50,” he said before smiling and adding: “But if I have good horses, I’ll continue.”
With contentment off the track leading to more winners on it, that’s looking more likely.
Follow horse racing correspondent Kevin Modesti at X.com/KevinModesti.
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