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By Ray Hickson

Trainer Mark Newnham says accepting a TAB Everest slot for exciting galloper Joyful Fortune is all about taking the opportunity to be a part of Australia’s best sprint race.

The leftfield selection by Aquis of the former Hong Kong gelding, who has only raced once in Australia for an impressive Flemington win, adds a different element to the $15 million classic and now it’s a matter of finding out how good Joyful Fortune is.

While it is a quantum leap from that Benchmark 70 win over 1100m down the straight course to the 1200m of Royal Randwick at weight-for-age, Newnham is hopeful he can make his presence felt.

“I probably wasn’t ready to aim that high with him but these opportunities don’t come around too often,’’ he said.

“The owners are very excited and I’m not looking to disappoint them.

“He does bring a different form line and different flavour to the race and that’s what keeps racing interesting. If it was all about one or two horses every race it’d be pretty boring.”

Joyful Fortune was regarded as one of Hong Kong’s most promising sprinters after his debut win at Sha Tin where he broke the 1000m record as he ran 55.07 back in July 2020.

But he only won one more race, 11 months later, as soundness issues caught up with him and he was retired from racing in Hong Kong.

After surgery for chips in both front knees he returned to Australia and, after taking some time to put on condition, found his way to Mark Newnham.

Ex-Hong Kong galloper Joyful Fortune, with @mark_mnracing, sticks the head out to beat #TABEverest contender Eduardo in a trial at Randwick on Friday with Wisdom Of Water in third. @tabcomau pic.twitter.com/bKRBfOR09K

— Racing NSW (@racing_nsw) August 19, 2022

He downed Eduardo in his first trial on August 19 and backed that up with a second trial victory before his runaway Flemington success.

Newnham said he’s confident he has a classy sprinter but concedes he won’t know how classy until pitted against the likes of Nature Strip under race conditions and he's a $34 chance with TAB to find out.

“All I can go on is what I’ve seen in his work, his trials and a run,’’ he said.

“And in each of those contests he’s displayed what’s required to be a top class sprinter. He’s a high class horse but lacks the experience at the top level.

“Nature Strip and Eduardo have been competing at this level for quite some time and are very battle hardened.”

The best result for Aquis in the five Everest editions to date is a second by Trapeze Artist in the 2018 edition and while Joyful Fortune might be a surprise choice Jonathan Davies, Director of Sales for Aquis, said in a tough year there is plenty to like about the six-year-old.

While it’s easy to throw around the term X-Factor, Davies said his trial win over Eduardo was encouraging and he’s clearly gone on with it since.

“We spoke to Mark and he was very positive about the horse and felt the horse was definitely up to this level,’’ Davies said.

“He was going into the race at Flemington first-up with a lot of improvement in him, and he was very impressive, and we like that he handles all conditions which is a big plus with the unknown weather.

“It’s looking outside the square I suppose. Mark has great confidence in the horse and that’s given us some confidence as well.”

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