MARK NEWNHAM SET FOR THE CHALLENGE AND READY TO KICK OFF HIS GREAT HONG KONG ADVENTURE

By Graham Potter | Friday, September 8, 2023

Australian sports lovers want Australians sporting personalities to succeed overseas and, although Hong Kong racing might be somewhat removed from the everyday focus of racing enthusiasts in the likes of the busy racing precincts of Sydney and Melbourne, former Sydney trainer Mark Newnham’s debut in Hong Kong … and his on-going progress from there … will not go unnoticed.

Amongst others, Hong Kong’s latest ex-pat trainer will be competing against fellow, already well-established Australians John Size, a twelve-time Champion trainer in Hong Kong who relocated to Hong Kong as far back as 2001, and two Melbourne Cup winning trainers, David Hayes and David Hall.

It’s a tough gig and it will undoubtedly be a testing baptism of fire for Newnham, but there are rewards aplenty for those who get it right with approximately HK1.73 billion on offer in prize-money for the 2023/24 Hong Kong season.

Newnham is set to kick off with a runner, One For All, at Happy Valley next Wednesday, where One For All certainly has form on his side having landed a hat-trick at the track last season when under the care of Richard Gibson, who has since departed the scene … and Newnham is understandably itching to get into action.

“I’ve been treading water for the last three months,” Newnham said in a Hong Kong Jockey Club media release. “I was probably the only one here during the summer! Everyone else took their break and I’m sure I’ll look forward to one next year. It’s just about getting the stable set up, finding a routine and learning the horses, but everything seems to be coming together well.

“I’m keen to get back to racing and back in competition. I’m happy with the way the horses are – everybody’s training style is different but the way I feed and train, the horses seem to be responding well.”

He may be fifty-five years old, but it is exciting times for the ‘new boy on the block.’

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