Brazilian jockey Leandro Henrique died in the early hours of August 19, 2026, of injuries from a heavy fall three days earlier in the second race on the Brazilian Jockey Club’s program at Hipódromo da Gávea in Rio de Janeiro, when his mount, Native Coffee, jumped the perimeter rail. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and an open pelvic fracture. He was 27, a rider who had come up through a children’s pony school in Recife and climbed to the front rank of his country’s sport.
Track medics reached him within moments of the fall, and he was rushed to Hospital Miguel Couto, where he had been hospitalized. On Tuesday, August 18, he was transferred to the Humaitá-based Casa de Saúde São José. His final hours were spent there, in intensive care.
He had become a fixture of the sport before most riders finish their apprenticeships, which is part of why the loss landed so hard. Henrique 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 Brazil’s leading domestic rider.
“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 opened a routine review of the incident on August 17 and closed the inquiry a day later — a day before he died — finding no intent during the running and penalizing none of the professionals involved. A wake brought friends and family together at the Social Tribune at Gávea on Thursday, August 20, and Henrique was buried in Recife the following day.
From Pony School to Gávea
Henrique was born in Pernambuco and began 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 he moved to Rio de Janeiro not long after that, where nothing capped his talent.
Urbanesco gave him his first winner at Gávea on June 7, 2015, running for Stud JIFE. The rise that followed was rapid: the 2016/2017 jockey premiership at Brazil’s principal racetrack went to him, a title no member of the country’s jockey academy had claimed before. No apprentice from the Jockey Club Brasileiro’s Escola de Profissionais do Turfe has managed it since, either.
Jockey agent Danilo Aglio was an inseparable presence from the beginning, as the career filled up quickly with major races. Haras Anderson signed him to ride in the colors of the Stabile family, and that opened the door to the top level. Emperor Roderic, running for Stud Pedudu, carried him to his first Grade 1 in 2017, in the Grande Prêmio Cruzeiro do Sul – Derby Brasileiro.
Henrique never wavered when asked which horse he rated the best he partnered: London Moon, a son of the mare Agnes Gold by Beauty Harlan. The pair took the ABCPCC’s Copa Precocidade e Velocidade along with the Grande Prêmio Jockey Club Brasileiro, the Grande Prêmio Estado do Rio de Janeiro and the Grande Prêmio Presidente da República — three Group 1 prizes, the last of them on June 23, 2024, which proved to be London Moon’s final career start. The horse ran first in the colors of Haras Anderson and later for Haras Sweet Carol. His 1,000th career win came in style in 2021, when Casa Blanca, an Argentine-bred son of Roman Ruler, took the Grande Prêmio Henrique de Toledo Lara (G2) under him for Haras Santa Maria de Araras.
A Celebration That Went Viral
Henrique and his wife, 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), followed on June 22, 2025. Henrique won it aboard Sinsel, a son of Alpha running for Stud Red Rafa — and very nearly gave it back. With 50 meters to run he stood up in the irons, arm outstretched to the crowd, unaware that a rival was closing fast up his inside. The photo finish put Sinsel’s nose down first, ahead of runner-up Valparaiso. The clip travelled around the world. The stewards took a dimmer view, banning him 59 days and fining 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 that promise, and he kept winning. Recently retained by Haras Santa Maria de Araras, he rode the Hofburg-sired Passion Of Detail to victory in the Grande Prêmio Margarida Polak Lara – Taça de Prata (G1). That win came at Gávea in August 2026, the last major success of a career that yielded 11 wins at top level.
Mota and their daughter, Manoela, survive him. His wife rides with an international standing of her own, 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, extended 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.
Nearly all of it played out at Gávea, the track where jockey Frankie Dettori also had his final ever ride. To a generation of Brazilian racing fans, the track will now carry another association: the place a boy from Recife arrived at 14 and grew into one of its defining figures.
