Hollywood Hard To Catch In Owners Champs

Imilenzeyokududuma (Dynasty), pictured winning the Listed Christmas Handicap, is one of Hollywood Racing’s best horses at present and finished third in the Gr 1 Wilgerbosdrift HF Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut Stakes last Saturday at Turffontein. (Candiese Lenferna Photography)

Hollywood Racing reached 100 wins for a season for the first time on Gold Cup day in 2022 to much fanfare and, fittingly, it was Isivunguvungu who did it for them.

This season they are already on 73 wins with just under five months of the season still to go, so it is not surprising they have a big lead in the national owners championship and this time they might not be caught, because Drakenstein Stud do not have as much firepower as when winning the Owners Championship for three successive seasons from 2021/2022 to 2023/2024.

Hollywood were second to Drakenstein by R2,649,388 in the first of the Drakenstein wins, second to them by R3,845,863 in their next win and last season they were only R822,281 behind.

This season Hollywood Racing are R2,537,975 ahead of Drakenstein.

Drakenstein have the high class Snow Pilot for races like the Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge, but their current best Hollywoodbets Durban July candidate is Future Swing, who is rated a 25/1 shot by Hollywoodbets. Silver Sanctuary was fancied for the July last year, but will need to bounce back to form.

The July is of course of huge importance to the owners championship because it has a R5 million stake.

The best horse in training Drakenstein own at present is probably the USA-based Beach Bomb, so they are still excelling, but on the local front they do not have their usual grip on the championship.

Hollywood do not appear to have a big July runner either, although Imilenzeyokududuma ran a cracking third in the Gr 1 Wilgerbosdrift HF Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut Stakes in testing going over the tough Turffontein Standside course on Saturday and on that run he could perhaps get the 2200m of the July and perhaps rates a better chance than the 330/1 odds Hollywoodbets have accorded him.

However, Hollywood’s lead in the Owners Championship is such that the ball is in the court of the others to catch them.

In third place on the log is Sabine Plattner and she is just R2,961,269 behind Hollywood.

She has Master Redoute and Zeitz as possible July candidates, so is not out of it.

Nick Jonsson & Johann Rupert are just over R3 million behind, but those stakes are all from just one horse, Eight On Eighteen, so they are unlikely to threaten for the championship even if they win all of the big ones, as the cumulative force of scores of runners is likely to rake in more money than one superstar.

Rikesh Sewgoolam is in fifth place just behind Jonsson and Rupert, but that was largely through One Stripe, who is now joint-owned by Hollywood anyway.

Khaya Stables are in sixth place and are just over R3,3 million behind, but with stalwarts like Gimme A Prince and The Real Prince running for them they could possibly threaten. Dean Kannemeyer has a fine record in the July and The Real Prince won so impressively when stepped up to 1600m last time there might be the thought of running him in the July.

The entities further down who have enough runners to mount a challenge if they can land the big one i.e. the July, are the The ASSM Syndicate, Laurence Wernars and Nick Jonsson (on his own).

However, they are likely a bit far off the pace to be a serious threat to Hollywood Racing, who churn out winners weekly.

The top ten as it stood after racing on Tuesday is shown below: (stakes for the NHA Owners Championship include restricted races):