Dan Fortt

Dan Fortt was a 7lb claiming conditional jockey when winning the 1993 Hennessy Gold Cup on Cogent). Sadly, that high-profile victory was not a springboard to success and he proved something of a one-hit-wonder, at least in terms of race riding, though he would go on to forge a successful career out of racing.

Dan was born on August 18, 1973. He grew up around horses, but it was in the world of showjumping. He was a British junior champion and his future in that sphere looked bright but, having spotted an advert in Horse & Hound magazine he decided to give racing a try. He joined Andy Turnell’s Marlborough stable when he was 16 and took out a conditional jockey’s licence after a year in the yard. He rode his first winner on Society Guest at Wincanton on January 9, 1992 and won in him again at Windsor six days later.

Cogent came along the following year, giving Dan the biggest moment of his career on November 27, 1993 when winning Newbury’s Hennessy Gold Cup by two-and-a-half lengths from Adrian Maguire on Irish challenger Cahervillahow. It was only his tenth winner. Later that season, on March 10, 1994, Dan rode Cogent to victory under top weight in the Arthur Stephenson Memorial Handicap Chase at Newcastle.

Little more than a year later, Dan decided to retire due to weight problems. The constant wasting to boil his naturally 12 stone body down to 9st 10lb had taken its toll. He spent 18 months out of racing before renewing his licence and riding winners for David Gandolfo and Graham McCourt. But he struggled without a claim and by 2000, after 12 seasons and 65 winners, he’d had enough and retired again, this time for good.

He continued to ride out and was offered a job as a valet on Chris Maude’s team shortly after Maude had bought the valeting

business from John Buckingham. That meant giving up a livery and breaking yard he’d set up after smashing a shoulder in a fall. However, despite the long hours he was able to take up showjumping again, albeit at a modest level.

He was a valet for seven years but found the constant travelling was hard on his young family, so he changed course and with the help of the Jockeys Employment Training Scheme (JETS) he began working in forestry and obtained his forestry licence. Also with the help of JETS and the Injured Jockeys Fund, he was able to rebuild not just his life but his body too, undergoing seven operations in the space of five years to rebuild his shoulders, the result of numerous falls, as well as a hip replacement.

Over a period of three years he steadily built up a successful tree felling and log selling business at his base in the Cotswolds. At Cheltenham in November 2014 he was presented with the Injured Jockeys Fund Richard Davis Progress Award, a JETS initiative that rewards former jockeys who have made a successful transition into another profession.

In the summer of 2014 Dan enjoyed a nine-week spell with the Cotswold-based Giffords Circus as their stable manager. He loved it and signed up to go away on their full May-September tour in 2015. With the firewood business being seasonal, it fits in well with the circus work, and his family regularly came to see the shows.