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ANDREW FORTUNE, TENANGO \/ G3 Champagne Stakes \/\/ Scottsville \/\/\/ 2025 \/\/\/\/ Photo by Candiese Lenferna<\/p>\nANDREW FORTUNE was an overweight South African ex-champion jockey \u2013 mucking out stables for work \u2013 when a conversation with Mike de Kock spurred him into a chain of actions that have taken him back to the Group 1 arena his talent was made for.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said to Mike de Kock, \u2018I\u2019m going to go back riding.\u2019 And he said to me, \u2018You\u2019re mad, you\u2019ll never get your weight off. You\u2019ll never do it, you\u2019re fatter than me,\u2019\u201d Fortune tells Idol Horse.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what started it. It was like a dare: I said to him, \u2018Okay, I will show you, I will do it.\u2019 And look at that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fortune weighed in at about 90kg (198lb), 30kg (66lb) above his old race-riding weight, when the hefty South African trainer queried his sanity. He had moved his family to Australia; his wife Ashley was running a stable and Fortune had started working for trainer Annabel Neasham with an idea to be a licensed track rider. The Sydney stewards had other ideas and turned him down for a trackwork licence not once but twice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey didn\u2019t want me as a track rider \u2026 As a track rider!\u201d he says. \u201cThey left me no choice, they kind of squeezed me into a corner, so I decided to come back. In their defence, I was no angel when I rode before, I had no respect for authority when I was younger, but today, I look at it completely differently; today I\u2019m privileged to have a jockey licence.\u201d<\/p>\n
It took him two years to get the weight off and get back to race-riding at home in South Africa, thanks to intermittent fasting and a force of will that has been refined and strengthened through a period \u2013 close to 19 years and counting \u2013 of recovery from drug addiction.<\/p>\n
Back, too, was the Fortune confidence, the sparks of wit and sharply honest bravado that accompanied his turbulent rise to becoming one of the finest jockey talents of his generation: a career that has seen a host of major wins, bans and fines; a cocaine positive in the midst of his addiction; recovery and a 2008 return; champion jockey by the 2008-09 season\u2019s end; \u2018retirement\u2019 in 2017; verbal volleys and heated run-ins with the racing authorities.<\/p>\n
Those South African authorities weren\u2019t exactly swift to re-licence him either. But Fortune is now almost a year into his second and most unlikely great comeback, and he is confident of a first win in the G1 Cape Town Met on a horse he thinks the world of, See It Again.<\/p>\n
He is riding winners in multiples \u2013 a four-timer for four different trainers at Kenilworth in December \u2013 and is a valuable ally for South Africa\u2019s powerhouse trainer Justin Snaith. The Cape Town conditioner now trains See It Again \u2013 as well as Met rival and Horse of the Year Eight On Eighteen \u2013 and he provided Fortune a comeback Group 1 win on Double Grand Slam last July, eight years after the rider had left the jockeys\u2019 room for what looked for all the world like the final time.<\/p>\n
\u201cAndrew is riding the best he\u2019s ever ridden in his life,\u201d Snaith told Idol Horse. \u201cHe has so much experience, and he\u2019s just a wiser human, to be honest. With all the ups and downs he\u2019s had in his career, he\u2019s managed to turn it around and he\u2019s riding better than he did in his twenties, in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fortune is not convinced about that, not entirely. He emphasises that it\u2019s not possible: he\u2019s 58 years old, he\u2019s had a knee replaced.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I\u2019m not sure if I one hundred percent agree with Justin,\u201d he says, but then finds himself laying out a pretty good case for Snaith\u2019s belief.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe might be right: I\u2019m probably fitter now and I\u2019m lighter; I\u2019m naturally around 55(kg) but I used to ride 60kg and then take off six, seven pounds a race meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I\u2019m riding 55(kg) and I\u2019m not losing any weight, so it\u2019s a combination of things: I\u2019m older, I\u2019m wiser, I understand more, I\u2019m so dedicated now and I live around racing at the moment. I\u2019m going to the races well-prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n
ANDREW FORTUNE, TENANGO \/ G3 Champagne Stakes \/\/ Scottsville \/\/\/ 2025 \/\/\/\/ Photo by Candiese Lenferna<\/p>\n
Fortune belongs on a Thoroughbred\u2019s back. He felt that when he found himself in the Cape Town jockey academy at age 14, a way out of the Cape Flats with its unemployment, poverty and gang crime.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d never sat on a horse before I went to the academy, so my first two weeks were quite scary,\u201d he says. \u201cBut because I had no choice, I thought \u2018you better learn\u2019. And then I had a very good boss as an apprentice. He was a champion jockey himself, Bert Abercrombie.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople can be great jockeys, but they can\u2019t teach. He was a very good teacher and he kind of took me under his wing and schooled me the ropes. And those days it was different because if he had a go, then it was a privilege because he spoke to me. Now and then I got a slap across the ear, I didn\u2019t listen.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Fortune did listen to and absorbed some valuable lessons that have influenced how he interacts with the horses he rides.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe always said to me, play with horses, play on them. See what they like, see what they don\u2019t like,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd as I\u2019ve got older, to a degree I understand them. They communicate. You\u2019ve just got to listen.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I don\u2019t get flustered in a race, I ride the horse off what the horse is telling me: if you are half a length or a neck behind me, it doesn\u2019t bother me, I just ride the race for my horse. And 90 percent of the time, I\u2019m probably going to get the better of you.\u201d<\/p>\n
That kind of connection is obvious in the way Fortune speaks about See It Again.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just a proper horse,\u201d he says. \u201cAmazing, amazing action. When you work him, his tank is endless. You know when you\u2019re sitting in a Mercedes CLK and when you\u2019re sitting in a Mercedes C-class. That\u2019s the difference. He feels like Eight On Eighteen. That\u2019s the quality that I feel, just endless, endless, endless. He\u2019s the most amazing thing to sit on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fortune rides See It Again almost every day \u2013 the exceptions being if Snaith himself takes the mount along the beach \u2013 and this has deepened the connection: \u201cI\u2019ve got to know him,\u201d he says. \u201cI know his body language and he\u2019s just very solid at the moment, he\u2019s very, very proud of himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, we all can ride horses, but we all can\u2019t understand horses,\u201d he continues. \u201cThere\u2019s a huge difference between those two things. And that\u2019s me. From a young age, I\u2019ve been able to do that. Be a bit kind, a bit nice, communicate with them to a degree, speak to them all the time. So that\u2019s me as a person as well, and that\u2019s why they go like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
For any jockey there\u2019s the connection through hands touching rein, touching bit, touching mouth, the feet in irons and legs squeezing flanks, but Fortune\u2019s connection has an intangible element that is in keeping with his spiritual view of life. The harrowing addiction experiences, the 12-step recovery programme meetings he attends, have all shaped and refined that spiritual awareness.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not human beings having a spiritual experience, we\u2019re spiritual beings having a human experience and that makes sense to me,\u201d Fortune says.<\/p>\n
He adds that if ever he thinks he has a problem, he walks into a recovery meeting, he listens, and he feels blessed. He still writes down the things he\u2019s grateful for, still does the basics within the 12 steps.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s worked for a million people, why would it not work for me? And it is working for me,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a sign of putting the thing down, it\u2019s changing. The easy part is putting the drink down or putting the drug down, that\u2019s the easy part, that\u2019s not the hard part. The hard part is I\u2019m still stuck with me and my attitude and behaviours and things I do and thoughts I have, you know, and (bad) emotions: I\u2019ve still got to manage those. And people have done it, so it\u2019s worked for them and they\u2019ve had successful lives<\/p>\n
\u201cI ended up living in a squatter camp when I was using and that\u2019s where it can take you,\u201d he continues. \u201cYou can ask any addict using: you\u2019ve hit rock bottom? No, no, no, there\u2019s plenty more: rock bottom has got basements, it depends how deep you want to go into them.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re gonna feel every emotion in this earth. I don\u2019t care who you are, you\u2019re gonna feel sadness, you\u2019re gonna feel disappointment, you\u2019re gonna feel hurt, you\u2019re gonna feel let down, you\u2019re gonna feel joy if you create it yourself. Because that\u2019s what happiness is, you\u2019ve got to make happiness in experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n
Riding horses has given Fortune a particular kind of happiness: a release from human cares and life\u2019s difficult emotions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a kind of freedom because when you\u2019re on that horse, you think of nothing else,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing else matters, it\u2019s only you and the horse, there\u2019s never a worry in your head when you\u2019re going a half pace down the track. You\u2019re never thinking \u2018oh, I need to pay that bill\u2019. It\u2019s you and the horse, it\u2019s like liberation for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot that I worry about too many things in life anymore because I came with nothing, you\u2019re gonna leave with nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
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ANDREW FORTUNE, ALDO DOMEYER \/ City Of Cape Town Stakes \/\/ Kenilworth \/\/\/ 2025 \/\/\/\/ Photo by Candiese Lenferna<\/p>\n
But when the 2026 Cape Town Met comes around, he believes he will leave with the spoils. If he does, he will have beaten one of his own sons, Aldo Domeyer, who rides another of Snaith\u2019s six in the race, Legal Counsel. Domeyer has one up on his old man, in that he has a Met already in the bag.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve got no chance, they\u2019re just filling the field,\u201d Fortune laughs. \u201cNo, all these billboards, they\u2019re all for me. No doubt, I think See It Again is the horse they all have to beat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fortune says there\u2019s mentorship but also a \u201cbit of a buzz\u201d of father-son rivalry between the two.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember I\u2019d been back about nine months and Aldo saying, \u2018Oh, dad, you\u2019re old now, you can\u2019t beat me anymore,\u2019\u201d he recalls. \u201cWell, about two or three months ago, his stable fancied a horse and I beat him. I just reminded him that, \u2018Hey, listen to me, I\u2019ve schooled you whatever you know, but I never schooled you everything I know.\u2019 So since then, he\u2019s been a bit quiet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Banter aside, Fortune is happy having family so close. Ashley \u2013 his second wife \u2013 has recently moved back to South Africa from Australia with his younger son and daughter, and he is enjoying his second return to the big-race spotlight. How long he will continue, he doesn\u2019t know but says he\u2019s already had some job offers for when he does call time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s another couple of months or a year \u2026 as long as I can ride,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t worry about that part so much. When you\u2019re clean this long, you don\u2019t overthink things anymore. God doesn\u2019t close doors, he hears the conversations when you aren\u2019t present: you think this door is closing, what am I going to do? and it ends up better because there\u2019s a greater plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s how it is and I\u2019m a full, great believer in it. It becomes pain free, your life; it becomes pain free.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fortune knows pain and he knows joy: he knows them deeply. And where he is at now in life\u2019s journey, with family close and Group 1 horses to ride, he is accepting of the hard paths he has taken and the long, liberating recovery road he is travelling.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to go left in life instead of right,\u201d he adds. \u201cThat\u2019s what happened and it made me a better character, made me a better human.\u201d \u220e<\/p>\n
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Malawi Magic: South Africa’s Horse Of The Year, His Loyal Groom And An Amazing Gift<\/p>\n
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