Invincible Ibis laid down a marker for this season’s Classic Series at Sha Tin on Saturday with an impressive success that provided Mark Newnham with a milestone win in his Hong Kong career.
Newnham raised the bat for his 100th win in the city courtesy of the exciting Invincible Ibis, who blew apart a strong Class 3 field to win Saturday’s finale under Zac Purton.
“He’s showing everything we need him to because there’s nowhere to hide now,” Newnham told The Standard. "He had the advantages of having an inside gate, but he still had to put them away and he did it well.
“He’s improving as we need him to and hopefully he improved enough to be a worthy contender in the four-year-old series.”
After drifting in the market to 2.9 and jumping second elect behind the well-backed 2.3 favorite Dazzling Fit, Invincible Ibis followed a sedate early pace behind midfield.
Having travelled powerfully turning for home, Purton waited patiently for the gaps to appear before asking Invincible Ibis to improve, which the four-year-old gelding did almost instantly with an impressive turn of foot.
“He showed today that he’s capable of coming through the field, which he needs to do, because he can’t keep coming around them as he has done on his previous two starts,” Newnham said.
“He’s always given the indication that he’d run the 1600m out strongly, but you need to see them do it.”
Newnham, who has previously compared the exciting gelding to last season’s Classic Mile winner My Wish, said Invincible Ibis has continued to improve in his work in the mornings.
The trainer also has first-hand experience of that progression, given he is often the one to hop aboard Invincible Ibis for his work.
“I ride him quite a bit in his work and in his gallops, and he’s started to do things in the right sequence,” he added. "He was wanting to rush at different times and I sit him in behind our lead horse a lot and make him just work past it. He’s doing that a lot better.
“He’s settling well and quickening when you ask him, so he’s listening to what you want him to do and that’s pretty much how it worked out today.”
Newnham said Invincible Ibis will likely run in a four-year-old only race over a mile on January 11 before the Classic Mile on February 2.
As well as providing Newnham with his 100th win in the city, Invincible Ibis’ success also put the trainer back on top of the trainers’ championship after he was momentarily leapfrogged by Caspar Fownes.
Newnham trailed Fownes for an hour when the latter became the first trainer this season to reach 25 winners for the campaign thanks to Sky Trust in the Class 2 feature.
Fownes, who urged Sky Trust over the line with his customary shout for joy, was ecstatic with the five-year-old’s 1,200m win under Maxime Guyon.
“It was very nice for young Max to get a good ride there for us and it’s nice to see a horse like this perform at this class in Class 2,” Fownes said.
“He did a good job, got in a perfect spot one back and came into the straight. In the last 50m I thought the horse was quite good and quite strong, so I’m very happy.”
