Tony Cruz had a rare winnerless afternoon at Sha Tin yesterday but the impact of saddling up Silent Witness for the 29th and final time impacted him profoundly.
Hong Kong's greatest jockey of all time, not to mention two-times champion trainer, last night reflected on the Silent Witness era, and on the 'privilege' he'd experienced as the man chosen to prepare the jurisdiction's greatest racehorse of all time.
'Silent Witness was absolutely the perfect horse to train,' Cruz began.
'From the day he first stepped out, he did everything like a champion.
'In his first season, he went up 72 points in the ratings, from 52 to 124 and was unbeaten. In his second season, he won the Hong Kong Sprint, and returned in the autumn to land the triple crown for sprinters, at the same time he equalled and then beat Co-Tack's record of 10 straight wins.
'Then in his third season, he came back and did it all again, taking that string of wins to 17 straight until that amazing day, the Champions Mile, when he was beaten a nose by another of my horses, Bullish Luck.'
Cruz says, however, that despite the incredible number of home-town highlights, his number one moment in the career of Silent Witness was winning the Sprinters' Stakes at Nakayama in Japan in October 2005.
