Greg Bortz declares war on doping in horse racing fraternity

“We have a doping issue.” With those words Greg Bortz rocked South African racing a few days ago.

This is the hedge fund whizz-kid who saved stricken Cape Town racing last year with his mighty resources of money, energy and business acumen – and is about to do the same with the game in KwaZulu-Natal.

Yet here was the saviour uttering the thing the racing industry was most likely to recoil from – not to mention its negative PR effect in the world at large.

Bortz said integrity in racing was fundamental to what he and others were trying to build in local racing, adding that he was not neutral in the face of a problem, preferring to tackle it head-on. “I do not believe in being Switzerland.”

Medication regimes

It turns out Bortz has been the driving force behind the National Horseracing Authority’s recent swoop on training yards to test medication regimes – and an in-depth investigation into possible systematic “doping” and a brand-new rule banning intra-articular injections for horses close to competition.

He said racing pain-free was not in the interests of the horse, which was the most important thing in the game.

Bortz has been able to wield this influence in the NHA as he is now the boss of Cape Racing, a funder of the organisation.

Official registration of Vets by racing operators was being looked into, as was the installation of security cameras in horse boxes.

This was not the only bombshell Bortz dropped in his speech at the Cape Racing and Cape Breeders Awards evening.

Others included:

• Urging Western Cape thoroughbred breeders – who make up the majority of breeders in the country – to stop taking their best young horses to auction sales in Johannesburg and rather consign them to sales nearer home. This would, of course, up-end a tradition going back at least a century.

• Ending the Turffontein-based Racing Owners Association’s control of the Equus annual awards – which from now on will no longer be held exclusively in Joburg and will be circulated between Cape Town, Durban and the Highveld.

• A “very big” residential development in and around Durbanville Racecourse. “It is a multibillion-rand development and that is going to be very profitable for us. One hundred percent of the profits are going to stay within racing.”

• “Mind-blowing” developments at Cape Town’s Kenilworth Racecourse to make it a hub of activity and entertainment, not only racing.

• Styling changes at Kenilworth in the spirit of Flemington in Australia and Churchill Down in the US.

• A long-term desire to step away from the business of shaking up South African racing to enjoy his retirement – “but it doesn’t seem to be working out too well”.