Now to win in KwaZulu-Natal!
That will probably be the next mission for the East Cape champion trainer, Alan Greeff, who is enjoying a phenomenal South African racing season.
Greeff won the SA Fillies Nursery, the first Gqeberha trainer to do so, this past Saturday at the Champions Day meeting at Turffontein in Johannesburg. Golden Palm is the two-year-old filly which made Greeff proud with a brilliant victory. She was ridden by the national champion jockey, Richard Fourie.
Greeff and Fourie are the East Cape champion combination which is dominating the local Fairview meetings, but they have also won in Cape Town and now Johannesburg this season.
In February it was Direct Hit which won the Cape of Hope Nursery at Kenilworth in Cape Town for the Greeff stable. Fourie was the jockey. After these two victories, the local racing fans are calling for a two-year-old Greeff filly to tackle the R1 million Alan Robertson Championship in KwaZulu-Natal.
This race will be run at Scottsville in Pietermaritzburg on May 31. One would expect Greeff to enter for this race but it will be interesting to see if he plans to run both Golden Palm and Direct Hit. And don’t forget that Greeff has a third talented filly in his yard.
Anotherdanceforme was impressive when she won the East Cape Fillies Nursery last month. She is also a possible entry. Greeff and the respective owners of his three fillies have some decisions to make, but it is certainly exciting times for the stable.
The top Fairview sprinter, Cruise Control, trained by Gavin Smith, also ran a cracker at the Turffontein meeting. He finished fourth in the R1 million Computaform Sprint, with Craig Zackey the jockey.
The soft track didn’t help the speedy Cruise Control but he ran a beautiful race to make it a very good day for Nelson Mandela Bay Racing in Johannesburg.
The day before the Johannesburg meeting it was Greeff and Fourie who dominated at the Fairview Polytrack. Fourie became the first jockey to ride more than 100 winners in an East Cape season for the second time. He is at 102 winners now and should better his own record of 119 for the most winners in an East Cape season.
Greeff is also on target to pass his record mark of 176 winners set in 2019. He has saddled 118 Fairview winners since the start of the season (which ends at the end of July).
The Polytrack meeting brought an eventful month’s racing at Fairview to a close but be ready for more quality racing in April.
This coming Friday the highlight will be the battle for the spectacular Glenlair Trophy over the challenging distance of 2800m.
Fairview in April
4: Glenlair Trophy
11: East Cape Oaks
18: East Cape Nursery
22: Polytrack
25: Polytrack
