NERVOUS WITNESS

9 Mar 2022

The Price Bloodstock sprinter who carried such a big boom early in the Hong Kong season, Nervous Witness was getting things back in order on Wednesday night with a brilliant Class 3 win to revive his reputation.

Nervous Witness was an odds-on favourite for the sixth time in as many starts, pounced on the lead quickly from the start and never really looked like being challenge as he put up a sizeable margin reminiscient of his wins at his first two starts late in 2021.

While the four-year-old has had plenty of critics in defeat for failing to deliver at very short betting odds, the reality is that he is a young horse who has won 3 races from only 6 outings, landed more than $3 million in stake money and with his career still very much ahead of him.

The four-year-old seems well-named, for now, as jockey Zac Purton said his nervous disposition has counted against him on occasions.

“He won it tonight at the start. He was brilliant out of the gates, he just travelled on the bit and was full of confidence from the get-go – he loves it when it’s like that, so it was good to see him bounce back,” Purton said. “He finished the race off better tonight where he has been vulnerable late in the past. He’s such a tense horse in the run, he never switches off and relaxes, and that’s why he is often not strong late. He doesn’t leave himself with anything to finish with. That is just him but perhaps it is something he will grow out of it with maturity and experience.”