Mark Newnham reached a significant milestone on Saturday (20 December) at Sha Tin as leading Four-Year-Old Classic Series prospect, Invincible Ibis (130lb), passed yet another crucial test on his march towards the HK$13 million Hong Kong Classic Mile (1600m) \u2013 the opening leg of the three-race age-restricted challenge \u2013 on 1 February.<\/p>
Celebrating his 100th Hong Kong training win with the young gun\u2019s victory in the Class 3 Poinsettia Handicap (1600m), Newnham joined Caspar Fownes at the top of the trainers\u2019 championship on 25 victories this term over Danny Shum (23 wins) and David Hayes (21). \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>
\u201cIt\u2019s good to get the 100 out of the way. We\u2019ve been stuck on 99 \u2013 I felt like a bad cricketer. It was going to come; I\u2019m just pleased it came with this horse in this race. He\u2019s a nice, progressive horse,\u201d Newnham said. \u201cThat should see his rating lift to get him into the Four-Year-Old Classic Series. He\u2019ll need another race before then, but he\u2019s on his way and he\u2019s improving every start.\u201d<\/p>
Stepping from barrier three, Invincible Ibis hugged the rail while midfield. The field fanned across the straight turning for home as the Hellbent gelding stole ground under a cool Zac Purton ride, before saluting by one and three quarter lengths in 1m 34.97s.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s always given that indication that he\u2019s going to run 1600 (metres) out strongly, but first run you need to see them do it. Zac gave him a perfect ride, the gaps opened up for him, so he had the advantages with an inside gate (three), but he still had to put them away and he did it well,\u201d Newnham said.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Invincible Ibis dashes clear with Zac Purton.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
After success earlier with Hong Kong International Sale graduate Circuit Fiery (135lb) in the first section of the Class 5 Amaryllis Handicap (1400m) for trainer Chris So, Purton became the first to reach 50 wins for the campaign with his bookending double.<\/p>
Purton said: \u201cHe (Invincible Ibis) keeps improving which is a nice thing. He did it a different way today, coming inside and through them. He keeps doing what we ask him to do.\u201d<\/p>
The Four-Year-Old Classic Series also features the HK$13 million Hong Kong Classic Cup (1800m) on 1 March and ends with the HK$26 million BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) on 22 March.<\/p>
So banked an early double as Manythanks Forever (120lb) landed the second section of the Class 5 Amaryllis Handicap (1400m) with Andrea Atzeni.<\/p>
Sky Trust (118lb) earlier propelled Caspar Fownes to the top of the trainers\u2019 standings \u2013 before Newnham levelled up \u2013 with a smart victory in the HK$2.84 million Class 2 Ivy Handicap (1200m) under jockey Maxime Guyon.<\/p>
Having trained seven winners this month, Fownes is aiming to carry today\u2019s momentum into Tuesday\u2019s (23 December) fixture at Happy Valley, where he has nine entries.\u00a0<\/p>
\u201cIt\u2019s nice to see a horse like this perform at this Class 2 level,\u201d Fownes said. \u201cHe\u2019s a horse that can go further \u2013 he\u2019ll be better at 1400 (metres) \u2013 so there\u2019s some races coming up and, hopefully, we can get another win for the owners.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>
Guyon, who grabbed a double, said: \u201cWe had a perfect run behind the leaders. I travelled very well, he showed a good turn of foot, and we had a light weight today.\u201d<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”12675″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Guyon rode Glaciated (119lb) to success for trainer Pierre Ng in the first section of the Class 4 Tulip Handicap (1200m) earlier. Preparing to conclude her riding stint on Tuesday, Hollie Doyle partnered The Red Hare (118lb) to capture the Class 3 Spruce Handicap (1400m) for trainer Frankie Lor.<\/p>
\u201cIt was good. I\u2019ve ridden him three times now, so third time lucky. Obviously, he\u2019s quite highly strung and quirky, but I\u2019ve gotten to know him in the mornings and it paid off in the end. Hopefully he continues to progress,\u201d Doyle said.<\/p>
\u201cI\u2019ve absolutely loved it here. I\u2019ve had so much support and I\u2019m very grateful. Hopefully, I\u2019ve made some good connections, if they\u2019ll have me back next time. One more fixture to go on the Tuesday at Happy Valley and, hopefully, I\u2019ll have a bit of luck.\u201d<\/p>
Emblazon (130lb) dominated the Class 4 Pok Oi Cup Handicap (130lb) for trainer Cody Mo and jockey Jerry Chau. The four-year-old began a double for Mo, who also won the Class 4 Erica Handicap (1400m) with Nyx Gluck (127lb) and jockey James McDonald.<\/p>
\u201cThis race worked out well for him (Nyx Gluck), he got a good draw (one) and James McDonald did very well.\u00a0In the future, he will go a bit further, but for now this trip seems to be good for him,\u201d Mo said.<\/p>
McDonald, who concludes his short-term riding stint today, steered Fit For Beauty (134lb) to success in the Class 4 Hibiscus Handicap (1600m) for trainer John Size.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”12674″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Francis Lui\u2019s four-year-old debutant Turquoise Velocity (127lb) impressed in the Class 4 Cedar Handicap (1000m) under jockey Keith Yeung.<\/p>
Yeung said: \u201cHe was a bit green when I was first trialling him at Conghua a few months ago, but he\u2019s built up really well. Francis and his team has done an amazing job with him.<\/p>
\u201cWhen he first came to Hong Kong, he was really green, and we thought he would be an end-of-season horse, but he has improved after every trial. I knew he had the turn of foot, it\u2019s just that he is still a big baby. He has a long way to go. I am really happy with him.\u201d<\/p>
Aurora Patch (119lb) cruised to a comfortable second win in the Class 3 Holly Handicap (1200m) for trainer Manfred Man and jockey Matthew Chadwick.<\/p>
Hong Kong racing continues at Happy Valley on Tuesday (23 December).<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”12673″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Mark Newnham reached a significant milestone on Saturday (20 December) at Sha Tin as leading Four-Year-Old Classic Series prospect, Invincible Ibis (130lb), passed yet another crucial test on his march towards the HK$13 million Hong Kong Classic Mile (1600m) \u2013 the opening leg of the three-race age-restricted challenge \u2013 on 1… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":12677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12670"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12670"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12678,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12670\/revisions\/12678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}