Andrew Fortune went down on his knees and thanked God after he had won the WSB Met for the first time in his career as it was the culmination of a comeback in life and racing that could one day be a story for the big screen (Picture: Wayne Marks)
The Drakenstein Stud-bred six-year-old Twice Over gelding See It Again made it third time lucky in the WSB Cape Town Met on Saturday at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on a day in which the results would have been considered too far-fetched had they happened in a movie.
Andrew Fortune retired in 2017 and tipped the scale at 90kg a few years thereafter, so how can it be possible that his riding weight is now 53,5kg and he has won his hometown’s biggest race for the first time at the age of 58?
Not only that, but his son Aldo Domeyer finished second aboard outsider Legal Counsel, a Justin Snaith-trained stablemate to the winner, to give the race its first ever father-son exacta.
And that happened about 45 minutes after they had achieved a father-son exacta in the only other Gr 1 race on the day, the Maine Chance Farms Majorca Stakes, with the Snaith-trained Double Grand Slam and the Candice Bass-trained Rainbow Lorikeet.
The Met win gave trainer Justin Snaith and owner Nick Jonsson a fourth successive victory together in the Gr 1 wfa 2000m event and, incredibly, they have done it with four different horses.
The four are Jet Dark (Trippi), Double Surperlative (Twice Over), Eight On Eighteen (Lancaster Bomber) and See It Again (Twice Over).
Of those only Double Superlative was not bred by Drakenstein Stud.
It was a fifth Met win for Snaith overall, with his first being with the Drakenstein Stud-homebred Oh Susanna in 2018.
Mike Bass won the Met four years in succession between 2007-2010 but only did it with two horses, as Jet Master hero Pocket Power won three in a row from 2007 to 2009 and his full-sister River Jetez won it in 2010.
Multiple successive wins of Gr 1 races are rare, but do happen around the world to trainers and jockeys.
However, it is unheard of for an individual owner to do it simply due to the numerical odds involved.
To put it into perspective Snaith’s charges have collectively had 556 runs this season, while Jonsson’s have had exactly 100 runs.
See It Again’s victory not only gave Fortune a first ever win of his hometown’s biggest race, but it was in fact the first time he had ever won one of South Africa racing’s three “majors”, which are the Hollywoodbets Durban July, the WSB Met and the Betway Summer Cup.
In the Met winner’s enclosure Fortune brought many to tears when going down on his knees and lifting his hands to the heavens before thanking God.
He had just put the cherry on top of one of the finest sporting comebacks in history and it followed his even greater comeback as a human-being.
The talented Fortune fought back from being virtually down and out through drug addiction about 19 years ago to be crowned champion jockey in the 2008/2009 season and what made that feat even more incredible was he was a heavyweight jockey.
When Fortune retired from the saddle in 2017 he had many highlights to look back on, although the absence of a win in any of South African racing’s three “majors” was glaring.
When seeing him at the sales grounds or on racetracks a few years later, in his capacity as assistant trainer to his wife Ashley, it looked like he had to waddle a bit as he had gained a lot of weight.
The Fortunes subsequent position on a throughbred farm in Australia saw Andrew having to do plenty of physical work and he lost plenty of weight, but he was still scoffed at by some when talking of a comeback to the saddle.
The process of regaining his race-riding license in South Africa was a long one and he had almost given up and was going to fly back to his family in Australia when it finally came through, allowing him to resume race-riding on March 1, 2025.
Fortune has a nutrition regime which he does not call dieting, but rather “fasting”, and having battled with weight throughout his career he now, incredibly, rides at 53,5kg and has revealed he has a frightening amount of energy.
He accumulated a lot of suspension time in his first few months back in race-riding, but he did land the Gr 2 Golden Horse Sprint on Tenango and then won the Gr 1 Ridgemont Garden Province Stakes on Double Grand Slam.
However, since putting his suspensions behind him he has bounced back to his best and it is unlikely he has ever ridden as well in his career as he has in the last month or two.
It is a thing of beauty to watch horses settling in his sublime hands and then finding extra with minimal use of the whip and, ever the showman, he invariably entertains by standing up in the saddle and pointing to the crowd before he has crossed the line.
His legendary interviews are full of humour, but they are sometimes not for the faint-hearted, although on Saturday even the biggest prude would have forgiven him a couple of swear words.
The NHA could not though and The National Horseracing Authority reported on Sunday that the winning rider had been charged with a contravention of Rule 72.1.26. He was deemed to have behaved and conducted himself in a manner which may bring racing into disrepute by using foul language during the Met post-race interview.
Fortune signed an Admission of Guilt and was fined R20 000 of which R15000 was suspended for a period of one year. In considering an appropriate penalty, the Stewards reportedly took into consideration the status of the race and the emotions of the occasion.
Fortune won four races in all on Saturday, three of them for Snaith, including the two Gr 1s.
He had won the Gr 1 Cartier Paddock Stakes on the Snaith-trained Wish List in December, so has now had four Gr 1 wins since coming back.
Snaith had five wins in all on Saturday, including the Gr 3 New Turf Carriers Western Cape Stayers over 2800m.
See It Again had won the Gr 1 Splashout Cape Derby and the Gr 1 Daily News 2000 for Summerveld trainer Michael Roberts as a three-year-old and went close in the July that season.
He had knocked hard for more Gr 1s, but this season was under a cloud as he refused to load in his first two starts at Hollywoodbets Greyville and this scuppered the plan to run him in the Summer Cup.
He was still running under Roberts’ name when charging home for a close third in the Gr 2 Ridgemont Green Point Stakes over 1600m at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on December 13 after losing a couple of lengths at the start. That was his first race under Fortune.
However, he has been at the Snaith yard since early November and his starting stall issues have been worked on by renowned horse whisperer Malan Du Toit.
Jonsson put him in Snaith’s name at the end of December and in his first start for the champion trainer he came flying from well back in the field for a narrow third in the Gr 1 wfa L’Ormarins King’s Plate over 1600m.
Fortune was supremely confident of winning the Met.
From a tough draw of ten of eleven See It Again was caught three wide in the running on Saturday, but he had cover behind Native Ruler and was settled.
He produced his usual turn of foot in the straight before wearing down the gallant Legal Counsel to win easily with Fortune saluting the grandstand.
The Real Prince ran on from last for third. He was arguably a touch unlucky as he had to be switched inward for a run and experienced further traffic problems thereafter. He never really lost momentum but could not go all out for the line until about the 200m mark.
Considering, he was beaten only 1.25 lengths, a clearer run could have seen him challenging the winner in the closing stages.
