Alan Greeff keen to put a Check on raiders

Eastern Cape trainers must be sick of the sight of their counterparts from the west riding into town and carrying off the big-race booty. But sometimes the locals manage to thwart the raiders – and Friday’s meeting at Fairview might turn out to be such an occasion.

Local hero Alan Greeff will saddle-up Sound Check with a determination to see off the inbound threats of Justin Snaith’s Homely Girl and Brett Crawford’s Quick Breeze.

The trio are the standout runners in a small field of six for Race 7, the Lady’s Slipper Stakes, a Listed event for two-year-old fillies over 1400m.

Sound Check got the better of another couple of visiting Cape Town horses when winning the East Cape Fillies Nursery in March. That was the second leg of a neat hat-trick for the daughter of Global View – the first being a maiden over 1000m, the next the Nursery and the third a juvenile contest over 1400m.

All three wins were on the Fairview turf, as were her previous two placed outings, so she will be getting familiar with the environment – which might help her control a hot tendency.

The two challengers are both one-time winners from three runs at Kenilworth. They clashed on debut, when Homely Girl was runner-up to Super Girl and Quick Breeze was some way back in sixth place out of seven.

The latter has been slow at the gate but got away smartly enough to win impressively over 1200m on 24 April. The former’s maiden win was over 1000m on 19 April.

There are, of course, plenty of imponderables with juvenile races – particularly the impossible task of assessing unseen improvement. But Sound Check is the most experienced of the trio, has home-ground advantage and has the local champion team of Greeff and jockey Greg Cheyne pulling the strings.

Another Eastern Cape stalwart, Gavin Smith, fields two of the other three runners, Chocolate Ruffles and Waymaker. The latter was second in the Nursery won by Sound Check – also besting the Cape Towners – and must be considered for inclusion in larger perms, even though she is coming off a 77-day break.

SELECTIONS

Race 1:

10 Silent Observer, 7 Lemon Pepper, 5 Ladonna Mia, 2 Colorama

Race 2:

1 Agrademarmalade, 2 Safari Blue, 4 Arctic Advance, 6 Senhor Duke

Race 3:

4 Jaspero, 2 Tjoklit, 12 South Sandwich, 3 Cleto

Race 4:

1 After The Storm, 2 Time Off, 3 Just So Easy, 4 Margaret Erlynne

Race 5:

4 Innerspace, 5 Crystal Stream, 8 Soho Spirit, 3 Bhakka

Race 6:

8 Beyond Temptation, 1 Paris Opera, 3 Tropical Giver, 4 Mistress Of Means

Race 7:

4 Sound Check, 2 Homely Girl, 3 Quick Breeze, 6 Waymaker

Race 8:

12 Africa’s Rock, 8 Gold Rock, 4 Greek Fire, 7 Push Off

Pick 6:

2,4 x 1,2,3 x 2,3,4,5,8 x 1,3,4,6,8 x 2,4 x 2,4,7,8,12 (R1500)

PA:

1,2 x 2,4 x 1 x 4 x 1,3,8 x 2,4 x 12 (R48)