Two of the early pace-setters in the 2025\/26 trainers\u2019 championship will send strong contingents to Happy Valley on Wednesday night (8 October), looking to open up a gap at the top of the standings.<\/p>
Caspar Fownes prepares six runners, hoping to improve on his seven wins so far this season at his favourite hunting ground.<\/p>
Mark Newnham has made an explosive start to his third campaign in Hong Kong, and he saddles seven runners.<\/p>
Three of Fownes\u2019 six have already visited the winner\u2019s arch this season, but none have escaped the attention of the handicapper for their efforts and find themselves in elevated company on Wednesday night.<\/p>
Mighty Commander (119lb), who will be ridden again by Ellis Wong in the first section of the Class 3 Harbour View Handicap (1200m), is one of Fownes\u2019 leading chances after winning smartly over 1200m last time out despite mostly campaigning over 1650m.<\/p>
\u201cHe seems to be in good form \u2013 winning the 1200 (metres) first up in Class 4. Now he goes up to a higher grade,\u201d Fownes said.<\/p>
\u201cIt\u2019s always tougher in Class 3, but he\u2019s proven to us that he can be close in Class 3, so there\u2019s no reason why he can\u2019t be competitive again at this distance.\u201d<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”6449″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Fownes, who has a remarkable 38% strike rate at the city course this term, also backs up Super Sicario (117lb), who was impressive in a wire-to-wire win at the Valley last month.<\/p>
Karis Teetan takes the ride on the four-year-old son of Tivaci in the first section of the Class 4 Man Cheung Handicap (1650m).<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s a little bit gobby \u2013 he still doesn\u2019t respect the bit too much,\u201d Fownes said.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s another horse that got the job done in Class 5 and goes up to Class 4 with the light weight.<\/p>
\u201cAs long as he\u2019s well-behaved and gives Karis a good ride, I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll be competitive.\u201d<\/p>
Newnham\u2019s hand is highlighted by Spicy Gold (132lb) in the second section of the Class 3 Harbour View Handicap (1200m), who returns to his preferred distance after disappointing in his first run this season over 1000m three weeks ago.<\/p>
\u201c(1000m) was just a bit sharp for him, but he\u2019s been very consistent at 1200m at Happy Valley, and he probably needed the race to bring his fitness up,\u201d Newnham said. \u201cHe\u2019s had a good preparation since that race.\u201d<\/p>
Four-year-old Lunar Dash (131lb) was well-supported in his two outings last season despite failing to land for his backers. But he maintains the confidence of champion jockey Zac Purton in the second section of the Class 4 Li Yuen Handicap (1200m), and Newnham thinks the PPG will be in the mix.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s drawn well in (gate) five. He\u2019s got early pace. We\u2019ve been riding him just off the speed in his trials and he\u2019s been finishing well. So if he can settle in the first four, I think he\u2019ll be in the finish,\u201d Newnham said.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Sky Jewellery made his first appearance of the 2025\/26 season at a Monday morning (6 October) barrier trial.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Monday\u2019s (6 October) barrier trials at Sha Tin were highlighted by the reappearance of John Size\u2019s exciting Four-Year-Old Classic Series prospect Sky Jewellery.
Despite a leisurely gallop under Hugh Bowman, Size said the gelding is progressing nicely.<\/p>
\u201cNothing to see this morning \u2013 just giving him a jump out and letting him know he\u2019s back at work,\u201d Size said. \u201cI think everything\u2019s in order, but we\u2019ve still got a long way to go. We\u2019ll bring him along slowly and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>
Wednesday\u2019s (8 October) nine-race card at Happy Valley gets underway at 6.35pm with the Class 5 Pedder Handicap (1800m).<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”6448″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Two of the early pace-setters in the 2025\/26 trainers\u2019 championship will send strong contingents to Happy Valley on Wednesday night (8 October), looking to open up a gap at the top of the standings.Caspar Fownes prepares six runners, hoping to improve on his seven wins so far this season at his… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":6450,"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-million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6446"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6446"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6452,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6446\/revisions\/6452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}