Hollywoodbets Greyville will be abuzz on Saturday for one of the season’s most looked forward to meetings (Picture: Candiese Lenferna)
Ranked in years past as South Africa’s leading elite-level horse race, the 55th renewal of the R2 million weight-for-age Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge Gr 1 to be hosted by Race Coast at the Theatre of Champions on Saturday 06 June, promises to deliver a vintage contest, with nine Grade 1 winners in the twelve strong field.
First run in 1972 as the Clairwood Champion Stakes, the inaugural event was won by home-town champion Sentinel, and the honour roll in the ensuing decades has consistently boasted stars of the turf, as befits a race of this status.
Proudly a World Pool event, Saturday’s line-up includes former SA Horse Of The Year DAVE THE KING, who in 2025 became the third back-to-back winner of the premier mile this century, following in the golden hoofprints of Rainbow Bridge (2020/21) and Variety Club (2013/14).
Multiple SA champion trainer Mike de Kock, who is now in partnership with his son Mathew, saddled his first winner of this race in 1995 when Record Edge won, and won it again three years later with Golden Hoard. The internationally renowned trainer has been involved with the silverware in three of the past four renewals.
SA champion trainer Justin Snaith last won the Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge Gr 1 in 2019 with Do It Again and saddles a three-way coupling on Saturday, headed by reigning SA Horse Of The Year EIGHT ON EIGHTEEN, who gets a ‘new’ partner in Aldo Domeyer.
The Snaith attack includes the World Sports Betting Cape Town Met Gr 1 and HKJC World Pool Premier’s Champions Challenge Gr 1 hero SEE IT AGAIN, who returns to the proverbial well for the third time, having run third in 2024 and fifth last year. The son of Twice Over will be partnered by South Africa’s oldest professional jockey, the charismatic Andrew Fortune.
Another former multiple national champion conditioner, Sean Tarry last won this race back in 2007 with Succesful Bidder, and his coupling is headed by the only sophomore in the line-up, in 2025/26 Highveld Horse Of The Season, TIN PAN ALLEY, who will be ridden by past SA champion jockey, Keagan de Melo.
Dean Kannemeyer, whose champion Free My Heart won the Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge Gr 1 twice in 2000 and 2002, will be keen to get back on the prestigious honour roll and sends out 2025 Hollywoodbets Durban July Gr 1 hero THE REAL PRINCE, who put in a barnstorming effort to win the L’Ormarins King’s Plate Gr 1 in January.
After a long and distinguished career, Milnerton veteran Vaughan Marshall bids to break the ice and saddles recent IOS Drill Hall Stakes Gr 2 winner, QUESTIONING, the mount of record-breaking rider, Richard Fourie.
There is even an element of ‘international’ competition this year as Cape Town-born jockey Grant van Niekerk flies in from Mauritius to partner JET FORCE for Des McLachlan
South Africa’s leading sportsbook operator, Hollywoodbets are now in their seventh year of sponsoring the leading mile.
“The Gold Challenge was Hollywoodbets’ first Grade 1 race sponsorship, and thus a milestone in our company’s history and is a race that is befitting of its premier status in the SA Champions Season hierarchy. The quality of the 2026 renewal speaks volumes of the prestige and impact the event holds in determining the star achievers and Equus award-winners of the SA racing season,” added Heffer.
With the iconic R10 million Hollywoodbets Durban July Gr 1 just four weeks away, the Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge is an historical key pointer to Africa’s Greatest racing event.
“The Race Coast team are excited to be hosting this iconic race day in our big season,” enthused Stephen Marshall, Race Coast’s Head of Marketing, Major Events and Broadcasting.
“A longstanding highlight of the South African racing year, the Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge honour roll speaks for itself. This blue riband event has been won by no less than ten Durban July winners, the roll of stars including big names of the ilk of Yataghan, Politician, Over The Air, Royal Chalice and Flaming Rock, who were joined this millennium by Dancer’s Daughter, Pocket Power, Big City Life, Legislate and Do It Again.”
Off the track, the afternoon offers action and entertainment for the whole family, including live music, food trucks, and a safe and supervised play area for the little ones while racegoers get to relax in the Trackside Vibe Bar.
The first race on Saturday’s day-night dual surface race meeting starts at 13h40.
A R500 000 carryover is expected to boost the Pick 6 pool to R3 million. The popular exotic bet commences in the fourth race (15h25).
Both the Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge Gr 1 (Race 7 @ 17h20) and the HKJC World Pools Stakes (race 8 @ 18h00) are proudly World Pool events.
