Star Witness’s Nervous Witness is well and truly back in business with the flying sprinter’s fourth win of the season in Hong Kong on Sunday.
Back up to Class Two company, The David Hayes four year-old was sent to the front by Blake Shinn and hung on after giving weight to all his rivals.
“I know his raw ability is well above what we’re seeing at the moment. We just have to get him to relax and do things better. Blake said he was under pressure with 200m to go but he fought today because he was smoother through the first 400m,” Hayes told Hong Kong Jockey Club.
“So, if we can just keep on harnessing that, working on that, he’s a 120-plus (in the handicap) for sure – but not at the moment.”
“When I looked at his trials in Australia, he looked like a 1200m horse but just the way the programme has been, we’ve kept him to 1000m but he’s an aggressive horse in a stressful environment, so keeping him short for a while has been very, very good,” Hayes said.
After two thumping wins last year, Nervous Witness was beaten three times into the minor placings as favourite but was back in form two runs back winning a Class 3 easily at Happy Valley.
A $110,000 Inglis Classic purchase from the Southern Cross Breeders draft, Nervous Witness is the second winner from Hadiklaim, a metro winner by War Pass (USA) that goes back to a US Black Type family.
