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The sport of horse racing attracts some of the most colourful characters you could ever wish to meet, Capetonian Marsh Shirtliff among them. A self-made businessman, he has enjoyed enormous success with his bloodstock, including owning racehorses that have won races in Dubai worth millions of dollars. Even so, in this wonderfully written profile by top racing writer Michael Clower, Shirtliff admits he’s put back a lot more than he’s taken out. Most of his horses nowadays run in partnership with Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste, one of the country’s most successful entrepreneurs and an equally devoted horse lover. – AH
By Michael Clower
He scrolls down the tablet until he reaches the page he is looking for. “Ah, here it is. We’ve bought 22 horses this year and my share works out at about R6 million. I write that off.”
Marsh Shirtliff says that last bit as casually as if it was R600. He grins. “Sometimes it’s better not keep stats on what they cost.”
He talks while continuing to scroll. “Seldom do you get a return. I got R2 million back on Jay Peg and around the same on River Jetez but that’s about it. Sometimes, of course, they earn plenty. Jay Peg won about R10 million and Pocket Power a bit more with bonuses. Owning horses is a hobby – a full time one for me – and it costs a lot of money.”
He pauses as he looks across at the oils on the far wall – two each of the two best, and most lucrative, horses he has owned. On the mantelpiece are some of their trophies – J&B Mets, a Durban July and a Dubai Duty Free. At the far end of the big room is a bar, presumably for celebrating victory, while behind him is a huge picture window and literally hundreds of yachts moored in the Waterfront.
His bright blue shirt is part-covered by a waterproof jacket, seemingly put on should he decide to go outside. Cape Town is living up to its ‘four seasons in a day’ reputation with torrential downpours alternating with bright sunshine.
Shirtliff is clean-shaven whereas on occasion he appears on the racecourse almost unrecognisable, as if cast for a part in a Dickension reproduction. “When I go sailing with my buddies we can be away for two weeks at a time and I say why must I shave?”
He turns the tablet round to demonstrate what it shows – the names of the 100 horses he has in training (including six in Singapore), the partners in each one, his percentage share, the total cost, trainer,
races run and won, and the colours they race in. There are separate pages for each year, curiously not calendar years but tax years.
“I don’t really have a budget but I might say ‘let’s spend R15 million’ with my share working out at, say, 40%.’ I will then say to Mike Bass, Greg Ennion and others (I’m sitting on around 12 trainers at the moment) ‘We are going to buy at this next sale. What do you want?’
“We bought 33 horses last year but 24 to 25 is a good average and they come in at about R600 000 to R700 000 a horse. This year they’ve cost a bit more and we’ve bought plenty at over a million.”
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:lol: 
