'Silent' goes for 17th straight
The undefeated Silent Witness will vie for his 17th straight win Sunday in the Queen's Silver Jubilee Cup at Sha Tin in Hong Kong.
By Bill FinleyThe hype comes as no surprise. The undefeated Silent Witness will vie for his 17th straight win Sunday in the Queen's Silver Jubilee Cup at Sha Tin in Hong Kong. Should he win, he will surpass what is believed to be the modern record for consecutive wins by a major horse. Cigar, Citation and the European great Ribot, who happens to be his great grandsire, all won 16 in a row.
But Silent Witness' feat has to be regarded with a healthy dose of skepticism. The Australian-bred, a sprint specialist, can win 17, 18, 27 in a row, as long as he doesn't leave Hong Kong he does not deserve to be compared with horses like Cigar and Citation.
With the exception of a handful of stakes races, racing in Hong Kong is closed to horses who are based in other countries. Owners and trainers around the world, in Australia, Europe and North America, would love to have a crack at the huge purses available in Hong Kong, but, for the most part, aren't welcome. Instead, the money is divvied up among the same small collection of horses that are locally owned and trained. Silent Witness has earned about $5.6 million in his career, much of it coming in his 14 victories in races restricted to Hong Kong horses.
Owner Archie da Silva has voiced his reluctance to leave Hong Kong, saying that he wants to stay home because Silent Witness is a local hero.
"He's a Hong Kong horses and, as you can see, the public loves him," da Silva once said. "Wherever he races, Hong Kong interests will come first."
There's some truth to that, but maybe he just wants to keep picking up easy pay checks or doesn't want to risk a loss. He has already ruled out taking Silent Witness to Royal Ascot in England to run in the Group I Golden Jubilee. He has, however, discussed the possibility of trying a race in Japan.
What's he afraid of? Silent Witness has faced international competition twice, winning back to back runnings of the Hong Kong Sprint, a race opened to foreign participants. In the 2004 edition, he beat the lone American representative, the modestly talented Battle Won. In 2003, he beat the South African sprint champion National Currency. More impressively, he has beaten a horse named Cape of Good Hope on a number of occasions. Cape of Good Hope shipped to Australia in February and won a Group I race there.
Had he been running in the U.S. or Europe, he never would have won 16 straight, not in races open to any horse. More likely, he would be a top sprinter capable of winning Group I or Grade I races, but not so good that he couldn't be beaten from time to time.
Let Silent Witness win this weekend and claim his 17th victory. What horse is going to stop him? They've even put him to a bit of a test as the seven-furlong race will be his first beyond six furlongs.
But once the record is theirs they have to take him on the road and not just to Japan. They need to try a Group I race in Europe, and the Breeders' Cup Mile should be part of their plans. To keep him at home is to rob Silent Witness of his opportunity to prove his greatness. Until then, he's just some horse who won a lot of races in a row in Hong Kong.
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Comparing two races run at different tracks can be a dicey proposition, but it was hard Saturday not to come away with the impression that Afleet Alex's performance in the Arkansas Derby was superior to Bandini's Blue Grass win. Afleet Alex's time for the mile and an eighth was 1:48.80; Bandini's was 1:50.16. Perhaps more significantly, Afleet Alex covered the final three furlongs in :36.02, while Bandini needed :39.20 to cover the same distance. With the ability to finish up strongly in the grueling, mile-and-a-quarter Kentucky Derby a must, Afleet Alex's stretch kick bodes well for his Derby chances. Bandini seems to have dominated a race that fell apart behind him.
