Cover image courtesy of Magic Millions

At A Glance

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Whilst trade continued post-sale, the key metrics were all down on Day 1 of last year’s sale. At 7pm AEDT on Tuesday evening the average sat at $53,877 compared to $60,533 last year, and $55,790 in 2021.

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A median of $40,000 matched the comparable 2021 figure, though it was down on last year’s $46,000.

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With 155 lots sold the clearance rate stood at 77.11 per cent, down from 80 per cent last year and 84 per cent in 2021.

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The aggregate was $8.35 million against $10.1 million after Day 1 last year and $9.15 million in 2021.

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The day's top lot was the Harry Angel (Ire) colt (Lot 152) consigned by Willow Grove Stud who went to Kennewell Racing and George Moore Bloodstock for $230,000.

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Capitalist was the leading sire by aggregate and average (with three or more sold), after four of his progeny made a total of $510,000 for an average of $127,500.

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The leading buyers from Day 1 were Matthew Williams Racing and Sheamus Mills Bloodstock (FBAA) who teamed up on two youngsters for a total of $295,000, to also lead the buyers by average (two or more bought).

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Leading vendor by aggregate went to locals Mill Park Stud, who sold eight for a total of $692,500 at an average of $86,563. Tasmania’s Armidale Stud led the vendors by average, however, having sold three at a rate of $125,333 apiece.

Mixed results

In line with the other ‘type’ sales seen so far this year, Day 1 saw mixed results that were overall slightly down on last year’s market - which continues to stand out as exceptional.

The $300,000 barrier, broached three times at last year’s sale (once on Day 1), wasn’t challenged on Tuesday, but Magic Millions Managing Director Barry Bowditch drew confidence from plenty of “quality athletes” making good money for their vendors.

“I think it was a really solid day’s trade,” Bowditch told TDN AusNZ. “There was a really good cross-section of buyers across the board, a lot of buyers from a range of demographics - whether they were traders, internationals, inter-staters, the locals - it had a good feel to it.

“Vendors were very genuine, and that’s the beauty of Adelaide, vendors bring their horses here to sell and the buyers bid with confidence.

“The clearance rate of 77 per cent is probably slightly less than we’re trying to achieve but over the next 24 hours we expect it to improve and I think we’ll have another very solid day tomorrow (Wednesday).”

Strasbourg strikes amongst first-season sires

The Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale continued this year’s theme of strong demand for first-season sires and saw notable demand for a couple of stallions whose results have previously been eclipsed by sexier contemporaries. Sneaking into a joint top-fifth place from Day 1 - and topping results for first-season sires - was a filly by Rosemont Stud’s Strasbourg, a juvenile Group 2-winning son of reigning Champion Sire I Am Invincible.

Bred by China Horse Club and consigned by their farm, The Chase, Lot 145 is out of the Zoustar mare Just Zerene and went the way of Phillip Stokes Racing and Connolly Bloodstock for $170,000. Stokes’ son Tommy, who runs the Adelaide stable, was delighted with the purchase.

“She was the filly we really liked out of the sale, we were rapt to get her, from the moment we saw her she oozed class,” he said.

The second of two Strasbourg yearlings to sell on Tuesday, the young sire has now had 14 lots sell at the major sales this year, but The Chase’s latest filly couldn’t quite claim the top spot.

That remains with the single Strasbourg yearling sold at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in January - also from The Chase - who was purchased by Duncan Ramage’s DGR Thoroughbred Services (FBAA) and Chris Anderson Racing for $220,000.

Strasbourg headed into this week with 12 yearlings sold at physical auctions at an average of $54,333, boosted now to $63,714 - not bad for his $11,000 (inc GST) service fee.

Whilst he’s had a flurry of such results in his native United States, Vino Rosso (USA), a former shuttler to the now-closed Spendthrift Australia Farm, was also handed his second six-figure result on Tuesday. Lot 5, consigned by Angas Bank went to Clarken Bloodstock, Suman Hedge Bloodstock (FBAA) and Rob Chapman for $100,000. The filly is first foal from Casa De Lago (Delago Deluxe), a five-time winner who was Listed placed.

Vino Rosso was left with 67 live foals from his first season standing in Australia and with four through the ring on Tuesday he doubled his tally of Southern Hemisphere-breds to have sold. The four sold on Day 1 did so at an average of $43,000, and his total yearling average in Australia now sits at $61,875. He has one more to sell on Day 2.

Armidale back with a bang

Things have been going well for the Tasmanian-based Armidale Stud. Fresh from finishing their local Magic Millions Tasmanian Yearling Sale in second spot as vendors both by average and aggregate, they carried the momentum into Tuesday.

This year’s Adelaide sale is the fourth time Armidale has brought yearlings to South Australia, and their three to sell on Tuesday left them at the top of the vendors by average. They finished the sale in third position at their first attempt in 2019, and since finished in fourth spot in both 2020 and 2021 - but they didn’t bring a draft last year.

Called for an explanation, Armidale Stud’s Racing and Bloodstock Manager Rhiannon Whishaw had a pretty good excuse…

“We’d just had our second child on the 10th of February so we opted to sell our whole draft in Tasmania - it was just logistically too hard,” she told TDN AusNZ.

“We’ve always brought a really nice draft over that have sold well,” she added. “It’s obviously a long way to come, so we like to bring really good pedigrees and lovely types and they seem to sell well.

“We’re very happy. Especially the Shamus Award… he’s a lovely colt and we were hoping he could bring what he did.”

Leading their consignment on Tuesday was Lot 126, the aforementioned Shamus Award colt. He was knocked down to TFI for $180,000 - the third-top lot of the day. He is out of the dual-winner Il Sogno (Elvstroem), a half-sister to Listed winner Snitz (Snitzel), and he, his dam and grandam were all bred by Ken and Jenny Breese, long-term supporters of Armidale.

The Breese’s were also responsible for Armidale’s other standout result on Tuesday, a Toronado (Ire) colt (Lot 56) which went to Matthew Williams Racing and Sheamus Mills Bloodstock (FBAA) for $160,000.

Armidale will send two lots through the ring on Wednesday.

Gallery: Armidale Stud's top-selling lots at the Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale, images courtesy of Magic Millions

Bellevue brings big reward for Rathmore

‘Her Brave Smash colt from 2020 was an outstanding type!’ read the ending to the 2021 Inglis Digital April Sale (Late) catalogue page of the Sebring mare Danish Bingo. With that, the mare’s second foal, on the ground, she was sold by Gooree Park Stud as agent for Aquis Farm, in foal to their freshman Bellevue Hill.

Paying attention was Max Schofer, who only had to go as far as $1250 to secure her and could then watch in delight as that Brave Smash (Jpn) colt embarked on his 2-year-old career. Named Brave Halo, he won his first three starts for Sean and Jake Casey and was recently fourth in the G1 Blue Diamond S.

Those updates contributed to a huge result for Rathmore Lodge, run by Schofer and her partner Ross Hatton, as Tuesday saw their Bellevue Hill colt (Lot 36) make $110,000. Secured by Adrian Hancock signing on behalf of Wally Daly’s Yenrise Pty Ltd, he went to the same connections as Brave Halo who cost $135,000 at the 2021 Magic Millions National Weanling Sale.

Explaining the story, Hatton told TDN AusNZ:

“I went to the weanling sale on the Gold Coast about three weeks after Max bought the mare and I saw him (Brave Halo) there as a weanling. I thought he was an exceptional physical at the time, and I tried to buy him but I didn’t have enough dollars…

“I’ll give Max the credit… It was a bit of a sentimental purchase as she’d worked for a bloke here in South Australia many years ago named Ian Barton and he had some of the family there.”

Dashing Bingo’s third dam Aptitude (Salieri {USA}) left a lasting impression on Schofer when working for Barton years ago, and the family knowledge has certainly paid dividends.

Providing a new record for the stallion, the colt was the sixth yearling to sell this year for Aquis Farm’s first-season sire Bellevue Hill, a Group 3 winner and runner-up in the G2 Todman S. who was trained by Gai Waterhouse and is by her champion Pierro.

Lot 152 - Harry Angel (Ire) x Kibibi, colt - $230,000

Another beneficiary of a significant post-mare-purchase update on Tuesday was Willow Grove Stud. They consigned Lot 152 a son of Darley’s Harry Angel (Ire), whose first crop of 2-year-olds are making a great impression this season.

Kennewell Racing and George Moore Bloodstock teamed up to take him home at a cost of $230,000. He is the first foal from the Darley bred Exceed And Excel mare Kibibi, who was a $130,000 purchase (in-foal to this colt) for Willow Grove at the 2021 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale.

At that point Kibibi’s brother Athelric had broken his maiden as a 2-year-old, and would go on to win the Listed Queensland Day Plate the following season, whilst his second placing in last weekend’s G2 Maurice McCarten S. won’t have done any harm to this colt’s price either - and his new trainer revealed that there was a determined force behind the purchase.

“George and I identified him as one of the nicest colts on the complex, we felt he would be on the sharper side, he has a lot of his grandsire Exceed And Excel about him,” Lloyd Kennewell told TDN AusNZ.

“Testament to his type, George and I had to work a little bit harder than we anticipated for him, but when George wants a horse he doesn’t often get beaten.”

Bloodstock agent George Moore recently launched a private investment fund focusing on trading horses to the lucrative Hong Kong market, limiting purchases between $80,000 and $250,000 with an aim of racing in Australia before selling to Hong Kong.

Moore felt that the Harry Angel colt met all the prerequisites he set for the fund, telling TDN AusNZ: “We are going to race him in Victoria with Lloyd and see how he progresses. Hopefully we can win a couple of races, qualify for Hong Kong and ultimately sell him as a 63 rater to Hong Kong.”

Lot 87 - Capitalist x Figlmuller, colt - $220,000

The Hong Kong-based George Moore Bloodstock paid $220,000 for Lot 87, a colt by Newgate Farm’s leading young sire Capitalist. The son of Written Tycoon has been in good form of late, siring stakes-winner 11 last Saturday when 3-year-old colt Cannonball led all the way in the G3 Maurice McCarten S. at Rosehill Gardens.

“We expected this colt to make a little more, but he is for a new client in Hong Kong who was looking for an unraced horse,” Moore told TDN AusNZ. “In fact, he is on the truck to Muskoka Farm to be educated, and hopefully in 12 months' time he will be racing in Hong Kong.

“We’ve had a lot of luck with Capitalist,” he added. “He (Lot 87) is a short-coupled, speedy type. There are plenty of races around the sprint trips in Hong Kong that suit the breed and we hope to have him competing in the Griffin races.”

This chestnut colt, offered by Emirates Park Stud, is the fourth foal from the unraced Snitzel mare Figlmuller, and both she and her own dam were also bred by Emirates Park. Figlmuller is a half-sister to the young Aquis Farm stallion Santos, and the Fastnet Rock mare Melagrana, a Group 3 winner in Japan.

Figlmuller is also a half-sister to Profound Wisdom (Al Samer), who produced last year’s G3 Chairman’s S. winner Sebonack, a three-quarter brother to this colt.

Lot 100 - Ilovethiscity x Golden Child, colt - $180,000

Ballarat-based trainer Henry Dwyer went to $180,000 for Lot 100, an Ilovethiscity half-brother to his brilliant sprinter Asfoora (Flying Artie), who’s won six races from only nine starts including the G2 Caulfield Sprint and G3 Furphy Sprint - not to mention her recent third in the G1 Oakleigh Plate.

Offered by Noor Elaine Farm, who stand Ilovethiscity, this colt is the third foal from the I Am Invincible mare Golden Child, who was placed in her racing career. Golden Child hails from the family of Big Chill, a daughter of Artie Schiller (USA) who was a winner of the G3 Breeders’ S.

Noor Elaine Farm’s Tim Jackson was delighted with the sale.

“Fantastic result for the farm,” he told TDN AusNZ. “He was popular during inspections, he’s a very attractive colt and ticked a lot of boxes.”

Asfoora was the first produce from Golden Child to hit the track. The mare’s second foal, a 2-year-old colt by Goldin Farm’s Akeed Mofeed (GB), has been named Moaksun and is currently unraced. Golden Child delivered a colt by Widden Stud’s Dirty Work in October last year.

Lot 125 - Saxon Warrior (Jpn) x Idyllic Mood, filly - $170,000

Sullivan Bloodstock sold Lot 125 for $175,000 to Jamie Walter’s Proven Thoroughbreds. The filly is a daughter of the regally bred Coolmore shuttler Saxon Warrior (Jpn), whose oldest Southern Hemisphere-bred progeny are just 2-year-olds.

Bred by Burnewang North, the filly is from the High Chaparral (Ire) mare Idyllic Mood, who was placed during her career. Idyllic Mood is a three-quarter sister to Whispered Secret, who was placed in the G1 Champagne S. and won the Listed Fernhill H.

It’s a stakes-winning family with depth, and her third dam is the Danehill (USA) mare Tropical Affair, a winner of Listed Maribyrnong Trial S. She was the dam of 10 winners. Among Tropical Affair’s progeny was Prized Icon, a winner of the G1 Victoria Derby and the G1 Champagne S.

Top lots

Top buyers

Vendors by aggregate

Vendors by average (3 or more sold)

Sires by aggregate

Sires by average (3 or more sold)

Those associated with Pride Of Dubai had most likely just finished toasting another fruitful Saturday for the stallion when his daughter She’s Fit raced away for a comprehensive win in the Listed Natasha S. at Ascot on Sunday.

His latest stakes winner followed hot on the heels of a third Group race win for another of his daughters in Sirileo Miss, who led her rivals a merry dance to land the G3 Matron S. at Flemington on Saturday, only a few hours after his exciting 2-year-old Maharba had given G1 Golden Slipper S. candidate Shinzo (Snitzel) most to think about in the G3 Pago Pago S. at Rosehill.

Gallery: Pride Of Dubai's stakes winners and placegetters on the weekend

The Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained Pride Of Jenni (Pride Of Dubai) almost eclipsed them all when going down on her sword in the G1 Coolmore Classic later in the afternoon, with Robbie Dolan’s daring front-running ride coming up just 0.06l short of handing her sire his second elite-level winner.

Nevertheless, it was still an impressive day at the office for the dual Group 1-winning stallion, whose progeny continue to fly under the radar according to Moore.

“He’s very much an underrated stallion,” Moore said. “He started off incredibly well, he was champion first-crop sire of his generation and he’s a proven Group 1-producing sire already.

“He has a high-class 2-year-old this season in Maharba and Pride Of Jenni was narrowly beaten in a Group 1 where she put up an amazing performance.

“Then in Melbourne, Sirileo Miss won her third Group race. She’s incredibly tough and durable, and it seems to be an attribute that is common in Pride Of Dubai’s stock.

“He is one of the most in-form stallions in Australia at the moment. It seems that every Saturday for the last few weeks he’s had feature winners in Melbourne, Sydney and even New Zealand.”

The statistics back up Moore’s claims, with Pride Of Dubai’s recent form helping him break into the top 20 on Australia’s general sires' table. He also sits just outside the top 10 stallions by stakes winners on five for the season, a number he shares with the likes of Zoustar, Dundeel (NZ) and Toronado (Ire) having had significantly less runners than that trio, and a number that puts him ahead of high-profile sires like Written Tycoon and Capitalist.

All of the stallions above command a considerably higher service fee than the $16,500 (inc GST) that Pride Of Dubai stood for last year, and Moore is unequivocal in his belief that those who breed to the son of Street Cry (Ire) are getting plenty of bang for their buck.

“When you look at stallions in the price bracket that he stands at, he sits head and shoulders above his peers as one of the best value stallions, if not the best value stallion in Australia,” he said.

“There is absolutely no doubt that he is underrated, but that’s not to say that he won’t continue to produce top-class racehorses for a long time to come.”

Versatility on a global scale

Having reverse shuttled to Coolmore Stud in Ireland for two seasons, it’s not just the Southern Hemisphere where Pride Of Dubai has been making waves.

His talented son Dubai Honour (Ire) has flown the flag for his sire in Europe, winning a pair of Group 2 races in France and finishing a gutsy runner-up in the G1 Champion S. at Ascot, the same race that his former stablemate Addeybb (Ire) (Pivotal {GB}) had finished second in prior to winning the G1 Ranvet S. and G1 Queen Elizabeth S. on his first foray Down Under.

Having recently landed in Australia himself, Dubai Honour will bid to follow in the footsteps of Addeybb later this month, and Moore is confident that Pride Of Dubai’s recent run of good form can continue well beyond the autumn carnival.

“He’s been a very effective stallion up in the Northern Hemisphere and a couple of his Northern Hemisphere-bred progeny have made their way down here, including Dubai Honour who has some big entries and also Fancy Man for Annabel Neasham, who is a highly talented horse in his own right,” he said.

“They look like horses capable of flying the flag for him down here and he’s got a big crop of well-bred 2-year-olds in Australia as well.

“His current yearling crop consists of 138 live foals conceived at $38,500 (inc GST), so it’s easy to think that he will continue to produce top-class racehorses for a number of years to come.”

With Dubai Honour a specialist over 2000 metres and She’s Fit’s stakes breakthrough coming over 2200 metres, Moore feels that Pride Of Dubai has more strings to his bow than many other stallions in Australia, especially when taking into account that his best performed horse to date is a Group 1 winner over six furlongs.

“He’s an extremely versatile stallion,” Moore added. “He’s had a Group 1-winning sprinter in Bella Nipotina, who is certainly one of the best sprinting mares in the country.

“Sirileo Miss is a top-class miler, Desert Lightning is a progressive staying horse in New Zealand and was Group 1-placed in the Guineas before running a good race in the New Zealand Derby.

“She’s Fit was a stakes winner over 2200 metres and then you’ve got a horse like Pride Of Jenni, who is a top-class sprinter-miler.

“He’s clearly a very effective stallion and he has a significant amount of upside for those who breed to him in the comings seasons.”

A star of the future

Given that Pride Of Dubai was a dual Group 1-winning 2-year-old on the track, it should come as no surprise that he has produced precocious sons of his own at stud.

The Grahame Begg-trained Maharba became his sire’s eighth juvenile stakes winner when impressing in the Listed Talindert S. last month, and with the second, third and fourth placegetters from that race all winning their next starts, Moore is optimistic that Maharba can make a good year for his sire even better in the coming weeks and months.

“He looks like a highly talented horse and I’m sure we’ll see him feature in some of the feature 2-year-old races at the back end of the season,” Moore said of Maharba.

“The Sires’ Produce and the Champagne look like they’ll suit him down to the ground and he put up a good performance against a very good 2-year-old in Shinzo on the weekend, so we look forward to following the rest of this campaign for him.

“He looks like the type of horse that will continue to improve as a 3-year-old and he looks like he has Group 1 ability.”

Cover image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan

The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) announced late last week that it had secured the services of Mark Newnham, the Randwick trainer relocating in mid-June.

It wasn’t exactly breaking news because rumours had moved around for weeks in Sydney racing, and Newnham seemed a laidback fit for the pressure cooker that is Hong Kong. Nevertheless, it was the end of something good in the Randwick trainers’ hut.

In just seven years of professional training, Newnham had sent out 390 winners of four Group 1s, 25 total Group wins and 42 stakes victories.

His best horses included Nakeeta Jane (So You Think {NZ}), Maid Of Heaven (Smart Missile), Splintex and Greysful Glamour (Stratum), and, in particular, the dual Group 1 winner Shadow Hero (Pierro).

Newnham has coaxed along the last handful of Champion apprentices in Sydney and all of that is separate to his high-achieving former life in the stables of Gai Waterhouse and Bart Cummings. But things change, and Newnham doesn’t see any foreseeable future in Sydney.

Gallery: Some of the best horses Mark Newnham trained, images courtesy of Sportpix

“The way Sydney racing is going, me having 50 horses in work probably won’t keep me relevant in five years’ time,” he said, speaking this week to TDN AusNZ. “In five years’ time, Sydney racing will be dominated by 100-plus stables and that’s not something I want to do.

“Good luck to the ones that want to do things that way but that’s not why I got into training. To me, once you get over 100 horses in work, and some of these stables are going to be 200-plus, you end up becoming the CEO of a company that trains racehorses.”

For Newnham, training horses means early mornings, oily hands and dirty jeans. It’s not desk work or endless phone calls; it’s time in the yard among the animals and the people. When numbers get too big, he can’t be among it as much as he wants, but remaining ‘boutique’ won’t win him premierships in Sydney.

“I’ve got targets that I want to hit in my training career and I can’t see myself hitting them in Sydney,” Newnham said.

The selling point

Newnham will soon begin a slow wind-up of his Randwick yard. He and his wife Donna will fly out on one-way tickets to Hong Kong sometime in June and that will be that. He won’t be returning to Sydney.

“I’ll be looking to train out my career in Hong Kong,” he said. “It will be an all-in deal. It won’t be a five-year plan where I go there to top up my superannuation or anything like that. This is it.”

This was likely a strong selling-point when it came to the HKJC considering Newnham’s tenure. His permanency would have appealed to the club, you’d have to think.

“It probably did,” the trainer said. “But I have things that I really want to achieve there. It wouldn’t be possible for me to win a Premiership in Sydney, but over there it is possible. I’m not saying I will, but it’s possible and that has a fair amount of appeal to me in Hong Kong.

“In Sydney, premierships come down to numbers, but up there everyone has the same number of horses and that makes it a much more even playing field.”

For a long time, even before he took up his own trainers’ ticket, Newnham had harboured Hong Kong ambitions. He likes the evenness of its training ranks, the way the HKJC manages staff and the whole economics of its racing product.

“A lot of things are put in place for you up there and they make it very easy,” he said. “The HKJC runs a very good ship as far as the participants are concerned, which means that as a trainer, you don’t have to run a business, as such.

“The Club employs your staff and it builds your owners, so all that is taken out of your hands, and what happens is you get paid at the end of each month and you don’t have to pay anyone else. There’s huge appeal in that.”

It’s a widespread story that Australian trainers are exhausted from labour shortages, so you can’t blame Newnham for wanting rid of staff issues. But equally, he’s a man on the ground among things, and being at the desk doing payroll and tax isn’t his idea of training thoroughbreds.

“I don’t enjoy the business side of things,” he said. “Obviously, it’s an essential part of it because you have to run a good business or you’re working for no reason, but the part I enjoy most is the horses. You can’t have any more than 60 in Hong Kong, so everybody is on the same level and that was a huge incentive.”

Newnham loves the fish bowl of Hong Kong racing. He’s built up contacts there of many years and he says the racing is elite. He doesn’t have any concerns that he won’t enjoy it or that he’ll find the lifestyle claustrophobic.

“The lifestyle side of things won’t worry me,” he said. “Racing is the biggest show in town in Hong Kong and you tend to get recognised everywhere you go. I also know the local media can be scathing when your horses get beat, but I’m going in there knowing all this and I’m not too bothered by any of it.”

Without doubt, Newnham is making the right decision for himself. He isn’t looking back, even though he hasn’t left Randwick yet. He’s already turning up to trackwork in HKJC merchandise.

“I’ll keep the stable going until the middle of May and we’ll move over sometime in June,” he said. “The first race meeting I’ll be able to send out runners will be the first day of the season in September, so we’ve got plenty of time.”

A friend of the press

Newnham’s seven years as a Randwick trainer have delivered a lot of memories, in particular the day that Shadow Hero won the G1 Spring Champion S. in 2019. It was the second year on the trot that the trainer won the race.

Despite the Randwick training ranks being highly competitive and, at times, highly frustrating, Newnham will depart with a respectable record and a very respectable reputation.

“I’d like to think I’ve made a fair contribution, be that with results or apprentices,” he said. “To my owners, I think I’ve delivered good results with the stock that we’ve had, and with our apprentices, we’re looking at the last five premierships if Tyler Schiller can continue on his winning ways. I’d say that’s a fair contribution.”

This input comes after a lifetime in Sydney’s racing scene. From the age of about 10, Newnham followed around his father, who was sporting editor at the Sydney Morning Herald.

Perhaps this is the reason why he’s always been a friend of racing media, answering calls with good grace and great patience.

“A lot of my early childhood was hanging around the press room at the races,” he said. “But also the amount of time I spent with Gai. She’s the most media-friendly person you could imagine, so those are skills I picked up early in my life, and then definitely in my working life.”

The Hong Kong horse

Newnham will come over and back to Australia for family and yearling commitments. He still intends to have a sales presence, even if the stallion situation in Hong Kong is a little different, and a little more concentrated, to that locally.

“It’s mentally and physically challenging for the horses in Hong Kong, so it’s not a fluke that certain stallions do better there than others,” the trainer said. “At the moment, and for the last couple of years, stallions like Deep Field and Per Incanto have been very successful, and I’ve had good success with both breeds here in Sydney.

“But the reason for their success in Hong Kong is that their stock probably matures a little later. Even though they’re sprinting-bred horses, they’re late-maturing. That’s often a mistake that’s made here, that a sprinting-bred horse is expected to go early when in fact that’s not necessarily the case.”

Newnham has trained plenty of stock by Deep Field, in particular, to know what he’ll be dealing with at Sha Tin.

Big Parade, a son of the Newgate sire, has been one of his most successful runners in recent times, running Shelby Sixtysix (Toronado {Ire}) to a nose in the G1 The Galaxy last year and winning the G3 Sydney S.

“My Deep Field stock has trained on really well, and it’s been the same with any of the Per Incantos I’ve had,” he said. “Lanciato was one I had early on in my career, as was Shadow Crush.

“So when they get racing in Hong Kong, they’re actually three going on four by the time they’re imported. They’re sound of mind and limb to adjust, so it’s a different strategy buying a horse for Hong Kong as against buying a horse for Sydney.”

The tried-horse market is one that Newnham isn't expecting a lot from in his new role in Hong Kong. He knows how hard it’s become to get hands on a good horse in training.

“A lot of that’s to do with prizemoney appeal here and also big ownership groups,” he said. “If you offer a million dollars to someone that owns all of a horse, that’s an easy sale. But if you offer that money for a horse with 20 people in it, it becomes a lot harder because $50,000 isn’t going to change someone’s life generally and they’re more reluctant to sell.”

Newnham will therefore still be seen around the yearling and ready-to-run traps. It’s a direction that many of his Asian clients will steer him towards as the tried-horse market gets squeezed.

As for the gaping hole he'll leave in Randwick’s training ranks, enternally humble, he's not sure it’s much of a hole at all.

“I don’t think I’ll be missed too much, but that’s life,” he said. “I’ve made a choice to do something else and I’m happy with my choice. If someone misses me, well and good but I think life will just roll on without me, don’t you?”