racing_news/

Silent Witness all the way for 17 straight wins
24/04/05

In a class of his own once again, Silent Witness eased to a 17th consecutive race success in the Queen's Silver Jubilee Cup (HKGr.2) at Sha Tin today.

Tackling 1,400m for the very first time, the world's top ranked turf sprinter made light work of defeating quality opposition by a length and three quarters. But ignore the margin; it could easily have been three or four lengths.

Silent Witness latest conquest takes him beyond the record established by his European ancestor, Ribot, and the American champions, Cigar and Citation.

Boisterously supported by a 50,000 crowd, the champ broke best from the inside gate and always maintained a length lead down the backstretch, racing relaxed and with his ears pricked.

“He was just cruising and turning for home I was very, very confident. I didn't get to the bottom of him in the straight. He just did it very easily,” said his jockey Felix Coetzee.

As has long been the plan, Silent Witness will next tackle the Champions Mile (HKGr.1), the first leg of the Asian Mile Challenge on May 14. The second leg of that series is the Yasuda Kinen (Gr.1) in Tokyo on June 5.

There is also the tantalising prospect of a clash with Ghostzapper, the world's top ranked horse and last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic champion.

“We have yet to meet with the American representatives so we don’t know what distance it would be at or surface, whether it’s turf of dirt. If it’s turf we’ll beat him but it was on dirt we could run that, too. But let’s wait and see as nothing has been decided,” said owner Archie da Silva.

“The next race is the Champions Mile and if we win that we will go for the Yasuda Kinen so we have enough to focus on for now,” he added.

Town Of Fionn and Planet Ruler stayed on from off the pace for second and third respectively with former Horse of the Year, the nine-year-old Electronic Unicorn, racing with credit to take fourth place.