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HONG KONG - Silent Witness finished out of the placings in his final race start at Sha Tin at the weekend with the iconic sprinter unable to match it with his rivals in the Centenary Sprint Cup.
Scintillation beat Absolute Champion in the 1000m straight dash with Silent Witness struggling a long way from home and finishing among the tailenders.
The most successful horse in the history of Hong Kong racing, Australian-bred Silent Witness will return to his homeland and live out his retirement at Living Legends, the international home of rest for champion racehorses near Melbourne.
Trainer Tony Cruz and owner Archie da Silva made the decision to retire Silent Witness due to a degenerative condition in the 7-year-old's hind joints.
Silent Witness won 17 straight races from his debut in December 2002 until April 2005, a feat that attracted global attention.
His haul included eight group-one wins including two Hong Kong International Sprint titles and two Champion Sprint Series grand slams.
His 18th success came in the group one Sprinters' Stakes in Tokyo in October 2005.
Silent Witness was twice voted Hong Kong's Horse of the Year and took the Champion Sprinter crown on three occasions.
He was also the world's top-ranked turf sprinter for three seasons.
"It's best that he retires now and with honour," da Silva said. "Anything else just wouldn't be right for a horse like him."
Cruz said the departure of Silent Witness would be keenly felt in his stable.
"All good things come to an end," he said. "He made us all so proud: Archie and Betty da Silva, myself, Felix Coetzee his jockey, his stable lads, the riding boys - all my staff we all are very proud to have been associated with Silent Witness.
"In the end, time has caught up with him and just his sheer bodyweight means that we can't put much more pressure on his legs.
"It will be very sad to see him go, but it has been a real privilege to have had him in our stable."
Among the residents at Living Legends are some of the greats of the Australian turf including Better Loosen Up, Fields Of Omagh and Might And Power.
- AAP
