The pursuit of excellence is at the core of all Hong Kong Jockey Club operations and the decision of the Club’s Licensing Committee to announce Mark Newnham as a new trainer for the start of the 2023/24 season is an example of our mindset.
At 55, Mark brings considerable experience and expertise after a long and successful career in horseracing, both as a jockey and trainer. With 25 Group wins, including four Group 1 victories, to his name so far as a trainer, Mark is respected and admired in Australia for his meticulous and dedicated approach.
As a former jockey, Mark worked as travelling foreman for the legendary Bart Cummings before enjoying a successful association with Gai Waterhouse as both stable jockey and then assistant trainer, eventually taking out his own licence.
With almost 400 career wins in Australia as a trainer, Mark also has significant connections with Hong Kong owners and is known to be an admirer of our world-class racing – as well as a regular visitor to Hong Kong.
Given the first-season success of our most recent additions to the Hong Kong training roster – Pierre Ng, who has 25 wins so far, and Jamie Richards, who is steadily building his tally with 18 wins – I welcome Mark to Sha Tin and wish him and his horses all the very best for the future.
With the 2023 BMW Hong Kong Derby just over a week away, the return of Golden Sixty to the top of the LONGINES World’s Best Racehorse Rankings could not be more timely. The 2020 BMW Hong Kong Derby winner, Golden Sixty has been revered for many things throughout a fantastic career – courage, power, speed and determination. Longevity is also another wonderful quality and, after 24 wins from 28 starts spread across five seasons, Hong Kong’s equine superstar stands atop the world rankings with a mark of 125 – matching his previous career-high – at the age of seven.
Francis Lui and Vincent Ho have done a wonderful job managing Golden Sixty, whose temperament can occasionally present challenges and his performances this season to twice defeat Romantic Warrior, who has an international ranking of 123, and also California Spangle (122) is testament to his world-class qualities.
While it is still early in the season, Hong Kong can be proud of the fact that we currently have the three top horses in the LONGINES World’s Best Racehorse Rankings given the size of our racehorse population of 1,240 horses – which is equivalent to 0.8 percent of the global population.
The countdown to the HK$24 million BMW Hong Kong Derby is well underway after the announcement of the 14 selected runners and four reserves. As always, the barrier draw next week will be crucial to the aspirations of connections hoping their horse can join Golden Sixty, Romantic Warrior and a string of other great champions on the race honour roll.
Beauty Eternal, Super Sunny Sing and Sword Point have been prominent in discussions so far, but there are several other contenders such as Tuchel and Straight Arron who have their supporters.
The BMW Hong Kong Derby thread continues at Sha Tin on Saturday, when the Lung Kong Handicap is carded as Race 7 at 4:05pm for Class 2 horses over 1400m with prizemoney of $2,640,000.
The pace in the race will be good with the likely leader Circuit Stellar drawn well in gate two, Bourbonaire and The Rock racing in the leading division and Mr Ascendency also likely to be prominent from gate six.
A large part of the outcome of the race will be determined by whether Circuit Stellar can find an easy lead for Zac Purton. Two starts ago he was held up on the rails and had no luck when finishing fourth to Mr Ascendency but made amends at his next start when leading throughout to hold off Winning Method this course and distance on 12 February. I make Circuit Stellar a win and place chance.
The interesting runner in the race is Atullibigeal. He showed an excellent turn of foot to win impressively from Amazing Victory over 1600m on 19 February. The talented four-year-old is heading to the BMW Hong Kong Derby next Sunday and switches back to 1400m. Atullibigeal is a place chance from gate nine for Luke Ferraris.
Amazing Victory went back from a wide gate and finished powerfully to finish second to Atullibigeal at his last start. This time he has drawn the rails and will get an economical run and is also a win and a place chance with his light weight for Karis Teetan.
The Golden Scenery, Mr Ascendency and Winner Method are all racing well and add plenty of interest to the race.
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