REBEL ROMANCE'S BROTHER, FORTITUDINE, WINS BY TWENTY-ONE LENGTHS ON DEBUT

By Graham Potter | Thursday, August 6, 2026

The well-related Charlie Appleby trained Fortitudine put his name on everybody’s watch-list by posting a debut win by a 21 length margin at Kempton on Wednesday night.

Any horse doing something like that will get at least their fifteen seconds of fame, but when that horse is a full brother to Appleby’s recently retired superstar Rebel’s Romance, the scrutiny goes much deeper.

The globe-trotting Rebel’s Romance retired in July as a nine-time Group 1 winner who won twenty-two out of his thirty-two starts, with Appleby never being afraid to give Rebel’s Romance the freedom to show off his talents all across the world, which he did from Britain, to the United States, to Germany to Hong Kong … in the process bringing in a prize-money haul of £12,212,756 which places him in second spot on the list of all-time prize-money earners who are trained in Great Britain or Ireland.

Both Rebel’s Romance and Fortitudine are by Dubawi out of the dam Minidress (by Street Cry) which is why you will appreciate the excitement that has been generated by the Godolphin bred and owned Fortitudine with his stunning debut performance.

Fortitudine still has a long way to go … but, wow, it is rare for a horse to kick off his career with a romp like this.