Bullish Luck a repeat victor

Bullish Luck scored a repeat victory in the $1.03 million Champions Mile at Sha Tin on Sunday, as the fabled Silent Witness faded tamely into ninth place in the third leg of the Asian Mile Challenge.

The result of the Group 1 mile must have left trainer Tony Cruz perplexed, as he trains both Bullish Luck and Silent Witness. In last year's Champions Mile, Bullish Luck had handed Silent Witness his first career defeat after 17 victories, and that by the slimmest of margins. On Sunday, Silent Witness led to the three-sixteenths pole as Brett Prebble kept Bullish Luck back in ninth along the rail. Prebble pulled the winner out on the turn three furlongs from home and he responded with a rally that had him in front at the sixteenth pole for a 1 1/2-length win over Danacourt. Joyful Winner, winner of the Group 1 Queen's Silver Jubilee Cup, was a length farther back in third with Russian Pearl edging British invader Vanderlin for fourth.

Silent Witness finished 5 3/4 lengths behind his victorious stablemate, who covered the mile in 1:33.70 on good to firm ground at 11-1.

* At Tokyo on Sunday, Logic scored a 7.70-1 victory in the Grade 1, $1.59 million NHK Mile Cup for 3-year-olds. He defeated Fine Grain, who had been runner-up in the Grade 2 New Zealand Mile Trophy at Nakayama, by a neck. The Japanese juvenile champ Fusaichi Richard finished sixth, 5 1/2 lengths behind. The time for the mile on firm ground was 1:33.20.