Word: silent
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...Sunday, Silent Witness ran his last race at the Sha Tin course, the arena for all but one of his triumphs. There was to be no fairy-tale finish. After more than a year of assorted ailments and injuries during which he had gone winless, Silent Witness limped in ninth of 10 runners whom he would have pulverized in his prime. The bleak result didn't diminish the ardor for the mahogany 7-year-old. Upon trotting back to the unsaddling yard, Silent Witness was given an emotional reception of cheers and tears. Railbirds, decked in owner Archie da Silva...
...such devotion to an over-the-hill hack? This wasn't a case of, say, a blue-blooded Barbaro coming to a poignant end at the apex of his career. Silent Witness inspired loyalty and fervor partly because he was a global champion. He repeatedly trounced many of the world's best speedsters. For the Hong Kong Jockey Club, internationally renowned for its wealth and incomparable facilities but not, till recently, the quality of its thoroughbreds, Silent Witness showed the Club packed horsepower too. Though racing has played a central role in Hong Kong's social and economic life since...
...Like Seabiscuit, who lifted American hearts during the Great Depression, there was little in Silent Witness's background to suggest he would one day be so dominant. Born in Australia, Silent Witness is the son of El Moxie, a middling U.S. sprinter, and Jade Tiara, a winner of minor Australian races. Because of his modest pedigree, Silent Witness was sold as a yearling to horse trader David Price for just $39,000. He was also gelded, a procedure in which a thoroughbred's testicles are surgically removed. It's commonly done to colts that have no stud value, or that...
...Hong Kong, Silent Witness proved a thorough professional, and despite-or because of-that cruel cut, a perfect gentleman. He never threw a tantrum, and was so laid-back that Cruz called him lazy. Proffer a carrot and he wouldn't crunch it like other horses, but nibble at it from your hand. His running style was as straightforward as his personality: bound out of the barrier, cruise to the lead or park just off it, gallop relentlessly to the line. "He had the reflexes of a springbok," says South African Felix Coetzee, the only jockey to have ridden Silent...
...history of racing is replete with highly touted thoroughbreds whose pedigree and conformation were exquisite, yet who wound up duds. Instead, it comes down to a special, intangible quality-call it spirit or heart-that you can't measure. Silent Witness had it. As a young colt, recalls his Australian breeder Ian Smith, he would "play up badly" if he were not the first fed or walked in the morning: "He dominated his paddock and was always the leader of the horses he ran with. There was something in his eye that said: Look, I'm good." Not just good...