Ivan Furtado grew up on his family ranch in Brazil, and started riding when he was very young, around 4 years of age. He got the racing bug through helping to look after some racehorses his grandfather kept, and his keen interest in horses grew as he got older.
After university, he came to the UK and worked with National Hunt trainer Jim Old, and learned a lot during his five years there. He then spent two years as assistant trainer to Roger Charlton, where he was involved with some great horses. During an exciting period in his career, he rode Group 1 winner Al Kazeem in most of his work, and looked after other stable stars like Cityscape and Time Test. After that, he worked as assistant trainer to Alan McCabe.
Ivan values the varied experience he gained working with these trainers, as he learned to deal with very different types of horses – and very different owners! In 2015 he got his own licence, and started training near Doncaster.
He has since moved to Averham Park Stables, near Newark in Nottinghamshire, which offers fabulous facilities. The purpose built yard has grass and all weather Polytrack gallops, as well as a covered one furlong all weather exercise track, an Equine swimming pool, and plenty of turnout paddocks to keep the horses fresh.
