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.”
Spreads the risk
All 100 are owned in partnership. “It’s nice to have your mates in with you. Also it spreads the risk. I prefer to have a partnership of just two and 50 or 60 of the horses are just with Bryn Ressell, but Markus Jooste says he wants in on anything going to Bass. That’s fine – him, me and Bryn is a nice syndicate and means we’ve got buying power. If a horse goes for over R3 million we don’t get upset. We just buy the bloody thing.”
He opens the next page to show the 25 broodmares – “half of them I own straight up, 100%” – and the stallions they are visiting, the covering dates and the result. Another page lists the eight pinhooks he bought with Ressell this year to sell at the Ready To Run. But what the tablet doesn’t show is the betting, let alone the Shirtliff reputation in the ring.
Apparently this is not what it was. “Phew, telephone numbers.” He shakes his head, seemingly in disbelief at the way he carried on. “I used to bet like a pirate. I could do close to a million in a day.
“It was scary.” An understatement if ever there was one. “At my worst Durban July I did about 750 grand and at one of the Mets I did another R500K. It was always at the big meetings. I love punting but in the end I had to stop punishing myself.
“I learned that what you must do is play the exotics and play wide. You can make decent money that way. I try and focus on the Pick Six. When Mike was riding the crest of a wave, winning with horses you wouldn’t even dream could win, I won a few R200,000 Pick Sixes.”
So you can’t make money on straight bets? He shakes his head again and this time he whistles, seemingly at the difficulty of it. “I tend to shy away now – I think I only lost 20 grand on July day this year. I’ve had just as much fun keeping my head above water and coming home with enough to buy a decent dinner.”
Shirtliff, now 65, divorced and with two sons in their early thirties, was brought up in Belville in Cape Town where his father was in the motor trade. He ran for Western Province and was a schoolboy rugby star. He became a passionate member of the Hamilton Sea Point Rugby Club (hence Hammie’s Hooker and other Hammie’s-prefixed names) and continued playing to an advanced age. “I took a few knocks when I was 47.”
But in his last years at school he forsook the weekend matches to work in a gents outfitters. “I became a rich kid, earning more than many people working full time.”
Worked in blood transfusion
He spent seven years, including his military service, as a medical technologist in blood transfusion laboratories before switching to sales. He sold motor warranties and then set up Motorite, the company that became the foundation for his fortunes providing warranties, maintenance and service contracts.
He was 42 before he began owning horses even though he had been hooked on racing as a small boy. His uncle had horses and his father’s secretary was Del Drier, mother of Dennis and sister of Syd Laird.
“I started late because I wanted to be sure I had the means so that, no matter what went wrong, I could handle it. I was determined not be caught up the creek without a paddle.” Greg Ennion was his first trainer and helped him choose his unconventional colours – “Pink for the girls, blue for the boys and white for the undecided.”
Ennion was impressed with his new patron – “A wonderful owner and a very special person. He never puts anybody under any pressure and he has been a staunch supporter of my yard. Racing needs more like him.”
The Shirtliff string grew steadily, as did the number of his trainers – “I’m generally very loyal to my stables and I find it difficult to say no” – but after ten years he was disillusioned. “I was no longer enjoying racing and I worked out that I was only getting one winner every 16 runs.
“That was totally unacceptable – I maintain that it should be more like one in six – and so I changed the way I chose trainers and the way I chose horses, and from then on I kept stats and logs.”
His most successful association has been with Mike Bass and this started almost by accident in the days when he bought his own horses, deliberating eschewing the top of the market. “I was more strapped for cash in those days and I would go for sires that I thought were good but that were not in fashion, and I would often go to breeders rather than trainers for help.”
First Grade 1 winner
Top of this particular list was Terry Silcock. The late Colesberg breeder, asked to have a look at what Shirtliff considered the best Caesour in the 2002 Cape Yearling Sale, voiced concerns about his hocks being so close together and suggested he go instead for a strong-looking Joshua Dancer. The sale was well under way when Shirtliff bumped into Bass and, on the spur of the moment, asked him if he would train a horse for him. Would he look at the Joshua Dancer?
Bass came back five minutes later with a wry smile on his face and shaking his head. He said he had bought a nice horse for 60 grand for stock; Shirtliff could have that one if he wanted. Shirtliff was taken aback to find it was the Caesour. But what about the hocks? Another wry smile. “That’s nothing.”
Tobe Or Nottobe won nine races including the 2004 Cape Flying Championship, the first of Shirtliff’s 21 Grade 1 successes. Shirtliff also bought the Joshua Dancer; he won only once. But it was also Silcock who recommended buying Pocket Power at the 2004 Cape sale. Bass was again consulted and this time there was no shake of the head, just an emphatic “You’ve got to buy this one, Marsh.”
It was the best R190 000 he ever spent but the legendary horse provided Shirtliff, not with his best moment in racing but with the worst. “The best has to be winning the Dubai Duty Free with Jay Peg but
River Jetez winning the 2010 Met was my biggest disappointment.” He scratches his head, seemingly still mystified at what went wrong. “Pocket Power was the apple of my eye and I was set on him winning it for the fourth time. He was only third and, while I won the race, I was as miserable as could be.”
Not for long, though. “I enjoy my racing and my wins, and the greatest kick of all comes from the juveniles. When one of them wins I get very excited because the potential is clearly there and you never know what they might achieve. My biggest ambition is to have another one like Jay Peg, good enough to race overseas.”
* Michael Clower is one of SA’s top horseracing journalists. This article is reproduced with permission from Parade Magazine.
