Cover image courtesy of The Hong Kong Jockey Club
When Mark Newnham moved to Hong Kong in June of 2023, he had three items on his to-do list; train a Hong Kong Derby winner, win an international Group 1, and win the trainers’ championship. As his third season training in the jurisdiction draws to a close, he only has one box left to tick.
Invincible Ibis (Hellbent) secured him the Derby victory in March, and on Sunday, My Wish (Flying Artie) saluted in the G1 Hong Kong Champions Mile to deliver him the second item. Currently he sits second in the trainers’ premiership, tied with Danny Shum on 49 wins - just one win behind current leader, Casper Fownes.
From 433 starters this season, Newnham has achieved an 11.3% winners to runners strike rate, with almost a third of his runners finishing in the top three spots in every race.
“It’s been a big season,” Newnham said. “It’s happened quicker than I thought it would, but now that we’re up there, we want to stay there.”
The to-do list
“I was asked when I arrived here, ‘what do you want to achieve?’”
The goals for Newnham were lofty, but having produced Group 1 winners in the competitive environment of Sydney meant that he was well acquainted with hitting high targets. Last season, Newnham finished ninth in the Hong Kong trainers’ championship with 44 wins and a touch over HK$88 million ($15.7 million) in prizemoney.
With three months of racing left to go, his wins have eclipsed that number, as has his HK$114 million ($20.3 million) in prizemoney, a figure only surpassed by David Hayes on $HK117 million ($20.8 million).
My Wish | Image courtesy of The Hong Kong Jockey Club
My Wish nearly ticked the Derby box in 2025, running second to Cap Ferrat (Snitzel). Invincible Ibis, a horse sourced for NZ$425,000 at the New Zealand Bloodstock Ready To Run Sale by Newnham himself, went one better this year.
“We’ve gotten two boxes ticked,” Newnham said. “Hopefully we can get all three in one season, but I know if I do that, that will only leave me hungry to do it all again.”
“Hopefully we can get all three (goals) in one season, but I know if I do that, that will only leave me hungry to do it all again.” - Mark Newnham
It is fitting that My Wish, the 2024/25 season’s Most Improved Horse and the horse to deliver Newnham’s first major Hong Kong win in the Listed Hong Kong Classic Mile the same year, is the horse to check off the Group 1 win.
Newnham has been patient, and the gelding has flourished over the last two seasons of racing. He ran just twice as a 3-year-old, placing at his second start, and returned in the spring of 2024 as a winner on resumption.
Mark Newnham | Image courtesy of The Hong Kong Jockey Club
His Classic Mile win was his fourth victory across six starts, and he followed it up with seconds in the other two legs of the 4-year-old Triple Crown, running second to Rubylot (Rubick) in the Listed Hong Kong Classic Cup before his Derby run behind Cap Ferrat.
He ran fourth in the 2025 Champions Mile, before wins at Group 3 and Group 2 level to kick off the 2025/26 season. His 2026 Champions Mile victory - partnered with Hugh Bowman - marks a seventh career win in 10 starts and HK$42.7 million ($7.6 million) in prizemoney.
The training comes first
After three years in Hong Kong, Newnham and his family are well and truly settled into the jurisdiction, one that has welcomed Newnham’s hunger for achievement.
“There's different challenges when you're used to a comfortable lifestyle in Sydney, but it’s been fantastic,” Newnham said. “The main thing with the Jockey Club here is that they are very helpful, and you get the sense that they want you to do well.
“They take away all the aspects that I didn't enjoy about training in Australia. They look after hiring staff and running the business, so you're left to just train your horses and keep your owners happy. Those parts are my responsibilities, and that's the part of the job I enjoy.
“Whoever you are in horse racing, be it trainer or jockey or owner, you get into the sport because you love the horses.” - Mark Newnham
“Whoever you are in horse racing, be it trainer or jockey or owner, you get into the sport because you love the horses. You don’t do it because you want to run a business, so this really is the ideal scenario for me.”
Hugh Bowman and Mark Newnham | Image courtesy of The Hong Kong Jockey Club
With everyone operating on the same track, the environment can get very competitive, but Newnham has felt there is a level of respect between the various trainers.
“You’re all training on the same track and there’s two meetings a week, so you see everyone all the time,” he said. “There's a good level of respect amongst everyone, I think. There's always going to be some difficult situations where owners move horses, which happens regularly here, but everyone expects that to happen and you have to not take it personally.
“I haven’t had any unpleasant experiences with horses leaving my stable, as there’s always ones coming to take their place.”
Newnham prefers to select most of the horses in his stable himself, and appreciates that owners usually come to him to purchase their next horse.
“I always say to (owners), ‘you don't have to buy a horse through me, but if it's coming into my stable, I've got to approve it’. So if they have gone and bought their own horse, I like to see what it is before I say yes to training it, and I think that just gives me some quality control.”
Mark Newnham Stables | Image courtesy of The Hong Kong Jockey Club
The horses in Newnham’s stable are the ones he wants to train.
“It’s not easy and you don’t always get it right, but that’s what I prefer, and if you are watching as much racing and trials as I am, you will find the good ones eventually.”
“If you are watching as much racing and trials as I am, you will find the good ones eventually.” - Mark Newnham
Such is the case of My Wish; the 5-year-old son of Flying Artie was a private purchase for Newnham in collaboration with Derek Tam after he won a trial at Newcastle by over four lengths.
Different but the same
There is no one secret to Newnham’s sharp upwards trajectory this season, as he implements many of the same training methods that saw him take a similar sharp rise in the Sydney racing scene. From initially taking out his trainers’ licence in 2016, it took just two years for Newnham to train his first Australian Group 1 winner with Maid Of Heaven (Smart Missile) in the 2018 G1 Spring Champion Stakes. He returned the next year to win the same race with Shadow Hero (Pierro).
The same methods, cultivated over 30 years of race riding and working for some of the country’s leading trainers, serve him just as well now as they did then.
Maid Of Heaven | Image courtesy of Sportpix
“I haven’t changed a lot about my training,” Newnham said. “I feed exactly the same. You have to be mindful that the horses are stabled the whole year round, but with the addition of Conghua in the last few years, it does give a lot more options for freshening your horses up.
“With the addition of Conghua in the last few years, it does give a lot more options for freshening your horses up.” - Mark Newnham
“I always have 25 to 30 horses up there. They've got access to day paddocks, they have swimming pools, and they have an uphill gallop there. You can change things around a bit for them.”
Conghua Racecourse’s opening in 2018 brought a new dimension to the capabilities of Hong Kong’s racing population, something that Newnham has been keen to utilise. The facility boasts 20 spelling paddocks, a purpose-built veterinary hospital, and the aforementioned uphill gallop.
“The climate is the only challenging aspect of it and getting horses to acclimatise to that,” Newnham continued. “We're starting to get into the warmer months and in the high humidity, the horses sweat a lot more, so you've got to vary your training a little bit around that.
“But otherwise I haven't changed a lot about what I do. It's really about reading your horse more than anything.”
Conghua Racecourse | Image courtesy of The Hong Kong Jockey Club
The last part is something that Newnham has fine tuned over his decades in the industry - during which he rode the daily work of horses like Pierro, Vancouver, and Fiorente (Ire) - and he continues to ride one or two at trackwork every morning.
“It keeps my eye in and I still enjoy it,” he said. “For me, it gives me a greater insight into how the horse is going. Sometimes I ride the horses that aren’t going well to try and work out why.
“For me, it (riding trackwork) gives me a greater insight into how the horse is going.” - Mark Newnham
“I haven’t ridden a horse like My Wish for a few weeks because he’s been going well since he arrived, he’s a naturally good worker and he doesn’t have any soundness issues. He’s fairly straightforward, but there are others that I like to get a bit of a feel on where they’re at.”
Pressing forward
There might come a time where Newnham feels like venturing further afield with one of his stable stars, emulating the likes of Ka Ying Rising (NZ) (Shamexpress {NZ}) and Romantic Warrior (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}), but for now, he is content to keep working on his strike rate within Hong Kong.
“I wouldn’t rule out taking a horse like My Wish overseas,” he said. “But not any time soon. There’s very good prizemoney in Hong Kong - My Wish has won over HK$42 million, and that’s a huge amount for us, from just seven race wins. You look at all of these things as they come about at different stages of a horse’s career.
“You look at all of these things (opportunities to travel) as they come about at different stages of a horse’s career.” - Mark Newnham
“You are trying to get as much out of the horse as you can during their racing career, and if you don’t travel, you are going to be able to extend their careers as well.”
And with great longevity, comes the types of performances that keep you on top of the trainers’ premiership.
Fownes’ lead in the championship is tenuous, and with 22 race meetings left in the 2025/26 calendar for Hong Kong, no one is more acutely aware of the closeness in running than Newnham. He has seven chances to even the score at Hong Kong’s next meeting on Wednesday, April 29.
