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Sol Oriens wins this year’s Satsuki Sho at Nakayama.
Second favorite Sol Oriens claimed this year's first leg of the Triple Crown Classics, the Satsuki Sho. Undefeated in just two career starts since his November debut as a two-year-old and coming off his latest victory in the G3 Keisei Hai (2,000m) run over the same distance at Nakayama, the Kitasan Black colt became the first colt to land the Satsuki Sho in just his third career start, the shortest in JRA history. Trainer Takahisa Tezuka, whose latest G1 victory was in the 2021 Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) with Uberleben, scored his ninth career JRA-G1 title, while jockey Takeshi Yokoyama, who also won the Satsuki Sho with Efforia in 2021 and had not landed a JRA-G1 since the Hopeful Stakes with Killer Ability in the same year, landed his sixth career G1 title with the win.
Sol Oriens was a fraction slow out of the gate and thereafter, guided further off the rails as the track on the inside was considerably roughed up from the heavy rain on Saturday. Traveling near the rear and well off the brisk pace led by Granite, who covered the first 1,000 meter in 58.5 seconds on the track rated yielding, the Kitasan Black colt circled the whole field that had already spread wide turning for home then unleashed a terrific late charge that carried him instantly from second last to the lead soon after the 100-meter marker.
"I'm thrilled to have been able to show the colt's strength and win this G1 title. He's still very green, especially at the turns, with only a short career coming into this race, but as he's already shown in his previous start, I know firsthand the power and speed which this colt possesses and so, while we had a lot of ground to cover from way behind, I knew that if I could keep him in good rhythm up to the straight, he would be able to show his full potential to win this race," commented Takeshi Yokoyama.
Fifth pick Tastiera broke smoothly and was rated outside a rival in mid-division, switched a little further out into the stretch, turned in a good turn of speed to assume command at the furlong pole and continued on willingly, holding off all but the winner to finish second.
Race favorite Phantom Thief was rated further behind than expected in mid-pack after the break as horses rushed to take a good position from both sides and traveled at a rapid pace. The Harbinger colt lost a shoe somewhere along the backstretch, lugged in after entering the stretch and while showing effort thereafter, was unable to match the strides of the first two finishers, finishing three lengths behind the winner in third.
Other Horses:
4th: (17) Metal Speed—sat wide around 9th, accelerated for runner-up seat, outrun
in last 100m
5th: (4) Shonan Bashitto—hugged rails around 13th, made headway after 800m to
go, ran gamely
6th: (11) Shazzan—ran in 12th, advanced after 3rd corner, quickened but no match
for top finishers
7th: (8) Top Knife—broke slowly, positioned near rear, angled out to show belated
charge
8th: (6) Win Odin—traveled around 13th, circled wide, passed tiring rivals
9th: (5) Hrimfaxi—sat around 10th, angled out, failed to respond
10th: (15) Bellagio Opera—settled around 3rd, outrun after final corner
11th: (3) Gruner Green—saved ground to chase leaders around 3rd, ran out of
steam 200m out
12th: (13) Granite—set fast pace, weakened from early effort 200 meters out
13th: (16) Touch Wood—keen to go, track leader in 2nd, led briefly at final corner,
used up
14th: (18) Meiner Laulea—unhurried near rear, unable to reach contention
15th: (2) One Direct—trailed in rear, showed effort up to 200m pole
16th: (10) Ras Hammel—traveled in 8th, showed little at stretch
17th: (9) Ho O Biscuits—raced around 5th on rails, outrun after final corner
18th: (12) Danon Touchdown—tracked leaders around 3rd, faded after 3rd corner
