Photo: Cidinha Franzão

1. He is the split image of his dad
Mágico’s story begins long before his birth. When a horse surprises us we always ask ourselves “where did this come from?”. In his case, I know that all the extraordinary things he does are related to his origins. His sire, Saad ibn Syed, has an excellent heart and an exemplary temperament; his dam, GR Mata-Hari, was forward going, had agility and also impressive recuperation abilities. That is where all his quality comes from.

2. Rejection at a young age
Before being broken in, we put a couple of horses in the ring (the buyer would choose which of the two he would keep): Mágico and his full brother, Mistério Endurance. The price, if I can remember rightly, did not reach 20% of what we expected, and thus we were forced to withdraw the lot, which has never happened at any auction where we have sold horses.

3. Rejection in adolescence
On one of the first occasions when the Arabs came to Brazil to purchase horses, we received some buyers at home, and in addition to Mágico and Mistério, also showed them Malak Endurance (who is his full brother as well). They chose 6 horses, including Mágico’s two brothers, but not him.

4.The first time
Some years later, in 2007, I entered him in his first 120km race. It was just after the Pan-American competition in Campinas, the Brazilian Championship, and the intention was just to qualify. I remember that on the last leg he was still pulling on the bit and searching for the horses in front. Nothing particularly uncommon for young horses competing in their first long-distance race, but it made an impression on me, even more so after arriving in 4th place and winning the Best trophy.

5.The chosen one
When we started to plan the trip to Compiègne, we had 5 horses training for the race. Miroslav and Hamlet were sold to the Arabs, Valerie was chosen as reserve as she was less prepared, so we were left with Mágico and Espiã. I, who had only ridden Mágico, preferred him, while Gerson and Zé preferred the sister. Unfortunately, after the Paraopeba race (her first 120km ride) she felt the last leg at more than 23kms/hr and so Mágico was chosen for Compiègne.

6. Compiègne 08
During the race for 7-year old horses, Mágico surprised us: he always entered the vetgate in about1 minute and was raring to go at each leg. At the end of the 3rd he arrived pulling on the bit and was the first to enter the vet-check. We would have been the first to set off for the final leg, but were eliminated due to lameness. Apparently, a cut on the frog of the near fore hoof was the cause, but this did not matter much.

7. Exchange
After Compiègne, Mágico went to the home of Xavier Perringerard, father and trainer of Maya Perringerard, world champion in 2000. The idea was always to train him to compete in the 8-year old race in the following year. For this purpose, we competed in a 60km race, followed by a 90km race and a 130km race (Mônica rode him in Corlay) and then we prepared him for the competition in August.

8. On vas plus
At the end of July, I called Xavier to keep track of Mágico’s training and was surprised by the news that he was lame. The farrier was planning to see him again to make sure that there was no badly positioned nail, but Xavier was in favor of our withdrawing from the Compiègne race. After a long conversation, we convinced him that if the horse’s lameness were cleared up it would still be worthwhile taking him to Compiègne, even though he believed that the 15 days the horse had spent resting were essential for his training. Finally, after changing the shoes Mágico went back to normal, but this was the most difficult moment of the entire story.

9. To Compiègne
The week before the race went very smoothly. We rode, we exercised the horse, we got things in order for the support and for the race, nothing abnormal happened. Mágico was calm and fit.

10. Set and finish of race
At the start of the previous year’s race I remember being surprised when Mágico bucked and kicked out in all directions (not over more than about 200m, that is true). This year, the start was less troublesome, but after the same 200m, He started his “game” again, then did something that he had already done with my sister in Corlay, but that I was not expecting: during a curve to the right, out of the blue, he lowered his head as far as he could and brought his right hindquarter up sharply. I, who was not expecting it, fell off on the left side immediately. When I saw him running around among the other horses, I thought “The race is over for me”. Suddenly, all the other riders stopped and made their mounts continue at a walk until I managed to reach the horse and remount: a truly sportsmanlike attitude.

11. Beginning
After my fall, I continued competing in the race normally. Actually, I did not like my first two legs, because in attempting to find a comfortable place for the horse in the groups that gradually form, I ended up cantering and galloping more than I imagined and could not get him to settle.

12. Middle
In the 3rd phase, with the horse calmer, I decided to let the group depart and get on with my race. I started off in 7th place, but 2 horses soon overtook me. Thinking about winning a medal, my calculation was simple: of the 8 ahead of me, 3 would drop out and I would need to overtake another 3. For this purpose I could let the leaders open a gap between 3 and 4 minutes. What I did not take into consideration, however, is that there was a group behind and that it would catch up with me at the end of the leg. Hence I was no longer competing with 8, but rather with 14. On the 4th leg I rode together with the group that had caught up with me and we ended up arriving in the leading group. At this vet-check the Polar stopped functioning and we ended up losing some time entering: inside the horse had his heartbeat at 52. Even so we still set off in 3rd place, 53 seconds behind the leader.

13. End
The last leg was 27kms, which is very rare in a 160km race and a consequence of the fact that it consisted of only 5 legs. This was new to me, and caused a certain amount of indecision about what to do. As the horse was still pulling on the bit and going well, I put him into a fast canter and soon caught up with the horse in 2nd place. Another two horses caught up with us and we continued to pursue the first, cantering at 25kms/hr. I did not understand how this was possible after 140kms, but continued with the group. In catching sight of the leader everyone accelerated and I believed that keeping up with the group would be too risky, although Mágico was doing well. I let them go ahead, but rode on at the same pace as before, which allowed me to continue seeing the 4 horses ahead. One of them soon tired and was obliged to slow to a walk, which guaranteed me 4th place up to that point. At a distance of 10kms from the finishing line I could still see them and realized that the Spanish rider who had set off in first place was tiring, dropping behind sometimes but making up lost ground afterwards; 5kms from the finishing line there was a pit and I passed in 4th place, which caused some unease as it was almost a place on the podium. A kilometer further on, however, when making a curve I glimpsed the Spanish rider on foot leading his horse. From then on I just had to manage my timing and reach the racecourse in 3rd place.