Silvestre de Sousa reached a new milestone on Thursday when riding his 2,000th winner in Britain. The 45-year-old, champion jockey in 2015, 2017 and 2018, joined just five other active riders in achieving the feat when riding Neyva's Dream to victory at the seaside course.
Ryan Moore, William Buick, Jim Crowley, Jamie Spencer and Luke Morris have also passed the landmark, while Joe Fanning, who is nearing the 3,000 mark, is not currently licensed.
De Sousa has won some of Britain's most prestigious races including the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and Queen Anne Stakes, both at Ascot Racecourse, and the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket's Rowley Mile.
The Brazilian-born jockey has won over £30 million in prize money over the course of his career, which began in Great Britain in 2006. De Sousa now spends a lot of his time riding out in Dubai and is a two-time winner of the UAE Champion Jockey.
His first British Group 1 victory was aboard Farhh in the Lockinge Stakes in 2013 at Newbury Racecourse. He is currently freelance but has done stints for Godolphin and trainer Roger Varian, for whom he won the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes aboard Charyn in 2024.
De Sousa said: “I am incredibly proud to have reached this milestone in my career, after over 20 years as a professional jockey with so many amazing achievements, this is another great thing to have. I would like to thank everyone who made this possible for me.
“I was just a boy from Brazil, and to have this many winners in Great Britain is just a dream come true. England is my home now, and to do this here is so amazing, I am so lucky to have achieved such success.
“Now being freelance, I get to ride a lot of different horses for different trainers all over Great Britain. I look forward to all the opportunities still to come.”
