Fortitudine makes a striking start
A brother of Godolphin superstar Rebel’s Romance produced a ‘wow’ moment on Wednesday night with a 21 length debut victory. Fortitudine is the three-year-old gelded full brother of the recently retired champion by supersire Dubawi.
Rebel’s Romance ran his last race at Newmarket last month when he captured the Group 2 Princess Of Wales ’s Stakes, the 22nd success of his career. He won nine Group 1 races including the Breeders’ Cup Turf twice, Dubai Sheema Classic and Hong Kong’s Champions & Chater Cup, finishing with career earnings of £12.2 million.
Fortitudine has a long way to go to match those achievements but he began his career in impressive fashion on the all-weather at Kempton. The gelding went off the 7-2 second favourite for the 1m3f novice stakes behind the odds-on Dialstone, who had finished second on his only previous start. Jockey James Doyle had him out of the stalls smartly and took him straight to the front. He kept pouring on the power, pushing right away from his rivals in the straight.
The Racing Post analysis said the winner “produced a genuine wow moment on his debut, jumping from a wide draw at speed and keeping the gallop up right to the line to pull right away from the whole field. Post-race comments by the rider plus his starting price suggest this sort of performance wasn't expected at all, so he rates a most exciting prospect for the Charlie Appleby stable”.
Doyle was aboard Rebel's Romance when he triumphed in the 2022 Breeders' Cup Turf. He said:
“He was quite professional. I gave him one tap, then he balanced up and away he went. He’s learning on the job nicely.
“He feels like he lengthens away. He doesn’t do anything too quickly, so I was keen to keep the revs up, keep him in a nice high gear and keep him galloping. The trip is right and he might even get a bit further.”
He added:
“I was a bit surprised myself when I had a little look around. It bodes well; hopefully he's in for a good career.”
