Silent Witness was on his toes in the paddock and I do prefer him to walk more quietly but he is just competitive - he just wants to get on with the job and show what he's here for - to win.
That's just him and I guess I was ready for that but he settled down and relaxed completely by the time he got around to the gates.
The start went fine, he jumped on terms and there were some inside with speed but I was able to cross early. Our race plan is always to lead or to follow a few horses - it might sound a bit funny but Silent Witness has shown us before that if he can't lead a race, it's like he says 'OK, you guys go on'.
He'll let others lead him and he won't try to take them on even though he's got all that speed and it's why I say he's automatic to ride. He'll decide the pace to go. When he had a couple to follow he was just loping along, so relaxed.
I was three wide in the early part of the turn but I wasn't concerned because it isn't so sharp there. When I walked the track again in the morning, I looked back from there to the start and tried to visualise the race from gate 13. I thought if I was wide there it wasn't the end of the world, bearing in mind they are very strict with interference here and you can get placed behind if you cause interference. So I didn't panic when I was up there, I saw there was one I could work on to get in front of and it just took a little time.
When the main part of the turn came, I was in, I was happy and I was singing as we straightened up and he glided past Calstone Light O and pricked his ears. He relaxed like he does at home when he has it under control and I had in my mind that when I walked the track today I saw tyre marks across the ground at the 100-metre mark.
