OFF THE RECORD #105

Andrew Fortune:
A Comeback Measured in Kilograms and Grit

Above: Andrew Fortune salutes on Gimme What I Want after the 2026 Cartier Sceptre Stakes (image: Chase Liebenberg)

Andrew Fortune’s extraordinary career is well documented, and not only defined by the 1,488 winners in the record book or the 60-plus stakes trophies on his mantelpiece. Much has been said and written about the breath-taking wins, the ups and downs and controversies that have marked his 43 years as one of our racing community’s favourite sons.

Fortune’s is a mindset that refuses to accept final counts. It is shaped by discipline sometimes bordering on obsession, and by a level of self-belief that has repeatedly carried him back from places most never return.

Last Saturday at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth, Fortune added another chapter to his remarkable story. At 58 years of age, riding off 54 kilograms – a weight he had not seen in three decades – he partnered two graded winners on King’s Plate Day. That success was followed by four further masterclass victories at Turffontein on Sunday and midweek at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth, reminding everyone that his name still belongs in racing’s biggest conversations.

Fortune has shed 36 kilograms since leaving South Africa as a retired, assistant trainer in June 2023, a physical transformation so dramatic that it has become as much a talking point as his February 2025 comeback itself.

When he stepped onto a flight bound for Sydney with his wife Ashley, daughter Kylie and son Sean, Fortune weighed 90 kilograms, but this figure began to fall rapidly once the family had settled at Bong Bong Farm in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales.

He recalls: “While Ashley was pre-training and spelling young horses for trainer Ciaron Maher, I was tasked with mucking out stables every day, from dawn till dusk, not exactly a model of fitness at the time. The result was that I dropped 20 kilograms in just two months, simply by being active again.”

His days as a stable groom at Bong Bong brought perspective and renewed strength, but they also rekindled an old restlessness, a reminder that his relationship with the saddle was not yet finished.

One day, Fortune recounts, he was on a call with former champion jockey Jeff Lloyd, who at the time was having lunch in Brisbane with Robbie Fradd and visiting trainer, Mike de Kock. “They put me on the speakerphone so we could all have a chat, and Jeff told Mike that I wanted to ride again. Mike nearly choked on his lobster and said, ‘What? Andrew, are you kidding? You’re fatter than me. How the hell are you going to ride again?’

“That, right there, was like a spark to a flame. From that moment, I decided I would plan my way back to race riding, and do it with full intent.”

The same engagement with social media that once landed Fortune in hot water in South Africa would, ironically, come to his aid this time. “I kept seeing promotional content pop up on Facebook about intermittent fasting, and I started experimenting with the recommended approach,” he explains.

The fasting experiment produced the desired results. “I’d eaten badly for six years, so I had to retrain my body for good habits,” he says. “But while I was doing that, I remained kind to myself. If I overate on a day, I put it behind me and started afresh the next day. Eventually, I got well below the 70-kilogram mark and applied for a track licence (to ride work) in Australia, but my application was denied. That course of events forced my hand and ultimately led me back to South Africa and the reissuing of my licence in 2025.

“It took me 14 months to get my licence back in South Africa. To be honest, at the end of that frustrating period, I came very close to giving up and flying back to Australia. But as I was about to call it quits, I received notice that I was granted a licence and could ride again.”

Initially restricted to 58 kilograms, Fortune has steadily reduced his riding weight to 54 kilograms. He walked off the track at Kenilworth weighing 52.5 kilograms after the high-octane action of King’s Plate Day.

Above: Celebrating with connections of Wish List (image: Chase Liebenberg)

“In most of the 2000s, as you’ll recall, I could only ride at 60 kilograms, sometimes 58,” he says. “Back then I was walking around at about 62 kilograms, so I had to take off four kilos just to make 58kg for most of my rides, which was very taxing on my body. Now, my official riding weight is 54kg and there is no wasting before a race. My level of energy is frightening, I think it is there for all to see.”

With his fasting habit now engrained, Fortune eats just one full meal a day. He begins his early mornings with a cup of black coffee and keeps boiled eggs in the fridge. “I grab one when I’m low on fuel,” he explains. “When the main meal of the day approaches and I start getting hungry, I push myself to wait another hour. Then I’ll have chicken breasts with eggs or vegetables. I stick to high-protein food – no carbs, artificial food or fizzy drinks.

“Also, I’ve noticed, when I replace chicken with fish, the weight drops off even faster. I ate mostly fish when I got down from 57kg to 54kg. This is not rocket science; anyone can do it. There’s a fundamental difference between dieting and fasting. Dieting involves a set of rules, which is always hard to stick to, because people tend to overeat on ‘cheat days’. When you overeat on bad things, you pick up weight quickly, but when you overeat on good things, you tend to get away with it.”

He continues to follow an exercise programme, though not as rigid as in the past. “Interval training works for me,” he explains. “I do maybe half an hour every few days, typically walking for a minute and then running hard for a minute, alternating the pace.”

With body and mind now once again in sync, the skills that made Fortune a champion are once again unmistakable, and he’s finding winning ways on horses that have defeated others. “Justin Snaith said the other day that he thinks I’m riding better now than I did before my retirement, and he may well be right. We’ve got a good thing going, and I hope it can continue.”

In a recent Off The Record article, Fortune’s jet-setting South African colleague, Ryan Munger, offered a broader perspective on elite riders, noting: “Jockeys like Piere Strydom and Andrew Fortune are so good because they’ve mastered race-defining skills – balance, timing, and getting a horse to change its lead. That’s why they’re always one step ahead.”

Fortune, while describing Piere Strydom as “truly gifted”, concedes that he, too, belongs in that rare category. “I said to some of the jockeys the other day, ‘We can all ride horses, but we don’t all understand horses.’ When you can feel what they’re about, they run for you.”

He made a similar observation in an article published in The Citizen in 2008, reflecting on his first few months as an apprentice jockey, back in 1981: “…as the weeks went by, I felt something click. I couldn’t explain it, but I started noticing that horses responded to me in a different way to what I saw with other apprentice riders. I listened to them and they listened to me. They did what I asked them to do.”

Above:  Fortune wins the 2026 Cartier Paddock Stakes on Wish List (image: Chase Liebenberg)

When winning Saturday’s Cartier Paddock Stakes aboard Wish List, Fortune became South Africa’s oldest jockey to land a Grade 1 – at 58 years, eight months and 10 days. He enthused: “This is the only record set by Piere Strydom that I ever had a chance to break, and now that I’ve done it, I’ll better my own again, soon.”

Little has changed over the decades, except that the Andrew Fortune of 2026 has finally found a level of mental maturity to match his extraordinary skills as a horseman. Referring to a R14,000 fine imposed by the NHA following his use of the whip on Gimme What I Want in the Sceptre Stakes last Saturday, he said: “I am not the person I was, two years ago. You can’t shoot at every barking dog. I accept the fine. I’m not challenging authority anymore. You get knocked down every time and it sets you back. I’m privileged to be riding again, honoured to be in the Jockeys’ Room.”

Fortune will mark 19 years of sobriety on 27 March and continues to live by his faith, taking a day-to-day approach. “We’re imperfect beings. We make mistakes and we all have demons,” he says. “But we can conquer them, or at least keep them in check, by conducting ourselves with integrity and discipline. My decision to live by God-given principles hasn’t changed my sense of humour or stopped me from swearing or enjoying myself. Life is simply better when you’re able to control your personal demons. My mind is clear, and I avoid conflict.”

Fortune has not yet decided whether he will ride for another two, three or several more seasons, while Ashley has no immediate plans to return to training. For now, they are leaving those decisions to a higher hand, trusting that the course of life will reveal the answers in its own time.

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Above: Andrew, Ashley and Sean Fortune with Aldo Domeyer in June 2023 (image: JC Photos)

The Fortunes and Aldo Domeyer have registered the Non-Profit Organisation, the KIND Project, of which the aim will be to assist anyone in any kind of need. “We are in the process of planning. KIND has been established to help anybody that needs help, whether with illness, education or addiction. Our objectives, aside from assisting people, will be to show exactly how and where the money is spent, and precisely how it helps the beneficiaries,” said Fortune.

More news will follow.