When at the entrance to the severe straight of the grass track of the San Siro racecourse he finds himself last of ten mares riding the Italian filly Tomiko has never won in 10 career races so farand moreover at least 15 points behind the two wild leaders Nikkei and Sun Never Sets, the Brazilian jockey Silvestre De Sousa he must have been the only one – among the thousands of sane people who flocked to the 114th edition of the “Oaks of Italy”, the most important classic in the life of 3-year-old thoroughbred racing females, an international “group 2″ race from 400,000 euros in prize money on the 2,200 meters – to think of the famous sporting aphorism coined by the famous American baseball player Lawrence Berra known as Yogi, 13 titles with the New York Yankees and a legend who claims he was the inspiration for the Yogi bear cartoon: «You don’t It’s over until it’s over.”
And no one could actually believe it more than the 43-year-old De Sousa, Sylvester in name and in fact for being born in Brazil on New Year’s Eve 1980, a South American introduced to racetracks by a former ras of Asian racing in Macaothen rose from the slums of the lowest category competitions to win the jockey championship three times (and almost twice more) even in the homeland of galloping, England, but then ended up in mothballs: partly due to the scarcity of stables that trusted him, partly due to unfortunate choices such as that of seeking fortune in Hong Kong without finding it, and partly due to some naivety such as the one that cost him a 10-month disqualification at the end of 2023 for having facilitated his fellow jockey Vagner Borges in the race, who had placed a bet prohibited for jockeys.
Forced therefore a few months ago to return to England and start almost from scratch, however the Milanese Oaks of Italy on Sunday 9 June he had been hired to ride the outsider Tomiko by one of his peers and former colleagues such as the Roman trainer Paolo Aragoni, who as a jockey was famous above all for his ability in speed races over 1,000 meters but who had soon had to hang up he hangs up his whip, unable to maintain his weight even with ferocious saunas.
Still just 400 meters from the finish line their Tomiko is just a red spot (the conspicuous hood on the pure purple jacket with yellow star of the Roman owner Luigi Ginobili) in the middle of the group far from the two fugitives: but then the mare gets incredibly stuck while the others pounce, she picks up the various exhausted opponents with her spoon, 200 meters from the finish line she approaches the two fugitives, at 100 meters she catches them, at 50 she flies over Nikkei, and on the finishing post she puts a pass ahead of that of Sun Never Sets , freezing the bearer of former Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri at the last dive. Shock arrival of three mares from Italian stables, snubbed the day before in the presence of the four feared Teutonic mares who aimed to continue the tradition favorable to Germany in 11 editions in the last 25 years.
