Picture: A joyous moment for the Alan Greeff yard after Golden Palm had won the Gr 1 Douglas Whyte Stakes. (Candiese Lenferna Photography)
Alan Greeff’s incedible season will surely be honoured in some way at the Equus Awards, perhaps through a Special Achievement Award.
Greeff, despite being from the perceived lesser racing centre of Gqeberha, has the three best two-year-old fillies in the country, among other stalwarts.
He has raided Hollywoodbets Kenilworth four times this season and whilst unsuccessful with crack three-year-old filly Splicethemainbrace (Master Of My Fate) and with two-year-old filly Silva City (Global View), he finished fifth in a Gr 3 with four-year-old filly Joy And Peace and later won the Gr 3 Cape Of Good Hope Nursery Stakes with the hitherto unbeaten Canford Cliffs filly Direct Hit, who is a homebred of Ridgemont’s and is also part-owned by Devin Heffer.
Greeff later raided Hollywoodbets Scottsville with Direct Hit and won the Gr 1 Allan Robertson Championship over 1200m, although on the same day his four-year-old gelding Fairy Night (Global View) finished unplaced in the Gr 2 Golden Horse Sprint.
Earlier, Greeff had raided Turffontein Standside with the Varsfontein Stud-bred Peter Moor-owned Master Of My Fate filly Golden Palm and won the Gr 2 SA Fillies Nursery over 1160m by 2,30 lengths.
Greeff then had the East Cape’s first Hollywoodbets Durban July runner since the Gavin Smith-trained Shoes Of Silver in 2004 and although his three-year-old runner My Best Shot finished a 9,60 length twelfth he had a Gr 2 winner on the day when his unbeaten filly Anotherdanceforme, who is the only horse to date to have beaten Golden Palm, ran out a 1,40 length victor in the Splashout Golden Slipper over 1400m. Anotherdanceforme is also a Varsontein Stud-bred by Master Of My Fate and is also owned by Peter Moor.
Greeff was back for World Pool Gold Cup day on Sunday and Golden Palm proved herself the likely Equus Champion two-year-old filly by winning the Gr 1 Douglas Whyte Stakes over 1600m by an effortless 2,80 lengths.
Greeff and Richard Fourie had thus made history by winning all three legs of the unofficial KZN two-year-old fillies Triple Tiara and in unprecedented fashion they had done it with three different fillies.
Greeff also had a runner in the Gold Cup, but Bournemouth (Canford Cliffs) was beaten 12,60 lengths into tenth place.
Anotherdanceforme is unbeaten in five starts and besides her raiding win also won the Listed East Cape Fillies Nursery over 1200m by 5,25 lengths and the Listed WSB Dahlia Plate over 1200m at Fairview by 3,25 lengths.
Direct Hit is unbeaten in four starts and besides her two raiding wins she also won the Listed East Cape Nursery against the boys by 4,75 lengths.
Golden Palm lost to Anotherdanceforme by 2,35 lengths over 1000m on debut and has since then been unbeaten in four further starts. Sandwiched between her SA Fillies Nursery win and Douglas Whyte Stakes win was a ten length victory in the Listed Lady’s Slipper Stakes over 1400m at Fairview.
Greeff has all in all had 170 wins in the season, one more to date than national champion trainer Justin Snaith, and he has earnings of R16,202,596 (excluding restricted races), which puts him in second place on the national log.
In the East Cape he had 165 wins, which is just eleven short of his East Cape record mark of 176.
