The Peter Kannemeyer-trained Over The Air (New South Wales), pictured with Garth Puller up, won the equivalent of the Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge (The Clairwood Champion Stakes) for three years in succession from 1979 to 1981 and is one of ten July winners to have won this prestigious wfa Mile
First run in 1972 as the Clairwood Champion Stakes at the now defunct Durban South racetrack, the inaugural mile event was won by iconic “home town boy” Sentinel, who fully justified favouritism to score by the best part of a length. The Ellis’ champion would repeat that feat twelve months later under Michael Roberts at the prohibitive odds of 18-10.
Two champions have managed to win the race on three consecutive occasions. The Peter Kannemeyer-trained Over The Air won the race in 1979, 1980 and 1981, all under Garth Puller, whereas Irish-bred Flaming Rock and Karl Neisius proved unbeatable from 1991 to 1993 for owner Shirley Pfeiffer and trainer Chris Snaith.
Milers have obviously dominated the race, and the honour roll is replete with true legends over that distance, several of which won it on more than one occasion, notably the grey Wolf Power, who defeated Foveros in 1982 and duly completed the double twelve months later when leading home Arctic Cove and Spanish Pool.
Spanish Pool got his revenge in 1984 and repeated a year later when Jeff Lloyd lifted him over the line to hold off Felix Coetzee on Beldale Lustre.
Fast forward to 2012 when three-year-old Variety Club put a small, but high-quality field of older rivals to the sword with a splendid start-to-finish victory and under similar dictating tactics, he completed the double twelve months later by defeating champion Beach Beauty. Remarkably, that second victory capped an eight-win streak for the country’s dominant miler, who went on to take the international stage by storm and reached the ultimate pinnacle at Sha Tin where he disposed of Hong Kong’s best to claim the Champions Mile Gr 1 by an imperious four lengths.
With the demise of the Clairwood racetrack, the Gold Challenge moved to Hollywoodbets Greyville in 2015, since which two Horse of the Year recipients clinched back-to-back renewals. After finishing third in the 2019 race, Rainbow Bridge claimed his first success in 2020 and twelve months later, showed there’s no substitute for class by successfully defending his crown in what was the fifth Gr 1 win of his career.
The most recent dual winner is DAVE THE KING. In 2024, the De Kock stable’s champion took the lead a long way out and kept up a relentless gallop in the straight to cruise to a facile victory. He successfully defended his crown last year under similar tactics, albeit that he had but a neck to spare over the previous season’s Hollywoodbets Durban July winner ORIENTAL CHARM. He will be back this year in an attempt to become the first triple Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge winner since Flaming Rock completed the hattrick all of 33 years ago.
DID YOU KNOW
It’s not just sprinters and milers who have stamped their authority on the Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge, many a middle-distance champion has used the race as a stepping stone to the Hollywoodbets Durban July.
Since its inception, the Gold Challenge has been won by no less than ten July winners and the list reads like a veritable who’s who: Yataghan, Politician, Over The Air, Royal Chalice and Flaming Rock were joined this millennium by Dancer’s Daughter, Pocket Power, Big City Life, Legislate and Do It Again.
There have only been two female winners of the Gold Challenge, the first of which, English-bred Dancer’s Daughter asserted herself inside the final furlong to claim the 2008 race, despite having drifted into double figures at the off.
Three years later, Dancewiththedevil was the toast of Clairwood when she made up the best part of 14 lengths in the straight to record her third victory at the highest level. Unfazed by the rain-softened going and racing over a left-handed track for the first time in her career, St John Gray’s homebred unleashed a devastating turn of foot to pip Cape Derby winner Bravura on the line.
Jet Master, who annihilated a distinguished field by 3.50 lengths in the 1999 renewal and was denied a double when defeated a neck a year later, went on to sire a Gold Challenge winner. In 2009, his mighty son Pocket Power treated a sizeable Clairwood crowd to a masterful performance when he came home clear of Kapil and his own sister River Jetez.
It was third time lucky for the undisputed champion, who was beaten a shorthead by Successful Bidder in 2007 whilst in 2008, he was given far too much to do in the straight and had to settle for fourth, just over a length behind Dancer’s Daughter.
Jet Master’s son Pomodoro, who had finished third to Variety Club in 2013, is the sire of Cirillo, a gallant runner-up in 2019. After trying to make all, he just failed to hold off a rampant Do It Again to go down by a half length.
Jet Master has also stamped his mark on the race as a broodmare sire, his daughters having produced the dual winners Rainbow Bridge and Dave The King.
The most successful trainers have been Peter Kannemeyer and Mike de Kock, who share the record with five wins apiece. Peter Kannemeyer saddled Over The Air to three consecutive wins and also put the finishing touches to Priceless Asset (1989) and Pas De Quoi (1994).
Record Edge provided Mike de Kock with his first winner in 1995 and was followed three years later by Golden Hoard. It took all of 24 years before Al Muthana became Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge winner number three in 2022, but the stable has claimed the last two renewals with Dave The King, whose 2025 victory is credited to the partnership of Mike and son Mathew.
