An eager Mark Newnham is expecting to saddle his first Hong Kong runner on Wednesday, 13 September at Happy Valley as he prepares himself for the cauldron-like pressures of Hong Kong’s fiercely competitive 88-fixture racing season.
Announced last season as Hong Kong’s newest expatriate addition to the training ranks, Newnham has enjoyed a swift but significant rise in Australia, collecting close to 400 wins across roughly seven years of training while at the wheel of his stable in Sydney.
Newnham – along with Cody Mo – join the roster this term and will both chase a slice of the estimated record HK$1.73 billion (approx. US$220.74 million) in prize money on offer throughout the 2023/24 campaign.
“More excited – I’ve been treading water for the last three months, so I’m keen to get back to racing and back in competition. I’m happy with the way the horses are – everybody’s training style is different but the way I feed and train, the horses seem to be responding well,” Newnham said.
The four-time Group 1-winning trainer has One For All entered to run in a Class 3 contest over 1200m at Wednesday’s city circuit programme. One For All scored a hat-trick of wins at Happy Valley last season for outgoing trainer Richard Gibson.
“They look well and they’re trialling well,” Newnham said.
Newnham spent the summer at Sha Tin, finding his feet and recruiting for his stable, which currently houses 35 horses, including the 102-rating Tourbillon Diamond, Keep You Warm, Scotch Tycoon, Mission Bravo and several new arrivals.
“I was probably the only one here during the summer! Everyone else took their break and I’m sure I’ll look forward to one next year. It’s just about getting the stable set up, finding a routine and learning the horses, but everything seems to be coming together well,” Newnham said.
Newnham praised his staff for their efforts and is looking forward to steadily building his presence at Sha Tin and amongst the trainers’ rankings as the season progresses.
“I’m getting a lot of help from my assistant trainer Henry Wong, the horses that we’ve trialled so far have all trialled well. We’ll have a few runners in September, nothing on the first day but from Happy Valley on the 13th of September we’ll start to have one or two runners at each meeting after that.
“There’s quite a few transfer horses and we’ve had a few new horses arrive. There’s a few more on the next couple of shipments, so I think for the first half of the season or three months it’ll be getting those transfer horses going, while the others are acclimatising and towards the new year then getting those new horses out and running,” the Australian said.
The 55-year-old is renowned for his horsemanship and hands on approach when training the horses in his purposely smaller stable back in Australia – qualities he feels the Hong Kong system affords a handler like him.
“I had probably gone as far as I could there without expanding my stable. The way I train, for me, I didn’t want to have multiple locations like the big stables do in Sydney and Melbourne – they have four and five training locations. I would rather see the horses each day, it’s a good system here – the numbers here are what I am used to training. I’m looking forward to getting started,” he said.
Newnham was a jockey before becoming a trainer. He also worked closely with turf greats Pierro and Fiorente across their respective careers at Gai Waterhouse’s stable.
By Decland Schuster, HKJC
