For any racehorse owner, leading in a winner is a special feeling, but winning a trophy race brings an added sense of prestige and a permanent place in the record books. A total of 109 trophy races were staged at Sha Tin and Happy Valley during the 2025/26 season. On raw numbers, David Hayes led the way with 12 trophy wins, followed by Danny Shum with 10. However, seven of Hayes’ victories came through KA YING RISING, while ROMANTIC WARRIOR accounted for six of Shum’s ten. Once those two Horse of the Year stars are taken out of the equation, the overall strength of three other stables becomes much more apparent: Francis Lui, Mark Newnham and John Size all finished with eight trophy wins.
Lui’s eight victories were evenly spread between the two racecourses, with five at Sha Tin and three at Happy Valley, underlining the stable’s versatility and consistent placement across different venues.
Newnham recorded the same split of five wins at Sha Tin and three at Happy Valley. His standout performer was MY WISH, who delivered three major trophies during the season by winning the Celebration Cup, Sha Tin Trophy and Group 1 FWD Champions Mile. One horse therefore supplied the stable with three important pieces of silverware, while the remaining successes came from elsewhere in the team.
John Size’s record was different again. His eight trophy victories were achieved by eight different horses, with six of them coming at Sha Tin — the highest Sha Tin total among the three trainers. Rather than relying on one superstar to collect trophies repeatedly, Size’s success reflected the depth and balance of his stable.
So if last season’s most representative stable “Cup King” had to be chosen, each trainer would have a different claim. Lui stood out for his all-round consistency, Newnham had MY WISH as his headline performer, while Size demonstrated exceptional strength in depth. Three different approaches, but one clear message: sustained trophy success does not have to depend on a single star horse.