Premium – Meet Greg Bortz: Saffer who returned from America to save SA’s horseracing

By Gary Lemke.By his own admission, Greg Bortz (above – pic: Troy Finch of Sporting Post) doesn't sleep well. "I tend to get four to five hours a night at most. I'd estimate that I spend 16 hours a day working." But, despite the lack of sleep, the 54-year-old dreams. And unlike the majority of us, his dreams come true..That's because Bortz not only dreams big, but he delivers on them. He followed a dream when he left South Africa in 1994 as a 24-year-old, worked in London for two years, moved to the US where he helped raise a family of three children, and made enough money to return and retire to South Africa in 2012. He was 42 at the time..___STEADY_PAYWALL___.Then, seven years later, bored with spending his days "doing nothing but reading and racing", the work bug bit again. "It was late 2019 and I was planning on going back to the US, to launch another private equity fund. I'd already built a house in Arizona. I'd been retired and wanted to get back into private equity. Then the Covid-19 pandemic struck and all bets were off.".What happened next is something that the entire horse racing fraternity can be thankful for. It's no exaggeration to say the industry was on its knees, facing a bleak future and the prospect of thousands of people losing their jobs and income. .Bortz was asked to get involved in the rescue. He had built a career and fortune by turning around failed businesses. .He takes up the story: "Robert Bloomberg (a former Chair of Kenilworth Racing) came to see me. I knew that racing was in bad shape, and the product was getting worse and worse. But I was not aware of the extent of it. I was told that (gaming company) Hollywoodbets was looking at the situation, amongst others. Through that process, we were put in touch with one another. Robert was the catalyst, that's how I connected with Hollywoodbets.."My view was that partnering with the country's biggest bookmaker made complete sense. And that happened to be Hollywoodbets. It so happens that Owen Heffer, the owner of Hollywoodbets, is also sick for racing. In Owen's case, his overriding primary objective was to save racing, although, of course, Hollywoodbets enjoys a secondary benefit. Namely, if racing is saved, there is still a horse product for its customers to bet on. ."So the strategy made sense on both an altruistic and business level. Our rescue strategy was quite simple – raise stakes to stimulate the demand, which produces more owners, which means more horses being bought, which means more horses being bred, which means a bigger horse population, which means bigger fields, which means more betting, and so the ecosystem grows. And you have got to spend money to stimulate demand so it made sense to partner with the most passionate and the biggest. And that's how I was fortunate enough to partner with Hollywoodbets.".Then Bortz gives an insight into his own business strategy. "You never back the people who ran something into the ground and expect them to turn it around, So, in business turnarounds, the first thing one does is remove those people that were part of the problem, and unable to be part of the solution.."However, the most rewarding part is discovering talent that existed within the company that were unable to shine and perform, and empowering and unlocking that talent to excel. We have seen this happen within Cape Racing. We are building a deep bench of talent at Cape Racing, some existing, most new, and many of whom are without racing backgrounds. They question everything.."We have introduced new thoughts and ideas, and have not been afraid to change. We have to reinvigorate racing as a new sport for new people. Syndication (i.e. having many owners in one horse) is one of the keys to achieving this vision. ."People we're bringing into the game love the idea of owning and having a piece of a horse in a large syndicate. It creates camaraderie, And, most importantly, someone with 1% ownership of a horse still receives 100% of the thrill.."We are very focused on attracting and retaining owners. We need to expand the ownership base beyond a handful of wealthy people. This is why one of our main focus is on our syndication efforts – attracting fresh, young blood into our sport. This is fundamental. We must succeed. We have no choice.".Sitting on the deck of his Atlantic Seaboard house, he looks across the serene ocean and says. "We have to look after the younger generation. We aren't here in 30 years' time. We need to get today's 14-18 year-olds enthused by racing, and the characters in it. The heroes must be the horses. If we don't get the youth involved, the sport dies. So, every initiative we're implementing is on that basis. Our focus is on expanding the demographic.".Bortz has only been in the chairman's seat at Cape Racing for 18 months but he's changed the dynamic and thinking.."Punters are crucial and very important, but it is incorrect to think they are the sole lifeblood of the game. Ironically, we could race without punters. We could not race without owners. So while others fixate on restoring the Tote to its former glory to save our sport, we believe our primary lever to do so is to increase the ownership base. No owners mean no horses and nothing to bet on. Having punters without horses does not help at all! Betting income used to be the sole source of the sport's stake money. That is no longer the case. We need to adapt. ."Alternative revenue streams are fundamental to our success. These alternative streams include broadcast, conferencing and events, commercial property rental, food and beverage, other betting products, and so on.".There are two racecourses in the Cape, one in Durbanville and one in Kenilworth. Both were in a parlous state bordering on dilapidation even a year ago, but such has been the transformative efforts applied to both that soon they will be unrecognisable. ."We are working on a large residential development at the Durbanville property," says Bortz, "together with a commercial precinct, with restaurants and so on. There will be a residential development inside the middle of the course. It's still in its early stages and we're working on getting the right permits and legal issues sorted. But, once complete, the profit from this development in its own right will be able to fund racing for a long, long time.".Then, his eyes widen even more. And it's not just the news that Tottenham, the English Premier League club he has supported since the age of five or six, have reached the summit of the top-flight for the first time in three years. No, it's when he starts talking about Hollywoodbets Kenilworth racecourse, the venue for the upcoming Cape Summer season. ."You have to see it to believe it," he says. "I took the trainers on a tour of the facilities and they were open-mouthed at what they saw. It's been an incredible turnaround.."But there's so much more to come. Visualise you're in the grandstand facing the track. Now, on the inside of it, on the middle-left, we're working with the City of Cape Town on getting the go-ahead to create hiking trains, walks, nature trails, all non-revenue generating. On the right there's development that will ultimately result in a purpose-built arena, where we can hold music festivals and concerts, Sales, and whatever else. ."We are working closely with the City of Cape Town to transform the property's use from simply horse racing to so much more. We are looking to build restaurants, padel tennis courts, soccer fives, dedicated fan zones, a dog park, a children's entertainment venue, retail, and more. This will be a lifestyle property open 24/7, 365 days a year that will offer betting facilities, food and beverage, health and wellness attractions, markets, a running and cycling track, and so on.."We are pretty fortunate in Cape Racing in that we have this extremely valuable property portfolio. Historically, this portfolio has yielded zero return. That will now change as we activate and utilise these properties to their full potential. All for the long-term benefit and sustainability of racing in our country.."I'm happily making myself redundant with the process. In my head, my time frame was always five years. To achieve this, we need to put in place structures to ensure racing is self-sustaining. There needs to be a capital base, a perpetual revenue stream, and infrastructure/management teams in place to take it further. ."When you see the bench of talent there is at Cape Racing, I feel comfortable that I will leave the business with massive financial stability and a management team with means, ability and systems all in place. Building a quality team will be our biggest accomplishment. The money is the easy part, but it doesn't get you anywhere if you're not deploying it effectively.".And an entire industry that was on its knees a couple of years ago for a different reason, is back on its knees. Only this time it's in a vote of thanks to racing's knight in shining armour..Read also:.Premium RW Johnson: Deluded politicians living in alternative realities – curse of the New SABHI Ponzi: When the Scammer Scams the Scam-SpotterBHI Ponzi: The red flags all over the trust's application forms

Premium – Meet Greg Bortz: Saffer who returned from America to save SA’s horseracing

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