A Family Affair At Durbanville
Some of the best stories in racing don’t come from a horse with a spotless form line — they come from a partnership. At Durbanville, jockey Andrew Fortune steered Peace of Mind to victory in Race 7, and the winner’s enclosure belonged as much to the trainer as it did to horse and rider: Ashley Fortune, Andrew’s wife.
Peace of Mind arrived at the Fortune yard on the back of five runs without troubling the judge for a different Cape stable — a form line of 6-4-10-3-2. First run in new colours, first Fortune leg-up, first win. It’s the kind of immediate turnaround that makes a change of scenery look like exactly the right call.
One Of South African Racing’s Great Comeback Stories
Andrew Fortune’s career is one of the sport’s most remarkable. A champion jockey with close to twenty Grade 1 victories to his name, he was banned from riding in the early 2000s after well-documented struggles with addiction — and few would have backed him to return to the saddle at all, let alone thrive. He did both, eventually crowned South African jockeys’ champion and, years later, adding a long-chased victory in the Cape Town Met to the résumé.
When Andrew stepped back from full-time riding, he didn’t step away from the sport — he became assistant to Ashley as she took out her own trainer’s licence, and the pair built a training partnership together that has included a Grade 1 winner in Princess Calla. These days it’s Andrew back in the saddle for some of Ashley’s runners, and Friday’s winner was a reminder of how well the family operation still clicks when it matters.
The family’s fingerprints were all over the card, in fact — Ashley’s stepson Aldo Domeyer, a Cape jockey in his own right, partnered Juliet of Verona to victory in the day’s very first race for trainer Candice Bass. Two winners, one family, one Durbanville card.
Why It Matters
Durbanville’s tight, bend-heavy circuit rewards a jockey who knows how to settle a horse and produce it at the right moment — exactly the kind of craft a rider with Andrew Fortune’s experience brings to a horse having its first run in new hands. For Peace of Mind, arriving at a new yard and winning next time out is about as good a start as a stable partnership can ask for.
If you’re following today’s Durbanville card, the full racecard and form guide is at saracing.cfox.co.za.
