The Hong Kong racing season is well into its final quarter, and while there’s plenty on the line between now and the season finale on 15 July, it’s the pulsating fight for the trainers’ championship that remains the constant throughout the final months of the campaign.

One trainer who has consistently been in the battle is Mark Newnham, with the Australian leading for large chunks of the season while also being knocked off his perch a handful of times.

Newnham, who sits on 53 winners through 75 of 88 meetings, led the race heading into the Happy Valley meeting on 13 May, but has since slipped to third behind Caspar Fownes and Danny Shum (56 wins apiece).

Francis Lui (50), David Hayes (49) and John Size (46) are also in close proximity.

While a number of Newnham’s rivals are bullish on their championship hopes, the 58-year-old is a little more circumspect.

“I think I’ll probably run out of bullets before the end of the season. I’ve got a lot of new horses that have arrived, so I’ve probably got less horses to race. I’ve also got a lot of other young horses, and I won’t be changing anything to try and win it,” he said.

“I’ll just train them exactly the same way I have all season. If that gets me enough to win it, that would be great, but it hasn’t really been my focus of the season. I was only looking to improve on the first two years, and I set myself a goal of 50 winners.

“Looking at Hong Kong racing, any season that you train more than 50 winners you’ve had a very good year.”

While Newnham confirmed he’s “not ruling out” a title win this campaign, the third-season Hong Kong trainer admitted he thinks his stable is probably a year or two away from being right where he wants it.

“To win a title has been a goal of mine before I came here, so it’s certainly on the bucket list,” said Newnham, who has tasted BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) success with Invincible Ibis and G1 FWD Champions Mile (1600m) glory with My Wish this season.

“When I got asked what my goals were when I arrived in Hong Kong, one was to win a Derby, two was to win an international G1 and three was to win a trainers’ title, but I didn’t expect I’d be in the running to do all three in one season.

“If it happened, it’d be nice but I think having a team for a few more seasons gives you a better spread of horses. I think to win the title you’ve got to be pretty much able to put a horse in every race every week. You’ve got to have a really good spread of horses and that takes a few seasons to build up,” Newnham added, pointing to the fact he’s only got four Class 5 horses in his stable to target the term’s 19 remaining Class 5 races.

“I think there’s probably other stables that will have a better spread of horses.”

Newnham has eight chances of success at Sha Tin this Sunday (31 May).

Photo: HKJC