Silent Witness () (foaled 1 October 1999) was an outstanding Thoroughbred

racehorse Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic pr ...

who won his first 17 starts in sprint races in Hong Kong. He was ranked the world's top sprinter for three seasons. He was bred by Mr I. K. Smith and foaled in 1999 at Edinburgh Park Stud near Taree, New South Wales in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Silent Witness is by El Moxie (USA) out of Jade Tiara by Bureaucracy (NZ). Jade Tiara is the dam of nine named horses.

Racing record

Silent Witness was trained by Tony Cruz, ridden by

Felix Coetzee Felix Coetzee (born 7 March 1959 in Durban, Natal Province, Union of South Africa) is a South African three-time champion jockey in thoroughbred horse racing. Felix Coetzee is the son of a KwaZulu-Natal trainer and his grandfather was an ow ...

and owned by Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Antonio da Silva. He made his debut as a three-year-old at the Sha Tin racecourse in a 1,000-metre race in Hong Kong. Silent Witness won this race by a margin of almost four lengths in the fast time of 57.8 seconds. Silent Witness was awarded the title of Most Improved Horse and Champion Griffin (inexperienced racehorse) in the Hong Kong Jockey Club awards presentation ceremony in June 2003. In 2003 and 2004 Silent Witness won the internationally contested Hong Kong Sprint race by defeating top horses from Europe, Japan, Australia, and the United States. In the Centenary Sprint Cup (G1), Silent Witness equalled the long-standing Hong Kong record of ten consecutive wins. He also won six other major

Group One Group One, Group 1, Grade I or G1 is the term used for the highest level of Thoroughbred and Standardbred stakes races in many countries. In Europe, the level of races for Thoroughbred racing is determined using the Pattern races, Pattern race sys ...

(G1) Sprints in 2004 and 2005. After the 17 consecutive wins, he attempted the mile race in the

Champions Mile The Champions Mile is a Group 1 flat horse race in Hong Kong for three-year-old and above thoroughbreds run over a distance of 1,600 metres (approximately 1 mile) on the turf at Sha Tin Racecourse with the total purse of HK$14m in 2014/15, approx ...

in May 2005 at Sha Tin Racecourse but he was defeated by

Bullish Luck Bullish Luck ({{zh, c=牛精福星) (foaled 1999) is a Hong Kong based Thoroughbred racehorse. Bred in Kentucky, he is the son of the 1990 Breeders' Cup Mile winner Royal Academy and out of the Alysheba mare Wild Vintage. He was sold by his b ...

by a short head. He made a second attempt on the mile by going to Tokyo,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

to participate in the Yasuda Kinen in June. Again, he ran well but was defeated by

Asakusa Den'en is a district in Taitō, Tokyo, Japan. It is known as the location of the Sensō-ji, a Buddhist temple dedicated to the bodhisattva Kannon. There are several other temples in Asakusa, as well as various festivals, such as the . History ...

, a Japanese horse, near the winning post. A mile was the maximum distance that he could race and win. On 2 October 2005, he took part in the Sprinters Stakes, which is a Group 1 Sprint Race in Japan over 1,200 metres. Silent Witness won the race easily by 1¼ lengths with a time of 1:07.3 seconds, 0.3 seconds slower than the track record time. For the three years from 2003 to 2005, the

International Federation of Horseracing Authorities The Longines World's Best Racehorse Rankings (LWBRR), known as World Thoroughbred Racehorse Rankings (WTRR) before 2012, are horseracing's equivalent to World Rankings by other major sporting organizations such as ATP Tennis Rankings, World Golf R ...

in Paris ranked Silent Witness the world's fastest sprinter. The Hong Kong Jockey Club made a website for him, making him the first horse with its own website in Hong Kong. The Jockey Club also sells gifts for him. On 24 April 2005, the day Silent Witness won his 17th consecutive race, the Jockey Club gave memorial caps to people, which led to a trampling incident. Silent Witness is sometimes compared to another Hong Kong champion, Co-Tack, and the American horse

Cigar A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco leaves made to be smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct components: the filler, the binder l ...

who won 16 consecutive races. Silent Witness was retired, after his last race on the Sha Tin Racecourse on 4 February 2007. He is now at

Living Legends Living Legend(s) may refer to: Film and television * "The Living Legend", a 1978 episode of ''Battlestar Galactica'' * "Living Legend" (''CSI''), a 2006 episode of ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'' * ''Living Legend'' (audio drama), an audio d ...

, the International Home of Rest for Champion Horses located in Woodlands Historic Park, Greenvale, Victoria,

Pedigree

References

Aboolcarim, Zoher "The Measure of a Horse," ''Time'', 29 February 2007:p. 52.

External links

Silent Witness website

HKJC horse profile
*{{in lang, en}
HKJC horse profileSilent Witness' pedigree and racing stats
1999 racehorse births Horse monuments Racehorses bred in Australia Racehorses trained in Hong Kong Thoroughbred family 13-a

Racing record

Pedigree

See also

References

External links