Invincible Ibis’s Hong Kong Derby Win Anoints Mark Newnham A Big-Race Trainer

THERE’S a reason why some jockeys are known as big-race riders. Hugh Bowman earned that epithet long ago and as the field raced on the turn towards the backstraight in Sunday’s Hong Kong Derby, the Australian showed why Invincible Ibis’s connections were happy to trust in his reputation and hire his services.

“Jerry. Jerry,” Bowman called out, in the way a parent might warn a child about to put their hand in a candle’s flame.

Jerry Chau was up ahead of Bowman’s outside flank, three-wide on Emblazon, seeking desperately for enough racing room to push into the cover offered by a two-wide line. But Bowman was having none of it: he had drawn gate three on Invincible Ibis, he had allowed the pace horses to pass him, he had found his spot, one off the fence in seventh, and he knew relinquishing that position might undo months of careful preparation and planning by the horse’s trainer, Mark Newnham.

“He is generally not easy to watch,” Newnham told Idol Horse, speaking of his jockey, “but you can’t doubt what he does because he pulls it off, and that was the line of things going into today – we had the horse prepared as well as possible and we had the right horse for the race – because whether or not they went fast or slow, I knew we had the guy that is not going to panic, and that is why he has built the record he has over the years because he makes the right decisions.” 

As Bowman is an established jockey for the major events – this was his third Hong Kong Derby win – so Newnham is in the process of rapidly forging his own reputation as a big-race trainer out of Sha Tin’s Olympic Stables, where he has been based for little more than a season and a half.

While Newnham watched the Derby from the Sha Tin grandstand, the field rolled along the back straight and Chau was still there on Bowman’s left side, still anxious to slot in, edging across into Bowman’s line.

“Jerry, mate, come on,” Bowman said, but Chau wanted that spot ahead of him. “Jerry!” he shouted and this time the voice was stern, a sharp growl, followed by voices around him from other riders, backing Bowman’s call. Chau relented and moved out, but he was still there with Emblazon, being a pest, like a half-ton fly in Bowman’s face.

“Jerry, get off me,” Bowman roared at last. There was too much at stake, the big-race instincts took over. With the field galloping towards the turn out of the back, the race was about to get hot; Bowman asked Invincible Ibis to pass inside Emblazon at close quarters and his mount. There are reasons why some jockeys are known as big-race riders. Hugh Bowman earned that epithet long ago and as the field raced around the turn towards the back straight in the 2026 Hong Kong Derby, the Australian showed why Invincible Ibis’s connections were happy to trust in his reputation and hire his services.

“Jerry. Jerry,” Bowman called out, in the way a parent might warn a child who is about to put their hand in a candle’s flame.

Jerry Chau was marginally ahead of Bowman’s outside flank, three-wide on Emblazon, seeking desperately for enough racing room to push into the cover offered by a two-wide line. But Bowman was having none of it: he had drawn gate three on Invincible Ibis, he had allowed the pace horses to pass him, he had found his spot, one off the fence in seventh, and he knew relinquishing that position, being forced to the rail, might undo months of careful preparation and planning by the horse’s trainer Mark Newnham.

“He is generally not easy to watch,” Newnham told Idol Horse post-race, speaking of Bowman’s tendency to race from well back in the field and leave his run until late, “but you can’t doubt what he does because he pulls it off, and that was the line of things going into today – we had the horse prepared as well as possible and we had the right horse for the race – because whether or not they went fast or slow, I knew we had the guy that is not going to panic, and that is why he has built the record he has over the years because he makes the right decisions.” 

Just as Bowman is an established jockey for the major events – this was his third Hong Kong Derby win – so Newnham is forging his own reputation, not only as a big-race trainer now but also one who can get results across the board operating out of Sha Tin’s Olympic Stables, a facility that has often been synonymous with failure and discontent. 

Newnham has changed that karma and is attracting support from the right places. And he is achieving it all at a quick pace, too: he has been in Hong Kong for little more than a two and a half seasons, yet already he’s a close second in the trainers’ premiership and he went into Derby day directly off a five-timer at Happy Valley.

While Newnham watched the Derby from the Sha Tin grandstand, the field rolled along the back straight and Chau was still there on Bowman’s left side, still anxious to slot in, edging across intoerff Bowman’s line. The audio from the uncut version of Bowman’s helmet-mounted camera tells the story, and the split- second decisions that can win or lose a Derby. 

It was a long moment that emphasised both the difference to a result an experienced Group 1 rider can make and the importance of a trainer’s preparation and attention to detail: the decisions of both men are vital. There was a time not that long ago when Invincible Ibis might well have shrunk from the pressure he was getting to his outside, and such a weakness would have ended all Derby hopes.

“Early days, he was a little reluctant between horses,” Newnham said.

But the time Newnham has invested in the horse’s development has been rewarded with a Derby victory carefully planned and expertly executed. The gelding had two starts last season and placed second both times: important education, learning how to race at Sha Tin going forward into his four-year-old season with the hope he might make a Derby horse.

“I thought he would get to the race, I couldn’t say he had the class to win it but I thought he would get there – as he has progressed through the season, my confidence in him to do it grew,” Newnham said.

“First of all, you have to have the talent, it is just about giving him the right preparation in himself.”

Newnham, a student of Hong Kong racing long before he made the move – going back in fact to the time when he was assisting his old boss Gai Waterhouse in Sydney and riding in races himself – had nailed the preparation the year before, with his first Derby runner My Wish.

Well, almost. My Wish won the Classic Mile and flashed home fast and late to be beaten only a shorthead in the Hong Kong Derby. But the important point was Newnham had shown at the first attempt that he could get a horse to the Derby in peak condition, and that’s no easy feat in an environment that requires young horses to progress through grades against mature handicappers before they reach the Classic Series.  

This time around, Newnham showed that My Wish was not a one-off. He prepared Invincible Ibis through a calculated five-race programme into the series: third first-up this season, four wins on the bounce, three of those under champion jockey Zac Purton. Perhaps the only blip in the planning up to the Classic Mile was Purton’s defection, but even that brought a decisive moment from Newnham: there was no waiting on the champ to make a decision, Bowman was booked for the lead-up into the mile and a partnership was born.

Defeat in the Classic Mile did not take Newnham’s eye away from the fixed goal of winning the Derby, and Invincible Ibis’s second in the Hong Kong Classic Cup had smart Derby prep written all over it.

“Since he started racing this season, we have been riding him a little more conservatively in those early races and teaching him to relax and I think the horse has grown in confidence with that,” Newnham said.

“I was pretty confident after watching the work (during the) week that he would run the trip, his pedigree doesn’t scream ten furlongs but his demeanour does. And we had the right jockey: that is his third Derby and if you are in a high pressure race, you want Hugh.”

After shrugging past Chau and Emblazon, Bowman enabled Invincible Ibis to flow around the turn in rhythm, slipstreaming Juneau Pride off the final corner, making a slingshot move to the outer and quickening down the home straight, roaring encouragement to Invincible Ibis as they galloped past the front-running Numbers to bag the victory.

A Hong Kong Derby win in only his second season in the city provided an easy opportunity for Newnham to tell the world just how smart he was in sourcing the horse in the first place, maybe that he had seen something special in the untried Invincible Ibis the first day he saw him in New Zealand. But that’s clearly not his style. The line he gave sounded more like this was the only one he could get his hands on.

“I had a shortlist of five or six, and I was outbid on the others, I had a budget of two million Hong Kong and I think I spent right up to that,” he said, recalling the NZ$425,000 (HK$1.9 million) he bid at the New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale in November 2023.

He sourced Invincible Ibis for the Ibis Syndicate, and that in itself is telling for Newnham’s career in Hong Kong when you look at some of the names involved: Daniel Zigal, Tony Souza, Nick Etches and Charmaine Li of the renowned and influential Li family. All are longtime Hong Kong Jockey Club stalwarts: the Derby is their pinnacle race and Newnham has delivered it to them.

And Invincible Ibis might not even be the most naturally talented of all the horses that went to post. But that doesn’t matter: he had talent enough for Newnham to work with, to fire that single shot at the race a horse can run in only once and hit the mark. 

Where a few other trainers hit stumbling blocks or took missteps en route to the Derby; where Jimmy Ting was unable to turn around Little Paradise’s Classic Cup failure and rekindle the Classic Mile brilliance; where Pierre Ng could not carry Sagacious Life’s early form into the Classic Series; Newnham succeeded in planning and executing the ideal route to victory in the race that is billed as the one everyone wants to win, but is in fact much more than that simple soundbite. 

The Hong Kong Derby is the race around which Hong Kong racing revolves: it is what spurs owners to spend their money at overseas sales and source high-priced tried horses out of Royal Ascot or Australia’s carnivals; it shapes the elite level for two and three seasons beyond.

Just as a proven big-race jockey like Bowman will pick up top rides, so it is that a trainer, if they can show they have the savvy and the horsemanship to source and prepare a contender to win this of all races, their stock is high indeed: they attract more owners, more money, better horses to their stable.

“It’s the biggest win in my career. I have always been a racing traditionalist, so to me a Derby is the real test,” Newnham said.

“It is a big step. We’ve had two Derby runners and we got beaten an inch the first year and we have won it the second year. It’s Hong Kong’s Melbourne Cup as far as the focus on it and the importance of it and the build up to it. You have got horses from last season building towards it, and any three-year-old that wins a race this season, the first question you get is ‘Is it a Derby horse?’”

Invincible Ibis was and is, just as Bowman is a Derby jockey and Newnham is now a Derby trainer. ∎

Michael Cox

Neville Begg On Emancipation, Hong Kong And A Lifetime In The Game

David Morgan

Ikee And Son: Two Triple Crowns, Six Arima Kinens And A Lasting Legacy