Muzi Yeni keeps Silent Partner nicely balanced to win a thriller (Coastal Photos)
Trainer Mitch Wiese produced the former Mike De Kock-trained Silent Partner in fighting trim to win the R100 000 Founder’s Trophy run on the polytrack mile at Fairview on Friday. The 7yo was backed into 18 to 10 and to the exclusion of the rest and duly delivered under Muzi Yeni.
A glance back over the years at Silent Partner’s form profile suggests that he was once held in fairly high esteem by his connections and his proximity to the big winners in his sophomore year indicates genuine ability.
He has been a regular earner in PE and despite facing a fair field of eight opponents, punters gave him the thumbs up and made him the top choice.
After Two Gun Kid and Russian Mig had led the way for much of the trip, Muzi Yeni brought Silent Partner with a menacing challenge at the 300m and he ran on smartly to hold off the revitalised Russian Mig.
After an exciting battle in the final 200m, Silent Partner stayed on strongly to beat the consistent Russian Mig by o,25 lengths in a time of 97 secs.
Justin Snaith’s topweighted Indian Hawk was never in the hunt and pulled up distressed post race – as he has done previously.
The Brett Parker owned Silent Partner is a 7yo gelding by Silvano out of the Our Casey’s Boy mare Secret To Success who won 7 races from 1000m to 1200m.
Silent Partner was bred by Maine Chance Farms and was registering his seventh win with 16 places from 44 starts for R664 750 in earnings.
He was a R100 000 National Yearling Sale purchase.
Muzi Yeni and S’manga Khumalo rode a double on the day, while Dorrie Sham and Justin Snaith saddled two winners apiece.
Ed- The Sporting Post tipping team were spot on with some rich exotic returns. Our Pick Six cost R360 and paid R32 330, while our winning Jackpot cost R60 and paid R1203!
