METICULOUS John Moore and his new stable jockey, John Marshall, combined for the first time this season during trackwork at Sha Tin yesterday and showed delight at the way one of their horses is going. Nervous Witness had gone down in the notebook as one whose progress was worth charting going into the start of the season on September 12. Yesterday, he confirmed that he is returning to his best form when cruising through the final quarter alongside enigmatic stablemate Aeras in a very comfortable 25.4 seconds. Triple champion Moore, a master placer of horses to exploit the programme, has already earmarked the Kwangtung Cup on the opening day of the season for Nervous Witness. The work session yesterday was by far the busiest of the season with Lawrie Fownes and Derek Cruz, in particular, right in the thick of it. It is probably no coincidence that Cruz spent a number of years as Fownes' assistant. Fownes' Super Bingo II looks very fit and well for the start of the season. He has been doing plenty of work and came through 800 metres with Picador yesterday in a pleasing 52.3 seconds. Sandal Emperor, who joined the Fownes' team in the close season, is habitually one of the best workers in the morning, but, even allowing for that, he put in a decent 23.8 seconds for the last 400 metres of his 800-metre hitout. Cruz used the morning to put some searching work into Monkey Saint and the admirably consistent Silver Arrow. They came through 1,200 metres in one minute and 17.9 seconds. For those prepared to wait until closing time, there was a revealing piece of work from Ivan Allan's progressive sort of last season Pinch The Devil. Ridden by Basil Marcus, he moved in good style with stablemate and useful workhorse All Winners.
