The best race or not, it’s certainly a trippy ’10 miles high’

Is it the greatest mile horse race in South Africa in decades? Animated argument has sprung up about the ranking of Saturday’s Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge over 1600m at Greyville – though everybody does agree with master trainer Mike de Kock that it’s “a helluva race”.

De Kock saddles four-year-old Safe Passage, one of the elite of last season who threatens to regain top form in his third run after a rest. In a normal year, Safe Passage, third in the ’22 Durban July and second in the Summer Cup, might be vying for favouritism of this Grade 1 contest, but here he languishes at a distant 18-1 – in a field of just 10.

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That’s how hot the competition is. It includes the country’s two top-ranked horses, Charles Dickens and Al Muthana, both on merit ratings of 132. Then there is the impeccable and implacable Trip Of Fortune, who travels around the land, winning wherever he goes; and Cousin Casey and Rascallion, who have hordes of admirers among the cognoscenti and have shown early winter season form.

We cannot forget the old warhorse Do It Again, a dual July champ who hasn’t lost his zest for the fight at the age of eight. The remaining three in the lineup – Zapatillas, Bingwa and Royal Aussie – might be at long odds but are all accomplished gallopers at the top level.

‘Best mile’

Glen Kotzen, trainer of Cousin Casey, confidently declared this Gold Challenge the “best mile in decades” in a Racing News video interview this week.

Racing buffs were never likely to let such a statement go unchallenged and someone wrote to Sporting Post to vote for the 2018 Green Point Stakes and its memorable blanket finish with Legal Eagle, Do It Again, Undercover Agent and Rainbow Bridge.

Whatever. Finding the greatest mile is secondary to finding the winner of this one.

Trainer Candice Bass-Robinson reports that her star Charles Dickens has settled in well to winter lodgings at Summerveld and showed his wellbeing with a spanking win in the KZN Guineas in early May. Bass-Robinson’s retained jockey Aldo Domeyer has chosen the dazzling chestnut over Trip Of Fortune, but there are more than a few pundits who quietly fancy the year-older horse to upstage his stablemate and paternal half-brother.

ALSO READ: Top July hopefuls retain merit ratings after weekend fireworks

Al Muthana won this race handsomely last year, changed stables and cities and won the 2023 King’s Plate over 1600m – besting hot favourite Charles Dickens. A flying third spot in the recent Drill Hall Stakes suggests he’s well-tuned for an assault on this coveted prize.

The song Eight Miles High was written and recorded by legendary American folk-rock band The Byrds in 1966 and was dubbed the “first psychedelic record”. It surely is a trippy ditty, as is the prospect of the 10
miles that will be covered by the country’s best 1600m exponents at Greyville.

I’m opting for a Trip Of Fortune.

Selection

3 Trip Of Fortune, 9 Do It Again, 5 Al Muthana, 4 Charles Dickens