An inspiring life: Jockey Bernard Fayd’Herbe talks about his constant battle with the scales and ambition
By Michael Clower:
The Fayd'Herbe queue is lengthening. Mike Bass comes into the weighing room flanked by son and daughter.
The questioning glance from the other side of the counter gets a one word answer – "Bernard." But after three minutes patience is wearing thin. "Where is he?"
"In the shower," says the same across-the-counter source.
"Huh." The eyebrows come up and their owner walks out. Two minutes later Mark and Candice follow suit, albeit without the raised eyebrows.
Eventually the great jockey appears wearing nothing but a big white towel and a broad grin. So much for the assumption that the deadly serious, grimly-concentrating, few-word Fayd'Herbe that you normally encounter on racedays is all there is.
The second surprise is the frame. On the back of a horse only Sean Cormack amongst the top jockeys looks as starvation-thin. But there isn't a rib to be seen. The bones, though, are exceptionally light for a man of 1.72 metres ( 5' 8").
Still grinning, he leads the way past the hubbub of the jockeys' room into the medical area. The long-suffering doctor nods uncomplainingly at the prospect of yet another interview on his territory and then listens, fascinated, as the life story unfolds.
Fayd'Herbe was born in Durban in September 1981 and at the age of seven moved to Madagascar where his French father Rene took over the family hotel. When Madagascar's efforts to start racing found itself short of thoroughbreds and decided to start each card with an amateur, non-thoroughbred race, Rene began training a few of the hotel's riding horses. He put the boy up on some of them. Director of Racing Neil Bruss was impressed, said young Bernard had talent and should go to the South African Jockey Academy.
Rene thought the boy too young to leave home at 14 but wife Lorraine was all for it. She, after all, is the daughter of the legendary 11-time champion Tiger Wright who rode four July winners. Wright himself was not keen; he knew just how difficult it would be to make the grade. But mother won the day – two years later she won it again with younger son Robert – and Bernard Fayd'Herbe de Maudave was duly enrolled. The mouthful trips off his tongue as if he says it every day. He doesn't. Barely anybody outside the NHA uses the full version, and it only does so for the race results.
In the mid 1990s the Academy's Tom Brown's Schooldays reputation still lingered. "I found it hard," recalls the star pupil. "But I enjoyed the horses and that's what comforted me."
Michael Roberts, not "Muis" but the trainer who Joey Ramsden joined on his arrival in South Africa, took Fayd'Herbe under his wing and made sure that his first ride – Dollar Deal at Scottsville – was a winner. Fayd'Herbe, weighing a mere 46kg, won on the horse again on his third ride and other trainers began to take notice. He was variously employed by Justin Snaith, Mike Stewart and Herman Brown until Mike Bass offered him a job. "I was in Durban at the time, I got straight into my little Nissan van, drove to Cape Town and never looked back. Mike really put me on the map."
Trademark in the 2001 Queen's Plate was the first of 16 Grade 1s for Bass. There have also been a further 13 for other trainers and, so far as punters and bookmakers are concerned, the Fayd'Herbe name means a driving, relentless will to win. Any horse he rides has to be given a second look, no matter what its form – and with good reason. "He is a very strong rider and he can keep a bad horse going," says Bass. "Sometimes he pulls more out of them than they want to give."
But why does Fayd'Herbe think he is good? "Jeez," he shakes his head as if to say 'what a question.' He adjusts his perch on the edge of the plastic-covered bed reserved for the injured as he searches for the answer. "Racing is in my blood," he begins hesitantly, "but I suppose the main thing is my love of horses. If you are a jockey and you don't really love them, it's not going to be the same – particularly as it's such a hard game. There are so many ups and downs in racing, you've got to really enjoy it and love the horses."
According to Justin Snaith, who has provided five of the Grade 1s, he is different from most of his rivals. "Bernard is a natural horseman and a jockey who understands horses. Most don't. They just put their feet in the irons and go."
Seemingly Fayd'Herbe makes a deliberate attempt to understand their mentality. "As soon as I sit on a horse I get an idea of the mental make-up. I ride so many that I can put them into categories, and then I try to work from there – and in some ways they are all different."
Twenty-two and change
He is able to judge pace like few riders outside America. This becomes apparent when he starts talking about Pocket Power, the best he has ridden, winning two J & B Mets, the Vodacom Durban July and three Queen's Plates on him. "Most good horses can run the last 400m in 23 sec," he says. "But Pocket Power could do it in 22.4 or even 22.0 sec."
Who taught him to do that and who made him ride work to a stopwatch? "Nobody, but I learnt from the time Michael Roberts would tell me to drop horses out so that they would finish. I gradually got a feel for being able to tell how fast I was going."
On the big occasion he looks ice-cool. So do most jockeys but for many it's a battle of wills not to show their emotion. Not this one. "I'm naturally like this and I know that it's one of my strongest points. Getting nervous and all fluffed up is not going to help the horse because he can feel that. The calmer I am the calmer he is, and the more energy he will have to finish the race."
He can also be tactically astute. For instance he has on occasion at Durbanville found the ground faster on the outside and nicked a race by heading for it before anyone else has copped on. But not all his qualities in this regard meet with wholehearted approval. "He can be a law unto himself," says Bass. "Sometimes he will make a decision and ignore anything else. That's not always a bad thing but he can get it wrong."
Fayd'Herbe wages a constant battle with the scales, as evidenced by the number of times during an afternoon that the commentator announces "plus a half" as he takes his mount down to the start. When he goes on holiday his weight soars from 57kg to as much as 66kg – "and even at that I still wouldn't be completely letting myself go. No burgers or anything like that."
Getting the weight down again involves a fair bit of willpower. "I have to lose the weight before I exercise. Once you turn the fat into muscle, it can be very hard to get rid of it."
Surprisingly his diet includes three meals a day. He has a cup of black coffee when he gets up and he will have another, or some water, when he is riding work. On returning home he makes himself an omelette. Lunch is fish or steak with salad, and dinner is small, perhaps soup. "You can't starve yourself. You've got to keep healthy but I try to stick to less carbs and low protein."
But the intake has to be paid for and the cost is agonisingly high. He runs a minimum of 10k a day, always in sweat clothes, and on racedays he has to sweat again. He reckons a piping hot bath will shed a kilo and a brisk walk round a racetrack will take off 50% more, assuming the day is sufficiently hot and the clothes heavy enough.
At one stage he had to pick and choose his rides on big days because he didn't have enough energy to ride through the card. A course of martial arts coaching solved the problem. "A guy in Cape Town taught me to push myself to the next level and from then on I was able to get much fitter."
Through a sandstorm
And the highlights so far? "Jeez," he turns his head away, deep down memory lane. "There have been so many, but I can still remember my first winner as if it was yesterday, and I don't think I will ever achieve again what I did on Pocket Power, while that win in the Al Quoz Sprint on JJ The Jet Plane was special. We went through a sandstorm and, as we came out of it, I realised what a lot of ground I had to make up and how little time there was left. I urged him: 'Come on boy. We've got to dig down real deep,' and he did just that, like a real champion."
On the debit side he broke his nose three times in separate falls in Macau where he also fractured his back while Pocket Power's habit of whipping round on the way to the start dislocated both thumbs. There was also a broken foot cause by connecting with MJ Byleveld's hip. Fayd'Herbe was aiming for the backside, apparently in jest, but his direction went awry. "I lost the ride on What A Winter because of that," he recalls grim-faced. "Karl Neisius took over and kept it for the season."
Girlfriend Sasha shares his love of the outdoors. When he is not riding he is water-skiing, wakeboarding, fishing, hiking and doing "any kind of sport."
But he has a self-confessed wanderlust – he has ridden in nine different countries and earlier in the season he spent a month in Singapore – and he expects it won't be long before the call of racing overseas becomes irresistible once more. "I know I've still got a lot to learn, and every time I travel I seem to learn something that makes me a better jockey."
The door opens, summoning him for the next race. "Get my stuff ready, would you?" he informs the caller. "I haven't quite finished."
He has still to change back into breeches, boots and colours. But seemingly that can wait too. "I would really like to win a Group 1 abroad, maybe somewhere like England or France where the racing is completely different," he muses. "But it's hard to break in with my weight. First choice would be to travel with a good horse from South Africa but, if that's not meant to be, I will just have to try my luck. I've definitely got itchy feet!"
* This article is republished with the permission of Parade Magazine