Fairview has always been Alan Greeff’s track. Friday’s card was another reminder why — his yard sent out a winning double at the Port Elizabeth circuit, with Richard Fourie doing the steering both times.
A Port Elizabeth Dynasty
Greeff isn’t just based at Fairview, he grew up around it. His father Stanley built a champion training operation out of the same Eastern Cape stables, and when Alan left school he did his time the traditional way — military service, then an apprenticeship under Terrance Millard and Tony Millard — before taking out his own licence in 1995. He stepped into his father’s shoes without missing a beat, topping the province’s trainers’ log again and again, and has since passed 3,000 career winners, a tally that includes a Gold Cup with Cereus and a Golden Slipper with Lady Tattler, both at Greyville. For a stable built on Fairview, though, days like this one are the ones that matter most at home.
Two From The Same Yard
Mercantour got the double started in the Racing Today Pinnacle Stakes, backing up his last start — also a Fairview win — with another. He’s now landed six of his nine runs over this circuit, the kind of course affinity that doesn’t happen by accident. Wild Fig followed him into the winner’s enclosure in the MR 86 Handicap, repeating the exact trick he’d pulled last time out: same track, same 2000m trip, same result. Different ages, different profiles, same yard and the same jockey doing the steering.
The Man In The Plate
That jockey needs little introduction. Richard Fourie enters this Fairview meeting off the back of a genuinely historic season, having ridden 377 winners to break a 25-year-old South African record and claim his first SA Jockeys’ Championship. He’s built a career past 2,600 wins since his first ride back in 2003, with a stint in Hong Kong along the way, and pairing him with a stable that knows how to win at home is about as reliable a combination as this sport produces. Friday’s double was a small example of a partnership that’s been delivering for a long time.
If you’re following today’s Fairview card, the full racecard and form guide is at cfox.co.za/predictions.
