OFF THE RECORD #80

Thirty Years of Humble Excellence
Alan Greeff’s Quiet Climb to the Top

Above: Alan Greeff, the humble genius (image: Pauline Herman Photography)

Three decades in the game, and Alan Greeff is still climbing. The multiple Eastern Cape champion trainer is celebrating his 30th year as a licensed conditioner, and while his trophy cabinet tells a story of relentless success, Alan himself remains as unassuming as the day he saddled his first winner.

Alan has built a powerhouse stable in the former Port Elizabeth, combining the renowned horsemanship inherited from his father, Stanley Greeff, with a modern edge. Now, after a lifetime of consistent excellence, he’s poised to scale a new peak: his very first runner in next week’s 2025 Grade 1 Hollywoodbets Durban July.

Above: My Best Shot (photo: Pauline Herman Photography)

This year, Alan steps onto South Africa’s biggest stage with three-year-old My Best Shot, a striking chestnut gelding whose name hints at the ambition behind his entry. He has earned his place in the ‘July’ line-up with two Listed wins, though Alan is keeping expectations measured. “He’s a lovely horse,” he says. “It’s a handicap and he’s at the bottom end of the scale, so you never know. It’s a race everyone wants to win. I think he’ll finish in the first half of the field, and we’ll be happy if he does.”

Twenty-one years have passed since an Eastern Cape challenger last made the July field. That was Gavin Smith’s Shoes Of Silver, who was beaten six lengths into 11^th place by Greys Inn. Alan commented: “I had a talented horse called Shining Coast who was good enough to run in the big race, but he injured a tendon. Shining Coast won the 2002 East Cape Derby at Fairview beating Red Badge, who went on to run third and right on the heels of Dynasty in the 2003 Durban July.”

Alan has made his presence felt in other races on July day before, saddling Cereus to third in the 2001 Gold Vase and Tatler into second in the Grade 2 Golden Slipper. This year, two-year-old filly Anotherdanceforme will have a crack at the Slipper herself, the stable’s only other runner on Saturday, 5 July.

Above: Direct Hit, Equus Champion-elect (Image: Candiese Lenferna)

Alan’s current juvenile stars, the unbeaten Direct Hit, and the promising Golden Palm, have had standout campaigns, with races elsewhere mapped out for them. Direct Hit, the Equus Champion Two-Year-Old Filly-elect, remains unbeaten and, in Greeff’s eyes, stands shoulder to shoulder with some of the best horses he’s trained — among them the mentioned Tatler and Shining Coast.

Above:  Golden Palm with Alan, Adrian Nydam, Shane Nydam and Bart Vanders (Image: JC Photos)

But when asked about the best horse he’s ever been involved with, Alan casts his mind back to the early 1990s, when he was assistant trainer to Tony Millard. “I worked with Empress Club, and she was by far the best racehorse I’ve ever been associated with. In my view, she’s the greatest we’ve ever seen in South Africa.”

When Alan left school in 1989, he completed his military service at the SADF’s Mounted Training Division (Berede), a fitting foundation for his future in horsemanship. From there, his father Stanley sent him to gain experience under two of the country’s finest: first Terrance Millard, then Tony Millard. It was a grounding few South African trainers can lay claim to. As Stanley put it in a 2009 interview: “If Alan joined me, he would’ve been the ‘boss’s son’, and I didn’t want that. He entered a top racing yard where he worked at the side of a master horseman. He also learnt how to take orders! I polished him off later on, before I retired.”

Above: Stanley Greeff, the original master trainer (image: supplied)

Stanley’s ‘polishing off’ of Alan would have included the very best of what he’d gained in a decorated career that began in 1952, shaped early on by the legendary Syd Garrett. “My foundations were laid by Syd Garrett. There will never be another trainer like him,” Stanley said in 2009. “He was simply the best, and being my neighbour in my early years at Milnerton, I made use of every opportunity to ask him whatever I wanted to know. He was a wonderful human being as much as he was the horseman of horsemen. He never turned down a question or a request, he never looked down on anyone, no matter who you were. I watched him every day working in his yard with his horses. Syd Laird was his assistant. I soaked it up and learnt, made mental notes of things I haven’t ever forgotten.”

Stanley won 27 Trainer’s Titles in Port Elizabeth and held the singular honour of being Champion Trainer in two centres in one season, Port Elizabeth and Bloemfontein, in 1991. He trained an estimated 2,500 career winners, a number Alan (currently approaching 3,500 winners) has long surpassed.

Despite the unparalleled depth of his grounding, Alan remains modest about his own depth of knowledge and the remarkable career it’s built. “I’m a workaholic,” he admits. “I’ve always lived by the policy that hard work never killed anyone. It’s the only thing I know. Not many people can say they do what they love. I also have an experienced and dedicated team behind me, including jockeys Kendall Minnie and Charles Ndlovu, Amos Mtengwana, Jackson Tsewu and Thomas Melani, who do much of the hard work behind the scenes.”

Above: ‘Happy wife, happy stable!’ – Alan and Glenifer Greeff (Image: Pauline Herman)

If there is a secret to managing a large stable so successfully, Alan quips, it might just be this: “A happy wife!” Glenifer has been at his side — and at the stables — every morning for as long as he can remember. She handles the owners, the logistics, and all the little things that matter. Their daughter Cailin is also a daily presence in the family business, helping her mom and keeping the stable’s social media ticking over. Justine, their second daughter, is a schoolteacher by profession, though Alan hints she may have the strongest natural feel for training among his children. Their son Nicholas is the Head Ranger at Elephant Plains Game Lodge in Sabi. He’s an animal lover through and through, who also takes breathtaking wildlife photographs (check out nicholas_greeff8 on Instagram).

Alan’s Halo Stables carries special meaning for the Greeff family. It honours the filly Halo, who became Stanley Greeff’s 100th winner of the 1980 season, a campaign in which he bettered Terrance Millard’s South African record of 90 winners and pushed the new benchmark to 105.

In the 2018/19 season, Alan saddled 177 winners, an Eastern Cape record that still stands. Though with a month left in the 2024/25 season and already nudging the 160-winner mark and an all-time best second position on the National log, he may well rewrite his own history.

However, it’s never been about statistics for Alan Greeff. He doesn’t keep track of championships won or stakes racked up, and says that ‘staying humble’ and looking after his stable’s incredible group of patrons are all that truly matter. At 53, he remains what he’s always been — a horseman at heart, a quiet achiever, and a pillar of Eastern Cape racing. The journey hasn’t changed him, only deepened the values he started with: hard work, humility, and respect for the thoroughbred. And while the Durban July may be his next big step, for Alan, the real victory is waking up each morning to do what he loves, surrounded by family, history, horses, and the kind of quiet excellence that speaks louder than any headline.