Jooste’s horses: shutting the stable door ...
The ‘Robin Hood of Epsom’ spent enormous sums on thoroughbreds. Now he is having to sell them
In recent days, Markus Jooste has become the whipping boy of the investment industry. This week, the epidemic spread to the horse racing world, in which Jooste (56) had been the owner of the largest number of thoroughbred horses in SA. This week Jooste’s company, Mayfair Speculators, sold one of his prized horses — Legal Eagle — to former Tekkie Town owner Braam van Huyssteen for R3.2m. Expect more sales. It will be a bitter pill for the sport’s fallen "Mr Big" to swallow. Jooste is so enamoured with racing that Steinhoff’s UK discount retailer Poundland this year clinched a 10-year deal to take over the famous Epsom Hill, which overlooks the track where the Epsom Derby is held every June. "Just call me ‘Robin Hood of Epsom’," Jooste quipped in May, when the news broke. In light of revelations in the past three weeks of Steinhoff’s "accounting irregularities" and Jooste’s abrupt resignation as CEO, that comment seems deeply ironic. As British tabloid The Sun put it: "Jooste decided ...
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