Silent Witness off the board for the first time in his
career
While the Hong Kong crowd hoped to see their sprinting hero Silent Witness
(El Moxie), who had been sidelined by a virus, return to his best in Sunday’s
Centenary Sprint Cup (HK-G1) at Sha Tin, the champion was a shadow of his former self and reported home seventh
behind SCINTILLATION (Danehill). This marked the first defeat for Silent Witness
at a distance shorter than a mile, and his only off the board finish in his
illustrious 21-start career.
The handwriting was on the wall early in the race, when Silent Witness was
uncharacteristically being encouraged to keep up by rider Felix Coetzee. Instead
of his trademark cruising on the bridle, the champion was struggling just to
hold his tracking position. As Silent Witness was treading water, the classy
Scintillation showcased his abundant speed and outdueled Natural Blitz (Maroof),
last December’s Hong Kong Sprint (HK-G1) winner, to snatch a half-length
victory. The Danny Shum trainee finished the about five-furlong contest in :56
1/5 on the good-to-firm turf under Eric Saint-Martin.
Planet Ruler (Danehill) came another half-length back in third, with Silent
Witness beaten a total of 5 1/2 lengths in seventh.
A post-race veterinary inspection of Silent Witness did not show any
significant findings. Regarding his future plans, owner Archie Da Silva said
that he would consult with trainer Tony Cruz and jockey Coetzee, but “nothing
(is) in the pipeline yet.”
Cruz signaled his intention to go on racing.
“There’s only one race a month for him, so we will have to keep going,” Cruz
said. “He’s a big, gross horse and needs more racing.”
Scintillation already had a Group 1 victory on his resume, as he was
successful in the Hong Kong Classic Mile (HK-G1) last year. The Australian-bred’s
scoreline now stands at 28-10-5-2.
In the day’s other Group 1 event at the Hong Kong course, the John
Moore-trained SUPER KID (Gaius) fought valiantly to deny the late-closing
Bullish Luck (Royal Academy) and Bowman’s Crossing (Dolphin Street) in a
three-way photo finish to the Hong Kong Gold Cup. Ridden by Shane Dye, Super Kid
stopped the teletimer in 2:02 4/5 for the about 1 1/4 miles on the lawn. Favored
Russian Pearl (Soviet Star) never threatened and wound up eighth.
With his Gold Cup score, Super Kid thus became the first horse in a dozen
years to capture the three legs of the Hong Kong Triple Crown, although his
three victories came in different years, having captured the Stewards’ Cup
(HK-G1) and Champions & Chater Cup (HK-G1) when trained by John Size in 2004.
“He still has the same flowing action,” Dye said. “At the half-mile mark, I
edged him out a little wider to let him stride into the race, and when let down
in the straight, he was able to fight off the other two with great courage.”
The New Zealand-bred, formerly known as Cheerine Kid prior to his arrival in
Hong Kong, now has a career record of 27-6-5-0.