Initially, and now, Price is right

David Price, who has dined out on the amazing successes of Silent Witness for years, now has an after-dinner talking point – Sight Winner, the winner of the Group 1 Champions Mile (1600m) at Hong Kong’s Sha Tin track at on Sunday.

Victorian Price, a bloodstock agent and punter who has lived in Hong Kong since 1993, sold Silent Witness (B g 1999, El Moxie (USA)-Jade Tiara, by Bureaucracy (NZ)) to Hong Kong for an undisclosed sum – he was a $55,000 yearling at the Inglis Classic Sale – after the gelding had been prepared by David Hall at Flemington.

Silent Witness trialled but did not race.

In Hong Kong, the sprinter became a hero, winning his first 17 starts from December 2002, but netting only one more before retirement in February 2007 – he finished 18 from 29 and earned more than $HK62 million ($12 million-plus) in prize money for owner Archie da Silva, who then placed him at Living Legends, the “retirement home” for champion thoroughbreds, at Oaklands Junction on the outskirts of Melbourne.

Price said he bought up to a dozen horses for Hong Kong each year in Australia and New Zealand, which collectively provide some 70 per cent of Hong Kong’s 1100-plus racehorses.

Hong Kong’s international spokesman, Mark Player, said the Australian and New Zealand horses were regarded as tough, durable sprinter-milers suited to the type of races and closeted environment that marks Hong Kong racing. “The horses are stabled all day, they’re exercised in the morning and may get a walk in the afternoon,” Player said. “That’s very limited variation in the training pattern, and you need resilience, toughness. Australian horses have that.”

Price and his wife Jenny Chapman, a former rider who does mounting yard reports on all Hong Kong races seen on Australian pay television, have lived in Hong Kong since 1993 when they flew from Melbourne for a holiday.

The first horse Price sold to Hong Kong (On The Job, by Demus) won and Sight Winner (B g 2003, Faltaat (USA)-Kinjinette (NZ), by Kinjite (NZ)) was the 212^th victory for Price purchases.

The gelding probably will get the chance to do what Silent Witness couldn’t do – despite his great record Silent Witness finished only second in the Champions Mile and Japan’s equivalent, the Yasuda Kinen – trainer John Size has said Sight Winner, with the first leg won, will go to Tokyo for the YK next month.

Price claims 80% of horses he has sold to HK have won. He considers temperament as well as ability, which helps explain the super success rate.

The two big success stories have a yearling sales link – agent John Foote, who bought Silent Witness for Price, paid $NZ60,000 for Sight Winner at the New Zealand Premier Sale in 2005. Interestingly, none of Price’s most successful purchases have been by fashionable stallions – as well as El Moxie, Faltaat and Demus, winners have been by Torrential, Spectatorial and Generous.

Sight Winner has won seven of 22 races and has earned $HK12.15 million (more than $2.4 million). Australian Brett Prebble, who rarely rides for compatriot Size, won on the $65 roughie on Sunday, having chosen the mount ahead of Dao Dao ($27) when Size told him Sight Winner had a winning chance despite being the least fancied of the trainer’s four runners.

Dao Dao ((Br g 5, Shinko Forest (Ire)-Casual Way (NZ), by Casual Lies (USA)) was third, barely a head from success. He was trained by Size when he raced in Hong Kong between Sydney stints with his present trainer John Hawkes, who is keen to bring him back for the Group 1 Cathay Pacific International Mile in December. South African Weichong Marwing had the ride on the Champions Mile.

Presvis, winner of the other Group 1 race on Sunday, the Audemars Piquet Queen Elizabeth 2 Cup (2000m), worth $HK14 million ($2.8 million), is expected to return to Hong Kong in December, too.

While owner Philip Booth expressed interest in the Group 1 Cox Plate (2040m) late in October, trainer Luca Cumani will aim the exciting Presvis (B g 5, Sakhee (USA)-Forest Fire (SWE), by Never So Bold (IRE)) at the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Cup (2000m) some six weeks later – he is to run in the $3 million Group 1 Singapore Airlines Cup (2000m) at Kranji on May 17 before spelling.