Bullish Luck repeats in Champions Mile

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 the Macao-born ex-jockey is responsible for 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 3/16's pole as Brett Prebble kept Bullish Luck back in ninth along the rail. Prebble pulled the winner out on the turn 3 furlongs from home and he responded with a rally that had him in front at the 16th pole for a 1 1/2 length win over Danacourt. Recent Group 1 Queen's Silver Jubilee Cup winner Joyful Winner was a length further back in third with Russian Pearl just 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 odds of 11.25-1.

Bullish Luck will go next in the Yasuda Kinen at Tokyo on June 4, a race in which he finished fourth last year. Victory in the $1.86 million fourth leg of the Asian Mile Challenge would reward him with a bonus of $1 million.

* At Tokyo on Sunday, Logic scored a 7.70-1 victory in the $1.59 million Grade 1 NHK Mile Cup for 3-year-olds. Third last time in the Grade 2 New Zealand Mile Trophy at Nakayama, the winning son of the promising young stallion Agnes Tachyon defeated the New Zeaand Trophy runner-up Fine Grain by a neck with Japanese juvenile champ Fusaichi Richard sixth, 5-1/2 lengths behind. The time for the mile on firm ground was 1:33.20.