While Christo Wiese probably wakes up every morning with a bad taste in his mouth after re-realising the shit storm Markus Jooste created after years of mismanaging Steinhoff, he’s not the only one.

Now, one of the world’s highest profile horse racing personalities, Barry Irwin [above], announced on Tuesday a disinvestment of his South African racing and breeding interests in a widely distributed press release.

This comes after, in February, Irwin sent “a leading US veterinarian to our shores to consult with the South African Equine Health and Protocols team,” reports Turf Talk:

“I was very happy to be back in action in South Africa (at the CTS Sale) recently because of the dramatic changes caused by the departure of Markus Jooste. I wanted to see firsthand the mood among the industry’s players. I came away suitably impressed.

“Also, I wanted the players to know that, after years of South Africa having been unable to solve the export riddle, that I had decided to play a proactive role in solving the issue. To this end this coming week, I am dispatching at my own expense Dr. Rob Holland, one of the world’s leading equine immunologists and disease researchers, to meet with the relevant players in the export initiative to find out first hand a) what progress has been made and b) what he can do to assist in bringing the initiative to fruition.

But it appears that Irwin was not impressed with the findings.

In the press release published on Sporting Post, Irwin stated:

It is with sadness and regret that today I have taken a decision to leave South African racing and breeding.

I will come up with a plan to liquidate my racing and breeding stock.

It will be an orderly process so as to disrupt as few people’s lives as possible.Some of the stock will be moved to different countries.

As some of you may or may not know, I have over the past few months put in an effort to make heads or tails (and even tales!) out of the export protocol strategies.

No matter what you hear or read, progress is considerably less rosy than it has been portrayed.

I sent one of the world’s leading equine immunologist to South Africa on a fact-finding mission. He reported that the scientific progress as being directed by Dr. Guthrie and his associates in the Western Cape has been impressive.

From what I have been told by my contacts, however, the business end of affairs is not up to the same standard of the scientists involved. I have learned that as long as Chris van Niekerk continues to be involved in the effort that the initiative is likely to continue to be slow-track because the international community wants nothing to do with Markus Jooste or anybody tainted by him.

Markus Jooste strikes again, and this time it’s the horse racing industry that suffers.

Chairman of Kenilworth Racing, Chris van Niekerk, was approached for comment. In response to Irwin’s comments, he said:

“Rather to be thought a fool than open your mouth to remove all possible doubts!”

On a positive, yet undeserving note on Jooste’s side of things, the 57-year-old’s personal investment company Mayfair could keep up to R500 million after it agreed to a breakup proposal to release capital, reports Fin24:

The lenders…have given Mayfair until the end of this year to sell as much as R2.08bn in assets ranging from real estate to racehorses to repay almost R1.6bn of loans to the banks and other creditors.

As well as the lenders, creditors include two companies tied to Jooste and his son-in-law, Stefan Potgieter, which may realize more than R200m from the disposals, the documents show. Mayfair will also be able to keep any proceeds left over after creditors are repaid, which could amount to about R500m.

Lucky break? I’m sure there will be someone out there who will work their damnedest to take that away from Jooste, too – and rightly so.

[source:sportingbet&turftalk&fin24]