Questioning gives the right answer

Jack Milner

The Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge is one of three Grade 1 races over 1600m open to all horses and winning one of these is always viewed as highly prestigious.

The other two are the L’Ormarins King’s Plate at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth and the Wilgerbosdrift HF Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut Stakes at Turffontein.

Interestingly, the two winners of the above races will be lining up in this year’s Gold Challenge at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Saturday.

The Cape Town race was won by The Real Prince, while the Joburg event went the way of three-year-old Tin Pan Alley.

There are 12 runners carded to go to post for this race which will also be a Hong Kong World Pool event, along with Race 8 which is the Grade 2 HKJC World Pool Stakes for fillies and mares over 1400m.

The runners can be divided into three categories, those who have qualified for the Hollywoodbets Durban July on 4 July, those who are looking to book a place in that R10-million race, and those who have been primed specifically for this race.

And it is from the third category that one can extract the winner.

The two horses topping that list are Questioning and Tin Pan Alley.

Questioning is trained by Vaughan Marshall and this five-year-old gelding is in the form of his life and still appears to be getting better with every race.

He comes off three successive wins, two of them Grade 2s, and was beaten a short head in the King’s Plate, squeezed between The Real Prince and See It Again, who will both be lining up in this event.

Victory was never in doubt for him in the Drill Hall Stakes and from No 1 draw this time he’s the one they all have to beat, especially with Richard Fourie in the irons.

Tin Pan Alley is the lone three-year-old in the field, and this gelding has a record of six wins and five places from 13 starts. He did have both See It Again and The Real Prince well beaten in the Horse Chestnut Stakes but they both had excuses for their respective defeats

He was a strong favourite to win the Grade 2 World Sports Guineas over this course and distance but did not break well and was run out of it by Star Major.

While it seemed a disappointing effort at the time, the outcomes took on a different reflection when Star Major emphatically franked the form with an even more imposing victory in the Grade 1 Daily News 2000.

The main concern about the chances Sean Tarry’s charge is his No 11 draw.

Keagan de Melo takes the ride once again.

Those falling into the second category are Justin Snaith-trained Eight On Eighteen and See It Again, and last year’s Durban July champion, The Real Prince.

Eight On Eighteen has not recorded a victory since last year’s Daily News 2000 but did have a serious case of biliary last year and struggled to come back during the Cape summer season.

His best run was a 0.30-length runner-up to stablemate Okavango over this track last month and will be a massive runner if at his best.

Aldo Domeyer rides him for the first time.

See It Again has now won Grade 1 races in all three major centres and is in the form of his life. He might be in need of the run and his main mission is the Durban July, but he loves this course and has established a record of five wins, four seconds and three thirds in 14 runs at Greyville.

The Real Prince is one of the best-performing horses in the country over the last 12 months and ran on nicely in the Grade 2 Drill Hall Stakes to finish a 2.25-length sixth behind Questioning.

He will improve on that run.

There is also a R500,000 Pick 6 carryover at this meeting with the pool likely to reach R3 million.

Jack Milner’s selections

Race 1: 10 Redoubt Express, 2 Pressure Point, 7 Owner Of Creation, 5 Kiartay

Race 2: 2 Spirit Of Shimla, 4 Saint Brigid, 3 Vaans Spirit, 6 Paris Fun

Race 3: 1 Father Christmas, 6 Trippi’s Silk, 3 Pritti United, 7 Strutting

Race 4: 1 Royal Sword, 8 Hat’s Mambo, 9 Klein Karoo, 2 Wiccan Warrior

Race 5: 3 Kavady, 6 De Gulden, 8 Royal Tiara, 4 Alice B Toklas

Race 6: 9 World Series, 10 Fire Chief, 4 Kazenoyoni, 8 Erik Dubois

Race 7: 1 Questioning, 11 Tin Pan Alley, 9 Eight On Eighteen, 7 See It Again

Race 8: 7 Quickstepgal, 3 Rachel Wall, 13 Mon Petit Cherie, 1 Care Forgot, 8 Mocha Blend

Race 9: 2 Zeitz, 10 Regulation, 11 La Pulga, 1 I Salute You

Race 10: 6 Lonely As A Cloud, 3 Scarlet Starlet, 5 Arverni Princess, 4 Phutulicious

BEST BET

Race 2: 2 Spirit Of Shimla

VALUE BET

Race 10: 6 Lonely As A Cloud

BEST SWINGER

Race 3 1×6

BIPOT

R216

Leg 1: 2

Leg 2: 1, 6

Leg 3: 1, 8, 9

Leg 4: 3, 4, 6, 8

Leg 5: 4, 8, 9

Leg 6: 1, 9, 11

PLACE ACCUMULATOR

R216

Leg 1: 1, 6

Leg 2: 1, 8

Leg 3: 3, 6, 8

Leg 4: 4, 9, 10

Leg 5: 1

Leg 6: 3, 7, 13

Leg 7: 2, 10

PICK 6

R1944

Leg 1: 1, 8, 9

Leg 2: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8

Leg 3: 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Leg 4: 1, 9, 11

Leg 5: 3, 7, 13

Leg 6: 2, 10

JACKPOT 1

R324

Leg 1: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8

Leg 2: 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Leg 3: 1, 9, 11

Leg 4: 3, 7, 13

JACKPOT 2

R90

Leg 1: 1, 9, 11

Leg 2: 3, 7, 13

Leg 3: 2, 10

Leg 4: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7