Michael Newton

Michael Newton

Article by Alan Trout

Michael Joseph Newton rode as a conditional jockey for Malcolm Jefferson, who supplied all 13 of his wins spread over three seasons. 

The first of them was at Bangor-on-Dee on September 10, 1994, when the seven-year-old Irish Flasher took the lead at the penultimate flight and held the challenge of Alicante to win the Dead Cert  Conditional Jockeys’ Selling Hurdle by three lengths. They were placed twice from three subsequent starts after their victory. 

He had three more wins that season including two on by far the best horse he rode during his career, namely Dato Star, winning bumpers at Ayr in January and Haydock in February. Mark Dwyer took over in the saddle next time out and won the Grade 1 Festival Bumper on him at Cheltenham. 

Although his career was dogged with injury problems, Dato Star went on to win back-to-back renewals of the Fighting Fifth Hurdle in 1998 and 1999, along with Grade 1 victory in Kempton’s Christmas Hurdle in 1999. He then took the Haydock Park Champion Hurdle Trial by no less than 17 lengths. Dato Star tackled the Champion Hurdle itself in 2000 but the drying ground proved too fast and he eventually finished sixth to the mighty Istabraq.

As for Michael, he only rode one winner the following season but fared better in the 1996/97 campaign with eight wins, three of them courtesy of the six-year-old Suas Leat, including a good prize at Wetherby. 

It was at Hexham on November 27, 1996 that he had his final victory when winning for the third time on Annabranch, landing the Federation Brewery Handicap Hurdle by 12 lengths. They finished second at the same course two weeks later, beaten half a length, but Michael had no further success, although he continued to ride for another couple of seasons. 

Michael Newton’s winners were, in chronological order:

1. Irish Flasher, Bangor-on-Dee, September 10, 1994

2. Dato Star, Ayr, January 28, 1995

3. Dato Star, Haydock Park, February 25, 1995

4. Annabranch, Market Rasen, April 29, 1995

5. Strathmore Lodge, Nottingham, January 17, 1996

6. Suas Leat, Sedgefield, September 6, 1996

7. Annabranch, Stratford-on-Avon, September 7, 1996

8. Suas Leat, Sedgefield, October 1, 1996

9. Northern Fusilier, Carlisle, October 11, 1996

10. Northern Fusilier, Carlisle, October 26, 1996

11. Suas Leat, Wetherby, October 27, 1996

12. Tigh-Na-Mara, Sedgefield, November 12, 1996

13. Annabranch, Hexham, November 27, 1997