TO win a horse racing title as a trainer, you must have depth in your stable.
The current East Cape champion, Alan Greeff, certainly ticks this box as he proved by winning three races at last Friday’s Fairview meeting.
It is nothing strange for the Greeff stable to win three or more races at a meeting, but the depth factor came into play in two of those victories.
In these two races, two odds-on favourites from the stable went missing in action and that would have been the end of the race for many stables.
In Greeff’s case, there is always a backup plan and the stablemates were there to pick up the pieces when those favourites struggled.
Greeff still won those races, not with the big names, but the stablemates who were ready to strike when the opportunity arose.
Of course one can’t overlook the fact that those two big names went missing, much to the dismay of favourites backers who didn’t think this was funny, even though it was the first day of April.
No doubt, Greeff will get to work and get those two stars, the two-year-old colt, Cliff Top, and the four-year-old filly, Santa Therese, back to their best very soon.
They were hugely disappointing, returning to Fairview after campaigning in the Western Cape and running way below par.
There is talk that Cliff Top, who ended up running stone last in his race, will take on some big races in KwaZulu-Natal later this year.
On the evidence of last Friday’s run, that sounds a bit optimistic but every horse is allowed a bad run now and then. Cliff Top is clearly talented and hopefully we will see the best of him in KZN.
With those three victories of last Friday, Greeff moved up to 87 wins for the Fairview season. It has been a fierce battle between the top stables of Greeff and Gavin Smith (92 winners) since the season started but Smith is still leading the title race.
There are plenty of exciting battles still ahead as the East Cape season only ends on July 29.
This coming Friday, the action moves from the turf to the Fairview Polytrack and later in the month there are some feature races to look forward to.
The meeting on the 15th looks particularly exciting with the running of the Glenlair Trophy and the East Cape Oaks on that day.
While the talk at Fairview was about the Greeff favourites which went missing, elsewhere in the country the name Rain In Holland was on everyone’s lips.
The filly won the SA Oaks at Turffontein last Saturday to become the Triple Tiara champion.
She is in great form and racing fans will be eager to see her in action in the big KZN races later in the year.
