Royal Ascot-winning jockey Gabriel Torterolo was one of three jockey sons of Argentinian trainer Pio Torterolo. He was born in Maroñas, Buenos Aires, the younger brother of Juan and Domingo Torterolo.
In 1897, his father took the three boys to England, setting up a stable in Newmarket. Gabriel was apprenticed initially to his father and then to his brother Juan. He was granted a full licence in 1907 and had his first rides at Birmingham on May 22. He finished fifth of six on Knocknagarm in the first race on the card, the Croome Court Handicap, then half an hour later came in eighth of 14 on an unnamed two-year-old filly by Bumptious out of Jezebel in the Doddington Two-Year-Old Selling Plate.
It was not until September 18, at Yarmouth that he first visited a British winner’s enclosure when Knocknagarm, trained by Juan Torterolo at Newmarket, won the one-mile five-furlong Nelson Plate by half a length. According to the Sporting Life, the runner-up Vancouver, owned and trained by former champion jockey Sam Loates, looked all over the winner “when Knocknagarm came again in the hands of Torterolo”.
There were two more wins for Gabriel that year, both of them on the Juan Torterolo-trained two-year-old Pillo, at Gatwick and Newmarket in October.
Pillo supplied Gabriel with four of his five victories the following year. The highlight was a two-length victory in the Ascot Gold Vase on June 16, just 12 days after winning the valuable Durdans Plate at Epsom by a head from Adversary, the mount of Frank Wootton.
There were three more wins in Britain for Gabriel in 1909, the last of them coming on Dissolute in the Southgate Welter Handicap at Alexandra Park on October 2. His final ride was on Peligroso, who finished unplaced in the Humberstone Selling Plate at Leicester on November 16.
Gabriel Torterolo’s British winners were, in chronological order:
1. Knocknagarm, Yarmouth, September 18, 1907
2. Pillo, Gatwick, October 23, 1907
3. Pillo, Newmarket, October 29, 1907
4. Pillo, Newmarket, May 19, 1908
5. Pillo, York, May 26, 1908
6. Pillo, Epsom, June 4, 1908
7. Aureli, Epsom, June 5, 1908
8. Pillo, Ascot, June 16, 1908
9. Dissolute, Alexandra Park, July 31, 1909
10. El Palado, Kempton Park, August 12, 1909
11. Dissolute, Alexandra Park, October 2, 1909