It is a huge week for championship-leading trainer Mark Newnham, who after saddling seven runners at Sha Tin on Wednesday night (21 January), will seek top-level glory with stable star My Wish in Sunday\u2019s (25 January) HK$13 million G1 Stewards\u2019 Cup (1600m).<\/p>
Group 2 victor My Wish, who has six wins from 15 starts including the 2025 Hong Kong Classic Mile, faces mighty gallopers Romantic Warrior and Voyage Bubble \u2013 winners of a combined 17 Group 1 races \u2013 in the Triple Crown\u2019s opener this weekend at Sha Tin.<\/p>
Newnham said: \u201cMy Wish galloped this morning (Tuesday, 20 January), and it was very pleasing work. He goes into Sunday\u2019s race as well as we can have him.<\/p>
\u201cRomantic Warrior is a world-class horse and Voyage Bubble is a champion Hong Kong horse, so it\u2019s no easy task, but they\u2019re getting to the latter stages of their careers and we\u2019ve still got a bit ahead of us, and I think he\u2019s still improving. We\u2019re going in fit, well and we\u2019ll let the result take care of itself.\u201d<\/p>
Flying Artie gelding My Wish trialled on 10 January over 1700m, surging into first place in 1m 46.91s (34.6, 23.6, 24.5, 24.2) under Alexis Badel.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
My Wish trials at Happy Valley.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
\u201cThe trial at Happy Valley was an opportunity to engage him a little bit more, just to stimulate him a bit, because he hasn\u2019t really left Sha Tin for two years. It was a good chance to get some miles into his legs, and I was really happy with the way he relaxed and finished off,\u201d Newnham said.<\/p>
Boasting 32 wins this season, including a jurisdiction-leading seven on the dirt, Newnham saddles Talents Ambition (124lb) and New Forest (120lb) in tomorrow\u2019s HK$3.12 million Class 2 Tin Chak Handicap (1650m, dirt).<\/p>
\u201cThey\u2019re both in good form. One will probably be the leader, and one will probably be the horse at the tail. It might be tempo-related, the result, but both horses are going well.<\/p>
\u201cNew Forest is building a good record, especially when he gets control of the race. Talents Ambition hasn\u2019t been in many suitable races this season, he\u2019s only run at this distance and in this class once when he was first-up this season,\u201d Newnham said.<\/p>
Andrea Atzeni partners New Forest, while Lyle Hewitson reunites with Talents Ambition, who is entered for the G3 Burj Nahaar (1600m, dirt) on 28 February and the G2 Godolphin Mile (1600m, dirt) on 28 March. Both races are run at Meydan.<\/p>
\u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of races for him in this class, but we\u2019ve kept him ticking over and his trials have been good and so has his work, so I\u2019d expect him to run to his best. We\u2019ll know more after tomorrow night (regarding Dubai),\u201d Newnham said.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”13081″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Justify gelding New Forest debuts in Class 2 after a pair of Class 3 wins.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s a horse that is very good from the front when he can control the speed, and it looks like he\u2019ll get that tomorrow night. He\u2019s a good, solid horse who has carried good weight in Class 3, but this is another step up again.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s pretty foolproof. He wins the start most times, gets across, doesn\u2019t pull, and saves energy. These horses always give themselves a chance to win,\u201d Newnham said.<\/p>
Newnham is represented by debut winner Supreme Sea (135lb) in the second section of the Class 4 Marble Handicap (1200m, dirt) under Hewitson from barrier three.<\/p>
Newnham said: \u201cHe hasn\u2019t been the quickest beginner. He recovered quickly last start from that inside gate, and hopefully tomorrow, he just makes a clean break and if he gets there in the right position, then he\u2019ll be hard to beat.\u201d<\/p>
Looking further ahead to 1 February, the Australian has five runners entered in the Four-Year-Old Classic Series\u2019 first leg \u2013 the HK$13 million Hong Kong Classic Mile (1600m): Invincible Ibis, Infinite Resolve, Winfield, Crimson Flash and Aerodynamics.<\/p>
Invincible Ibis worked today at Sha Tin ahead of his Hong Kong Classic Mile assault.\u00a0<\/p>
Newnham said: \u201cI\u2019ve been really happy with him. He did a little bit of work this morning, I rode him and he\u2019s moving well. He\u2019ll follow his usual programme into that race.\u201d<\/p>
Wednesday\u2019s (21 January) nine-race all-dirt fixture at Sha Tin begins at 6.45pm with the Class 5 Kam Shan Handicap (1200m, dirt).<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”13080″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]It is a huge week for championship-leading trainer Mark Newnham, who after saddling seven runners at Sha Tin on Wednesday night (21 January), will seek top-level glory with stable star My Wish in Sunday\u2019s (25 January) HK$13 million G1 Stewards\u2019 Cup (1600m).Group 2 victor My Wish, who has six wins from… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":13082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"2normal","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-gentlemens-raceday\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13077"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-gentlemens-raceday\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-gentlemens-raceday\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-gentlemens-raceday\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-gentlemens-raceday\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13077"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-gentlemens-raceday\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13093,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-gentlemens-raceday\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13077\/revisions\/13093"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-gentlemens-raceday\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-gentlemens-raceday\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-gentlemens-raceday\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-gentlemens-raceday\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}