The younger sibling, John, completed back-to-back wins in the event he described as the “Melbourne Cup” of his sport to join David as a two-time winner.

Riding the same horse he won on last year, seven-year-old Halls Chickenman, Mitchell pocketed the $20,000 first prize for the festival’s marquee event.

Mitchell was announced on Saturday night as the leader going into the final day’s two events, the brumby catch and buck-jump, after taking out the cross-country section on the penultimate day.

But he was the No.2 ranked competitor behind Queenslander David Rixon, who had a disastrous final day by slipping to ninth place in the final standings.

Mitchell won with 624.5 points from his brother David on 609 points.

Gippslander Darren Towns stormed up the leaderboard on the final day by winning both events including a successful brumby catch within 30 seconds of his allotted three minutes.

Towns, a horse breaker from Stratford, finished on 602.5 points ahead of Scott Jones on 584.5 points and 2009 challenge champion Morgan Webb on 578.5 points.

Mitchell is also a five-time Albury Tigers premiership player, but will be making a delayed start to the season as he heads north to compete in camp drafts in coming weeks.

“Footy was my life until I was 21,” he said.

“I still love footy, but this is the best feeling ever.

“This is the Melbourne Cup of our game because it’s been here the longest and is the one everyone wants to win.

“We’ve got a farm and everything is done on a horse.”

David Mitchell, who won previously in 2010 and 2012, started the final day in fifth place.

“It’s a pity it wasn’t the other way round,” he joked.

“But if anyone is going to win I would prefer it to be him.”

John Mitchell seized his chance when Rixon couldn’t complete a successful brumby catch and was tipped off in the buck-jump.

“I had a tough brumby, but I thought I did a good job,” he said.

“I also had a pretty bucky horse, but stayed on.”