DURBAN – Summerveld trainer Stuart Ferrie has only one runner in the two-million rand (S$157,000) Grade 1 Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge (1,600m) at Greyville on June 6 – stable star Gladatorian.

The Vercingetorix gelding was a somewhat unlucky 0.35-length third in the Gold Challenge in 2025 and comes into the race off an equally good preparation in 2026.

Even if the Grade 1 Champions Cup (1,800m) winner has had a most disappointing campaign in Cape Town, Ferrie pointed out he just did not enjoy it over there – just like when he went there as a three-year-old.

On that occasion, when then trained by Dennis Drier, he won his pipe-opener over 1,000m at Kenilworth when well weighted in a Progress Plate in 2023, but then finished 10 lengths back for his main aim, the Grade 2 Khaya Stables Diadem Stakes over 1,200m.

Ferrie surmised that when the tracks are different, horses have to lift their feet differently and it impacts on their race preparation.

The training tracks at Milnerton in Cape Town are heavier than the ones at Summerveld in Durban.

Some horses actually enjoy being prepared in heavy conditions, with Gladatorian’s stable companion I Am Giant being an example.

Ferrie likened Gladatorian’s dislike of the heavy conditions to a human being who believed he or she was fit before going for a run on the beach and finding out otherwise.

Gladatorian’s lack of his usual electric turn of foot in his opening race at Kenilworth, the Grade 2 Ridgemont Green Point Stakes over 1,600m on Dec 13, 2025, was blamed on his greenness around the turn in his first time around a left-handed course, but nothing changed in his next two starts in the Grade 1 L’Ormarins King’s Plate (1,600m) and the Grade 1 WSB Cape Town Met (2,000m).

The 11-time winner put in decent runs in all three races, finishing a 3.25-length 11th, a 3.95-length seventh and a 4.85-length seventh respectively, but he never put himself in with a chance of winning like he normally did.