The mile challenge is golden at Greyville.
Greyville Racecourse will host the Gold Challenge this weekend. Picture: Gerhard Duraan/Gallo Images
Racing connoisseurs could not have asked for more from a mile race than what is served them in the Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge at Greyville on Saturday.
A beguiling mix of champion horses of varying age, from various provinces, at different stages of career development, representing the most powerful stables, make up the 2026 field for the R2-million Grade 1 contest.
At opposite ends of the spectrum are three-year-old rising star Tin Pan Alley and six-year-old double defending champ Dave The King.
Trainer Sean Tarry has taken a road slightly less travelled with Tin Pan Alley, accepting current stamina limitations of the gelding, eschewing temptations of last week’s Daily News 2000 and the upcoming Hollywoodbets Durban July, and making this 1600m and next month’s Champions Cup primary targets for the season.
When guile-master Tarry sets targets, opposition should watch out.
Tin Pan Alley has prepared perfectly for this race with four wins in seven starts since the arrival of spring, the most notable being in the Grade 1 1600m Horse Chestnut Stakes at Turffontein, beating the galloping machine that is See It Again.
Under the Challenge weight-for-age conditions, he carries 1.5kg less than all his rivals; a No 11 starting gate is his only negative.
Tin Pan Alley’s ante-post return of 8.33 on the sponsor’s board is good value.
Other contenders
But, of course, he comes up against the toughest competition imaginable – including the aforementioned See It Again, who tops the betting board at 3.57.
The market clearly sees this race as See It Again’s principal winter target – his 62kg top weight in the Durban July perhaps looking a burden too hefty.
Similar might be said of stable companion Eight On Eighteen (4.00 for Saturday), who is likely to have to shoulder 61.5kg in the July, in which he was runner-up last year when lugging less lead in the saddle.
Every other runner on Saturday has some sort of case for inclusion in bets, with possibly Gladatorian and Questioning putting their hands up highest.
Exotics compilers with the means will be choosing “field” in this leg.
Relentless galloper Dave The King won the last two editions of the Gold Challenge and will again have plenty of supporters.
Outside of kamikaze tactics and implosion in the King’s Plate in January, Dave The King’s record has been unimpeachable for many months and the 14.29 a win and 2.85 a place on offer is a gift to punters.
The Greyville card also features the Grade 2 HKJC World Pool Stakes (aka the Tibouchina), the Grade 3 Betgames Cup Trial and two Listed races commemorating heroes of the past, Gatecrasher and Devon Air. A handful of Durban July candidates will be in action and a carryover Pick 6 pool might climb as high as R3-million.
Across the Atlantic, at Saratoga at the Belmont Stakes meeting, South Africa’s star export One Stripe runs in the Grade 1 1800m Manhattan Stakes – with reigning local champion jockey Gavin Lerena in the irons.
Gold Challenge selection
11 Tin Pan Alley, 3 Dave The King, 7 See It Again, 8 Gladatorian
