LEANDRO Ribeiro is used to breaking records.

The Brazilian-born jockey has been riding the picnic circuit in New South Wales for five years and rarely a meeting goes by when his name isn’t hoisted into the winners’ frame.

In that short time, Ribeiro has ridden 171 winners – not a bad effort, given the limited number of picnic race meetings programmed in New South Wales each year.

In the 2022-2023 season, he rode 54 winners from less than 130 rides, with a winning strike-rate of more than 40 per cent.

Trebles and doubles are a day at the office for Ribeiro, who again heads north later this month to ride at Moree picnic races.

Last year, he won on Kalpana for Connie Greig. He backed up two weeks later and won the Mallawa Cup on stablemate Inzaghi and returned to win at Talmoi on Individualist, also for Greig.

“I’ll definitely get up there for Moree and also Mallawa and Talmoi,” Ribeiro said.

Now based at Muswellbrook with partner, former jockey Julia Presits, Ribeiro travels extensively across New South Wales in search of winners.

He rode two winners for Greig at Cootamundra last Saturday, including cup winner Individualist, and has a full book of rides at Boorowa today.

Ribeiro today had the choice of Individualist or Pahang – his other winner at Cootamundra – in the Boorowa Cup, and chose Pahang.

“Both horses are very similar, but Pahang seems better-suited at the weights, and that will help him a bit more,” Ribeiro said.

“If they were carrying similar weights, it would’ve been harder to decide.

“Those horses will probably go to Moree, especially Pahang. He’s still a class 2 horse and there’s a race over 1600m at Moree that will suit him – he might go in that.”

Ribeiro left Brazil about 15 years ago. He tried his luck in the United Kingdom before moving to Australia in 2017.

“I used to ride professionally back home in Brazil, but the weights there are very light and I was struggling a bit,” Ribeiro said.

“I wasn’t getting many rides, so decided to do a bit of travelling overseas. I had friends working in the UK and I thought ‘why not’.

“I rode there as well, but it’s very hard to get the opportunities. There are a lot of jockeys, and you need a stable behind you to get the rides,” he said.

“Also, I was getting heavier, so I mainly did trackwork. One day, the chance came up to go to Australia.

“I had a friend from the UK working in Sydney, and he suggested I give Australia a go. I was a bit fed up with the weather in the UK – it’s so cold,” he laughed.

Ribeiro based himself in Sydney for the next six years and rode trackwork at Warwick Farm.

In 2023, Ribeiro and Presits, a Swedish ex-pat, bought a property at Muswellbrook.

Presits, a former apprentice jockey with Warwick Farm trainer Gary Portelli, has been training a small team since July last year, and quickly found the winners’ circle.

Cheeky Nugget won at Gilgandra in August and Hemsted won the Barraba Cup in September.

More recently, Presits won at Tomingley with Avoid Me – with Ribeiro in the saddle, of course.

“We’ve got stables at the Muswellbrook racecourse and we work together, and do a lot of pre-training and breaking-in,” Ribeiro said.

Now 40, Ribeiro can comfortably ride the elevated weights on the picnic circuit.

“The minimum weight at the picnics is 62kg, and I can ride at that,” he said.

In recent years, he’s teamed up with Dubbo trainer Connie Greig – a powerhouse on the New South Wales picnic circuit.

They won the $50,000 Picnic Championship Final at Coonamble in 2023 with Inzaghi and with Hemsted the previous year, when the race was transferred to Dubbo.

Ribeiro finished fourth last year on the Greig-trained Belle O’Ballee and was second in 2021 – again for Greig – on Malibu Stacy.

“Since I started riding at the picnics, we’ve formed a good relationship,” Ribeiro said.

Already, Greig has 11 of the top 20 rated runners for this year’s NSW Picnic Championship Final.

“Connie is a very big supporter of picnic racing, and always had one or two runners in cup races,” Ribeiro said.

Bus service available

To ensure patrons get to the trach safely, and on time, buses will run from the Albert Motel, Royal Hotel and Moree Gold Club from 11am to 2pm at half-hour intervals.

Return buses will begin at 5pm and finish at 11.30pm.

Private transfers are subject to availability. Contact Melissa O’Dempsey on 0427 542167 to discuss options for groups of six or more from private residences within town limits.

Picnic lunch

Patrons are encouraged to take along a picnic lunch to share with friends and family under the main marquee at the president’s luncheon.

The long-standing custom of bringing plates to share dates back to 1924, when Moree held its first picnic race meeting.

Everyone is invited to join president Alex Madden under the marquee and partake in this longstanding tradition.

Moree Lions Club barbecue will also be fired up, with delicious steak and sausage sandwiches available for purchase.

Moree picnic races on Saturday, May 24, features a six-race card and $42,000 prize money.

Signature races include the 1400m Boolooroo Cup, won last year by Peter Sinclair’s Peak Road, and the 950m Moree Bracelet, won by Ridge Wilson’s Hiraishin.

Major sponsors for round one of bush racing’s Golden Triangle include Nutrien Ag, RDO, GrainCorp, B&W Rural, Kenway and Clark and North West Events.

Tickets for Moree picnic races are only available online from TryBooking at: https://www.trybooking.com/DADHV.

Ticket prices are $40 per person for general race-day admission, with a race-book Included, or

$140 per person for race-day admission as well as the dinner-dancer afterwards.

Moree Picnic Races

When: Saturday, May 24

Where: Moree racecourse

Time: From around midday ‘til late

Tix: https://www.trybooking.com/DADHV