For so long, Silent Achiever has lived by her title. Now she is beginning to show class.
Last spring a distraught Roger James announced just days after an eye catching eighth in the Caulfield Cup that his prized mare Silent Achiever would be unable to participate in the 2013 running of the Melbourne Cup due to injury.
Come the 2014 BMW, I am beginning to understand his frustration. She has been simply stunning this autumn.
She finished narrowly ahead of quality New Zealand group performers such as Fix in a three-way photo over an unfavourable 1400, before cruising home in the Group 1 New Zealand stakes.
A narrow upset win followed in her first Australian start this campaign. Carlton House, who was given arguably the ride of the autumn so far, was found wanting at the line, falling just shy of a flying “little Silent Achiever”.
This represented her first Group 1 win on Australian soil. However in my mind the real breakthrough has come just this week, going one better than in 2013 to take out then BMW, in a far superior field.
Four wins on the trot, three Group 1s and two in Australia over world class opposition such as Melbourne Cup winner Fiorente, triple-crown champion It’s a Dundeel, as well as honourable mentions like Carlton House, Foreteller and Hawkspur.
It is an impressive run of form no matter which way you look at it.
Trainer Roger James is believes that it is best to wait the week for the dust to settle before deciding on which race to tackle, the Queen Elizabeth Stakes or the Sydney Cup. Both are run on the second day of the Sydney championships, 19th of April, however being in career best form, and with the QES offering far superior prize money, the connections of Silent Achiever would be mad to pass up the feature race of the autumn.
That is the opinion voiced by Silent Achiever’s jockey Nash Rawiller, although put far more diplomatically than I did.
With Fiorente likely to go to the Sydney Cup, it may well be Silent Achiever again looking to prove herself over It’s a Dundeel, who will surely be headed to the Queen Elizabeth after a much improved performance in running second in the BMW.
It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest find the kiwi mare in the unaccustomed position of favouritism, as the Australian public warm to her come the business end of the carnival.
As a prelude to the Ranvet, The Roar’s own Justin Cinque dubbed the contest “the race to determine the best”. Well in my opinion Silent Achiever is just a win away from proving him right, even if it is in a way no one expected.
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