Silent Witness enters the pantheon of racing greats Silent Witness is now assured of his place among the all-time Greats of the Turf. Hong Kong?s irrepressible living legend made it 16 wins from 16 starts to take today?s HK$4.5 million Chairman?s Sprint Prize (Gr.1) to match the record of his ancestor, Ribot, set half a century ago in Europe. The achievement also equals the North American record of consecutive wins held by Cigar and Citation, although those champions were not strangers to defeat. Records are there to be broken and this horse just can?t help smashing them. Silent Witness? clean sweep of the three legs of the Champion Sprint Series netted connections a bonus of HK$2 million to take him past Indigenous? Hong Kong stakes record to HK$45,136,900. Furthermore, the winning time of 1 minute 8.4 seconds equalled the Sha Tin track record for 1200m. Drawn wide in gate 13, Silent Witness jumped quickly and raced three lengths off the pace in fifth and with cover through the first half of the sprint. Closer entering the straight, he eased to the lead with 300m to race and forged clear under Felix Coetzee to score by a length and three quarters from Tiber to deafening cheers of approval from the 33,000 Sha Tin crowd, a sizeable proportion of which waved flags and wore sweaters resembling the champion?s silks of black with jade crossed sashes to create an atmosphere befitting the occasion. 'Amazing. He just switched off. They tried to ease the tempo in front on the turn, but I didn?t let him break his stride and he just cruised up there, and away he went,' Coetzee reported. Silent Witness will next venture to 1400m for the first time in the Queen?s Silver Jubilee Cup (Gr.2) on April 24, the day of the Audemars Piguet QEII Cup. 'Now one of Ribot?s great grandsons is going to try and break his record,' said emotional owner, Archie da Silva, reiterating that connections will decide whether or not to try Silent Witness over 1600m in the Champions Mile, the first leg of the Asian Mile Challenge on May 14; the second leg of that series is the Yasuda Kinen in Tokyo on June 5. 'We knew he has the ability to win but you never know what can happen in racing, accidents can happen, and that made me nervous. But once I saw that he jumped well and racing ?one out, one back?, I felt that we had it in the bag. This horse is a symbol for Hong Kong,' da Silva added. Another symbol of local racing excellence, Tony Cruz, was maintaining an astonishing winning streak in Hong Kong?s major prizes - this was his sixth Gr.1 success of the current campaign. The historic day ended with an interesting footnote as Silent Witness? half brother, Very Fit - by Woodman out of Jade Tiara - won the final race on the card, the Cassia Handicap (Class 2 ?1600m), leaving many to wonder whether the brothers could rumble in the not too distant future.
