Even drawing close to the outside barrier in a capacity field for Sunday's Group One Chairman's Sprint Prize (1,200 metres) is not denting jockey Felix Coetzee's confidence that Silent Witness will take his record to 16 consecutive victories at Sha Tin. 'All of Tony's [Cruz] have drawn the outside three gates in a field of 14 - it's incredible,' said Coetzee after seeing the draw yesterday. 'We're in 13 but I can see a bunch of them inside Silent Witness that he won't have any trouble crossing. There is some speed on the inside but I'm not too worried about. 'The main thing as far I'm concerned is that Tony has the horse himself 100 per cent right and he definitely has.' Still, after 15 victories without a hitch - many of them down the straight - Tony Cruz's Silent Witness may at last have one hurdle to jump in his relentless career as he looks to take a second Champion Sprint series to prove his world's number one turf sprinter status. In last year's edition of the Chairman's Sprint Prize, Silent Witness ran his 11th race without defeat to eclipse the two decades-old record streak of Co-Tack. This year, the Chairman's Sprint Prize will bring Silent Witness equal to the North American record of consecutive wins held jointly by Cigar and Citation, which is well short of a world record - despite how it has been touted in the Chinese media - but is important as the number owner Archie da Silva has in his mind as the ultimate benchmark. While the spotlight will be well and truly on Silent Witness on Sunday, his yearling half-sister apparently escaped the attentions of many of the big-spending buyers at Sydney's Williams Inglis Easter Sale yesterday. The filly was in the ring for two minutes but, after an encouraging opening bid of A$200,000 ($1.2 million) that went quickly to A$425,000, she left the auction ring without being sold. The Encosta de Lago filly was later bought privately by legendary trainer Bart Cummings for A$480,000. Though the Jockey Club bought five youngsters to be presented at this year's International Sale in December, the Inglis sale concluded with Hong Kong buyers less prominent than usual in frenzied buying. At more than A$90 million, the sale gross was up 20 per cent on last year's sale and boom stallion Redoute's Choice averaged an extraordinary A$611,714 for his 35 yearlings, including five colts which sold for more than A$1 million plus the sale-topper at A$2.5 million. Meanwhile, the Jockey Club has received no new overseas entries for this month's the Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup but punters may take note of the two local horses - the Cruz-trained Russian Pearl and Danny Shum Chap-shing's Summerland - supplemented for the race at the deadline on Wednesday. Both horses will face off in Sunday's HSBC Premier Cup (1,800m).
