Race for the Trainers’ Championship: Newnham still in the hunt
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Caspar Fownes (62 victories) retains his four-win lead at the top of the table after Danny Shum was the only one of the top three to strike at Sha Tin last weekend, saluting with Forever Folks at massive odds to join Mark Newnham in equal-second position on 58 wins.
There were some shots fired a little bit further down the standings last Saturday (13 June), however, with Francis Lui moving to 54 wins thanks to a treble and David Hayes keeping his slim premiership hopes alive with a double that took him to 52 victories.
While Newnham has spoken previously about how he expects to eventually “run out of bullets”, the Australian has been doing more than enough to stay in the hunt, and he has at least a handful of horses who look capable of producing the goods in the final weeks of the season.
Of those, last-start winner Oldtown and exciting debutant Hero Mastermind step out at Sha Tin this weekend, while Newnham will also be represented by five-time winner Crimson Flash in the G3 Premier Cup Handicap (1400m).
Oldtown sticks to the course and distance of his half-length success on 31 May for the Class 4 Diamond Handicap (1200m), while Hero Mastermind will debut down the straight in the Class 4 Ruby Handicap (1000m) after impressing in a barrier trial with an all-the-way victory over 1200m on the all-weather surface.
Looking further ahead, Newnham will turn to at least a couple of other last-start winners as he bids to keep his tally ticking over.
Perhaps the most intriguing of those is Joyful Joy, who was a convincing winner at knockout odds of 53/1 on debut in late May. The 60-rated galloper will stick to 1400m and Class 4 for his next run on 27 June.
Newnham expects to take some firepower to that 27 June fixture at Sha Tin, with Ace to chase consecutive victories and Armour War Eagle also being aimed at that meeting.
A half-length second on his return to the dirt in April, Armour War Eagle was first reserve for last Saturday’s Class 4 Sand Martin Handicap (1200m, dirt), and Newnham will now set his sights on that 27 June card with a horse he confirmed is “going well”.
“I’m hanging in there but I’ve got a lot of young horses and a lot of new horses that won’t run this season. I’ll be trying with what I’ve got and if it happens, it happens, but I probably won’t have enough runners,” Newnham said of his hopes of a first Hong Kong premiership.