Silent Witness Disappoints In Centenary Sprint Cup The immediate racing future of Silent Witness will be decided over the coming days after the world´s leading sprinter trailed in a disappointing seventh behind the winner Scintillation at Sha Tin on Sunday. Silent Witness was under pressure from the early stages of the Centenary Sprint Cup (Gr.1-1000m) - the first of three legs of the Champion Sprint Series that he has swept for the previous two seasons - and never threatened to figure in a first racetrack appearance since contracting a low-grade virus after his Sprinters´ Stakes success in Tokyo on October 2. Silent Witness was beaten five and a half lengths by Scintillation, who was a half- length too strong for runner-up Natural Blitz, winner of the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Sprint last December. Planet Ruler filled third place. Owner Archie da Silva, the chief recipient of Silent Witness record earnings of HK$57.2m, said he would consult with trainer Tony Cruz and jockey Felix Coetzee to decide the next phase of six-year-old´s career. Cruz´s immediate reaction, however, was to continue his programme. 'There´s only one race a month for him so we will have to keep going. He´s a big, gross horse and needs more racing,' he said. Moments earlier, Da Silva said there was 'nothing in the pipeline yet' after watching Silent Witness´ first sprint defeat in 18 starts. A post-race veterinary inspection of Silent Witness, who had been backed into 1-2 favourite (he habitually started a 1-10fav in his prime), did not show any significant findings. Still, there was no denying the merit in the second Gr.1 win for highly accomplished sprinter-miler Scintillation, trained by Danny Shum and ridden by Eric Saint-Martin. 'The plan was to sit just behind the speed so I tracked Natural Blitz and waited until my horse became balanced with about 200 or 300m to race,' Saint-Martin said. 'He hangs in all the time this horse so I decided to bring him outside and intimidate Natural Blitz a bit. That´s what he was able to do and he turned out best on the day.' Scintillation will now be primed for the second leg of the Champion Sprint Series, the Chairman´s Sprint Prize on March 26, on the same day as the Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Derby
