Kingdom flop 'shows there's only one Witness'
'The moral of the story is that there is only one Silent Witness, and don't anyone forget it.'
The speaker was none other than Archie da Silva (pictured), owner of the former champion who was keen to get some perspective on Sacred Kingdom's right to be compared with the now-retired 'Spirit of Hong Kong'.
Silent Witness won his first 17 races in succession, between December 2002 and April, 2005, before being beaten a short head by the champion miler Bullish Luck in the 2005 Champions Mile. He won once more, against international Group One company in Japan in the Sprinters Stakes at Nakayama in October 2005, before a virus dealt with him in a way that racecourse rivals never could.
'Sacred Kingdom getting beaten today just shows how silly all this talk of his being the equal of Silent Witness really is,' Da Silva said. 'Now I'm the first to say that Sacred Kingdom is a wonderful horse and he was brilliant in his wins earlier this season, but Silent Witness was much more than that.
'People seem to forget that Silent Witness won every race he contested for 21/2 years. He won when he was expected to win and he won when he should have been beaten. Now that's not an easy thing to do, especially over such a prolonged period.
'I'm hearing people saying that the bump at the start was an excuse for Sacred Kingdom today. But if another horse gave Silent Witness a bump, all 1,280 pounds of him, I tell you they'd have come off second best.'
Da Silva said Sacred Kingdom hysteria would now be much more balanced in the wake of the gelding's unexpected defeat at odds of 1-10.
'He got beaten when he wasn't quite right last year and he's been beaten again after his big performance in the Hong Kong Sprint,' said the colourful owner, who maintains a strong industry connection these days as chairman of The Racing Club.
'After Silent Witness won his Hong Kong Sprints in 2003 and 2004, he won the sprinters' triple crown both years and was untroubled in doing so. So today was a reality check - there is only one Silent Witness.'
