Chukking It Up With (Yes!) A Rich Bachelor
"Four years later, he moved west to Vancouver and founded Investor Relations Group. In '95, he opened an IRG office in Boca, then sold the company and launched BG Capital Group in the Bahamas. Nowadays, he spends winters in Boca playing polo, smacking tennis balls and "hanging out by the pool catching sun.""
This column is about Bobby Genovese - polo team owner, Canadian entrepreneur and jet-set bachelor. But first things first: I, Loretta Grantham - whose only equestrian experience occurred at age 10 when I sat on a slow nag named Missy as she walked around in a circle - played polo. Didn't just watch. Or mush divots. Or sport the Ralph Lauren logo on a shirt. I swung a mallet. I made contact with the ball. I remained astride.
When you're rich, really rich, you can do things like hop out of bed and say, "You know, I want a polo team."
That's basically what Bobby Genovese did two years ago. The Nassau- based investor was living in Mizner Park, running his company via cell phone and hankering for a hobby.
A bored rich bachelor ... unencumbered prey ...
Today, here we sit lapping up a private catered lunch (like in The Colonnade Room on The Young & The Restless!) at Boca's Royal Palm Polo Club - home of Genovese's meticulous stables - and discussing the upcoming season of a sport I've never seen.
"I was like you," says Genovese, slicing into couscous-covered grilled chicken. "I'd never seen polo either, but I decided to check it out.
"It reminded me of those Pretty Woman scenes - people in hats, people drinking champagne. I'd done a lot of riding years ago (his parents owned a farm), and I figured, 'How tough can this be?' "
Bobby, sitting to my right, and Argentine player Marcos Bignoli, sitting to my left, are both wearing Polo button-down oxfords. I'd thought about wearing one of MY Polo shirts today, but I figured they'd think that was corny. Guess not.
"Lessons with Marcos were $50 an hour, but after 20 minutes, my back was hurting so bad that I had to stop," Genovese says. "I think I made it to half an hour the second time."
Bignoli, ever gracious, says, "But from the very beginning, he was a natural at hitting the ball."
Genovese hits the ball with Vancouver International, a team he himself assembled - 50 trained thoroughbreds and all the trimmings, plus Bignoli, 28, who manages the day-to-day. Genovese, mind you, is not just an owner. He's also a player (even snapped a thumb last fall).
As long as your ring finger's intact, baby, I'm still in business.
The team, which'll start its third season in January, also includes Bignoli and two top-ranked South American recruits. A member of the Sunshine League, Vancouver plays teams in Boca and Wellington and is rumored to be a contender despite its brief history. (Think Marlins.)
The blond-haired, blue-eyed Genovese - named one of South Florida' s 10 most fascinating single men by Boca Raton magazine in July and an upcoming Cosmopolitan Bachelor of the Month - isn't one to gush about how he nailed his fortune.
In short: Quit school after ninth grade. Had entrepreneurial gusto. Played the stock market. Bought sold bought sold bought sold, got rich. So much so, in fact, that he'll be featured in the February edition of the Robb Report, a magazine "For The Affluent Lifestyle." (Robb classified sale ads list Gulfstream jets, Lamborghinis and tropical islands. No $50 pastel love seats here.)
The youngest of three sons, Genovese toiled with his dad in the family' s lucrative wildflower seed business in northern Ontario. Then, at 21, he teamed up with his oldest brother - who'd finagled the Canadian launch of New York Seltzer by raising cash to take the company public - and discovered his niche: marketing undervalued companies.
Four years later, he moved west to Vancouver and founded Investor Relations Group. In '95, he opened an IRG office in Boca, then sold the company and launched BG Capital Group in the Bahamas. Nowadays, he spends winters in Boca playing polo, smacking tennis balls and "hanging out by the pool catching sun."
Oh, and there's squash league on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
"I've been blessed," he says.
Bobby loans me his palm-sized Motorola cell phone to call my office, and it's so tiny - and I'm so unhip - that I try to use it upside down. I figure he'd make fun, but no. This guy's like a good-natured brother-in-law, somebody who'll scoot up his seat without being asked if you're crammed in the back of a compact car. In fact, he does this to make room for his publicist when we pile into my Lexus (an outdated, pathetic ES 250) to head over to the stables. Bet Bobby could buy me a Mercedes SLK with pocket change.
He slips off his Giorgio Armani sunglasses, slips on a pair of monogrammed riding boots and insists the best way to learn about polo is to do it. Bignoli stands at the ready with Nash, a stallion selected just for me because of his tolerant nature (and bad luck).
I have visions of Elizabeth Taylor in National Velvet. Gorgeous, confident, in control. On the contrary, I'm a mix of Lucille Ball and Kramer, horrifically unable to hoist myself aloft in front of a Bachelor of the Month. This is not how to marry rich, Loretta.
Marcos shoves me up onto Nash and, for a second that seems like years, I'm suspended with left leg in stirrup, right leg paralyzed, rear- end as prominent as that giant golf ball-like monstrosity at EPCOT Center.
Finally, in saddle and sans dignity, I chat up the blond-haired, blue- eyed Genovese as we head out to a polo practice field. Published reports say he's 35, but I'm guessing 42 (in a sun-buffed, Robert Redford sort of way). I choose not to ask him directly and spoil the jovial mood (when questioned, his publicist laughs and says the topic's " under investigation.")
Despite his financial prowess, Genovese is candid about what money can't buy: a family.
"I'd really like to have children," he says. "But it's hard to meet a woman who can keep up with me. Someone with a sense of humor, someone with a good heart."
And probably someone who can mount a horse without circus tricks. ... I have humor, I have heart, I can LEARN this horse thing, hon.
Fairly new to the States - and only in South Florida a few months a year - Genovese hasn't found a steady, although he plans to get more involved in the Palm Beach social whirl. (He does know Roxanne Pulitzer, but who doesn't?)
"You've got to come to my boat parade party at Camp Genovese," he says, teeth sparkling, Cartier watch sparkling. "That's what everybody calls my house because there's always something going on."
An invite, an invite! But I pause for a moment. Loretta, you do HAVE a boyfriend ... you know, uh, what's-his-face ...
Once on the polo field, Bignoli tosses me a mallet, and I practice trying to hit what looks like a tennis ball but is made of compressed bamboo. Genovese and Bignoli surround me, and we tap the ball around like real players do, but much - much - slower.
This is a HOOT. This is hard as heck. This is what PRINCE CHARLES does!
After about 40 minutes of what must be excruciatingly dull playtime for these pros, we head back to the stables. Genovese changes shirts (chest, I see chest!), distributes hugs and says he's "gotta fly."
Companies to buy, companies to sell, you get the idea.
"You were great up there, just great!" he yells, sprinting off to his Ford Explorer (one of three trucks, plus a Porsche 911). "You, Loretta, are a natural!"
Right, hon. And I'm a real blonde, too.
Copyright © Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc., 1997
Loretta Grantham, Chukking It Up With (Yes!) A Rich Bachelor., 11-23-1997.
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