Winning Horse: Joyful Fortune (Aus)

6yoG Nicconi (Aus) - Sneaky Tsu (Aus)(Tsuimai (Aus))

8 starts - 3 wins 1 second 2 fourths $1946440

Other Wins

1st Sha Tin Kwong Tin Hcp (C3) 1000m (2021)

1st Sha Tin Tathong Channel Hcp (C4) 1000m (2020) (Debut Run)

Other Placings

2nd Sha Tin Panasonic Thermo Ventilator-C3 1000m (2020)

Race Result:

1st: Joyful Fortune (Mark Newnham/Josh Parr) - $2.20 fav

2nd: Decent Raine (Ciaron Maher & David Eustace/Celine Gaudray) - $4.40
3rd: Va Via (James Cummings/Jamie Kah) - $3

Winning Time: 1:06.13 Last 600m: NA

Margins: 4-¼ Lengths x Neck

Winning Trainer: Mark Newnham (stable re Aaron Lau interviewed)

On the win: “He really deserved that. He’s shown a lot of ability from an early age in Hong Kong and went amiss for a bit but Mark’s taken his time with him since he’s come here and really targeted this race.

“He’ll come on from that, he’ll take a lot of confidence from that and it looks quite exciting.

On the reason for coming to Melbourne: “His best form in Hong Kong has all been down the straight, his two wins have been down the straight, so we thought we’d come down here and give him every opportunity to produce a performance like that.

On future plans: “We’ll take him home and reassess him, we’re still learning quite a bit about him, but we’ll just see how he comes through the run.”

On whether he’d be better on firmer ground: “You’d like to think so. He’s got a high cruising speed and big action and he likes to jump on pace.

“It was a bit of an unknown today, all his starts have been on good tracks, so it’s good that he ticked that box today because it looks like the wet tracks will be around for a while.”

Winning Jockey: Josh Parr

On today’s performance: “I was really impressed with him today. We all know he has that turn of foot, we weren’t sure if he’d be able to do it on the Heavy 10 surface, but it’s encouraging that he’s done that here at Flemington. He’s a beauty.”

Is he a Group-quality horse: “He could get there, he could definitely get there. Small steps at the moment because he’s been to Hong Kong and back so today is a great result for us.”