THE two–year old colt, Cliff Top, reminded everyone that the Eastern Cape is a major force in South African horse racing.
In racing circles, the races for two-year-olds are called “baby races” and it was the East Cape baby who scored a sensational victory last Saturday at one of the continent’s biggest race days.
Cliff Top won the Summer Juvenile Stakes over 1 000m at Kenilworth, in Cape Town, on the WSB Cape Met Day.
The young star is trained by champion Alan Greeff who is understandably overjoyed by Cliff Top’s performance.
It is not easy to travel with a horse from Gqeberha to take on the best in the country elsewhere. It takes careful planning but everything worked out perfectly for the Greeff team.
Cliff Top’s career will from now on be followed by racing gurus worldwide. Plans for his future will be discussed soon and it might well be that Cliff Top will be moved to a bigger centre.
He had his debut run at Fairview before tackling the Kenilworth mission and the Bay fans will hope they can soon see him in action on the local front again.
In the same Kenilworth race another East Cape baby, Cruise Control, trained by Gavin Smith, ran a gutsy race carrying top weight. He only faded out of contention late in the race.
Greeff and Smith have shown with their brilliant performances over many years that they are among the top trainers in the country. Nelson Mandela Bay can be truly proud of these two giants of the sport.
It was a wonderful weekend for Greeff, which started on Friday afternoon, when he won three races at the Fairview meeting.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t win any of the three big races on the day but in two of those his horses were desperately unlucky not to win and had to settle for second place.
This time it was the Cape Town visitors that won the Fairview feature races and their presence made sure of exciting and competitive racing, with lots of nail-biting finishes throughout the day.
There are still lots of races to look forward to in the near future, at Fairview and elsewhere in the country.
On Met Day there were stunning victories for two of the country’s biggest stars, Kommetdieding and Captain’s Ransom. The colt, Kommetdieding, won the WSB Cape Met and the filly, Captain’s Ransom, came out on top in the Majorca Stakes – both were absolutely breathtaking performances.
Racing fans can look forward to another blockbuster Kenilworth meeting on 26 February. Hopefully some East Cape horses will again be part of the action.
The running of the Lady’s Pendant and Ibhayi Stakes are the highlights at Fairview this month.
Fairview in February:
4: Turf Track
8: Poly Track
11: Turf Track
18: Turf Track – Lady’s Pendant
25: Turf Track – Ibhayi Stakes
