All that glistens is Gold in the Challenge

There are zero worries about impressing a World Pool international audience for the Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge at Greyville on Saturday.

The field of 13 carries all the prestige the race name promises, with all the country’s top milers in training gung-ho for a weight-for-age Grade 1 showdown with their peers.

In addition to the usual worldwide comingled Hong Kong World Pool bets, there’s a local Quintet Megapool on the race, with an expected pot of R750,000, and narrowing down the perm choices to fit budget limits is testing punters’ patience.

Highveld rivalry

Rivalry between two Highveld-trained three-year-olds, Main Defender and Sandringham Summit, has been hyped up for ages and the trend continues with the Gold Challenge sponsor pricing the duo up a sliver apart – at 33-10 and 7-2 respectively. They start in stalls 3 and 4 for a 1600m trip in which the draw is considered important.

Another three-year-old, Lucky Lad, is next on the boards at 9-2 – right alongside the year-older See It Again. These two are drawn a little wider at 11 and 9 respectively.

But there’s more: Also in the mix are Dave The King, Snow Pilot, Cousin Casey and Royal Aussie – all names that have graced South Africa’s premier races in recent times and all of whom are Durban July candidates.

Oh, and there’s Al Muthana, who won the Gold Challenge in 2022 and was second last year – to esteemed Charles Dickens, who has since retired to stud – plus a couple more with the ability to cause an upset.

Main contenders

Tony Peter-trained Main Defender removed all doubt about his class with a crushing Horse Chestnut Stakes victory in early March, but then had preparations for this KwaZulu-Natal winter season disrupted when he was infamously scratched from the Drill Hall Stakes due to elevated carbon dioxide levels following a pre-race test.

He hasn’t raced for 98 days, but a record of four wins from four starts following a break will ease worries about his readiness.

Another horse who does well fresh is See It Again, the unlucky runner-up in the 2023 Durban July.

His trainer Michael Roberts concedes that the Challenge’s 1600m might be a little on the sharp side for his fellow these days, but the horse has always been versatile and full of heart so must be on every punter’s short list.

Sandringham Summit’s owners have targeted this race for their expensively syndicated colt, so there is pressure on the shoulders of trainer David Nieuwenhuizen – pressure that the young man has borne with fortitude.

Awesome is a horribly overused word, but the colt Lucky Lad was exactly that when he flew up from nowhere in the final 200m to snatch the Golden Horse Sprint at Scottsville. His appearance here, just a week later, is the opposite of fresh but is unlikely to be stale.

Trainer Sean Tarry says there is enough evidence to suggest his handsome dark bay will get a mile, a distance he’s tried only once – with a dismal outcome that, to be fair, had little to do with stamina capabilities and everything to do with getting royally sideswiped at the jump.

What a race we have in store.