Pedigree Insights: Satono Ares

Satono Ares's victory in the GI Asahi Hai Futurity may have taken place at Hanshin racecourse, on the main Japanese island of Honshu, but a glance at the colt's pedigree immediately transported me in time and place, to the Keeneland sales complex in the late 1980s.

I can still just about feel the glaring heat I experienced on my first visit, in 1986, and also the glass of mint julep condensing in my hand as I watched the flamboyant Tom Gentry supervise the showing of an extensive team of yearlings.

This wasn't a stellar sale for the Gentry consignment, largely because his team didn't include a youngster out of his blue hen Crimson Saint. This fast mare had found fame as the dam of the flying Terlingua, a $275,000 graduate of the 1977 July Sale, and Gentry had subsequently sold Crimson Saint's yearlings for $525,000, $650,000, $1,800,000, $1,100,000 and $7,000,000. The $1,800,000 Secretariat colt became the dual Grade II winner Pancho Villa, while the $1,100,000 Alydar filly also became a stakes winner as Alydariel (later to become the dam of the Grade II winner Jeune Homme).

Despite this apparent run of success, Gentry had to file for bankruptcy in 1987, so the 1988 July Sale must have been one of very mixed emotions for him. This time Crimson Saint's yearling was consigned by Crystal Springs Farm, Agent for Barry L. Weisbord, Trustee for Tom Gentry, Debtor. The yearling–a very handsome son of Nijinsky–topped the sale at $3,500,000 and was to develop into a top-class sprinter-miler under the name Royal Academy.

Presumably this helped solve Gentry's problems, at least temporarily, because Crimson Saint's next two yearlings were sold as the property of Tom Gentry and Tom Gentry Farm, with these siblings to Terlingua and Pancho Villa selling for $650,000 and $2,100,000. By this time, though, Crimson Saint, was in her twenties and she was barren in 1990 and 1991.

Getting her in foal was becoming the main priority and her mate in 1991 was Artichoke, a horse a long way removed from Secretariat and Nijinsky, the Triple Crown winners responsible for most of Crimson Saint's success. Bred and owned by Tom Gentry, Artichoke had been a stakes winner from the ages of two to five, but this son of Jacinto had gained only one graded victory, in the GIII Grey Lag H. over a mile and an eighth as a 5-year-old.

However, Artichoke eventually managed to get Crimson Saint in foal and she produced a filly June 25, 1992. The foal was officially bred by Tom Gentry Farm and Tom Gandolfo and by January 1993 she came under the hammer at Keeneland, offered by Gentry Secured Creditors, Glen Echo Farm agent. At $175,000, the filly topped the sale's short yearlings and she reappeared as part of the Glenvale Stud consignment at Tattersalls' Houghton Sales in October, where she RNA'd at 360,000gns.

Named Prawn Cocktail, the daughter of Artichoke never raced and she was sent to Australia after producing one foal in Ireland. The exceptional Danehill became her regular partner in her new base and the combination did so well that Prawn Cocktail was briefly returned to Ireland, to produce a filly by Danehill and a colt by Sadler's Wells.

Both of Prawn Cocktail's Australian fillies by Danehill became group winners after selling for A$500,000 as yearlings. Langoustine won the G2 Maribyrnong Plate over five furlongs, while One World took the G3 Thoroughbred Breeders' S. over six. One World in turn produced the Group 3 2-year-old winner One Last Dance. Prawn Cocktail also hit the jackpot in the sales ring (but not the racecourse) with her 2002 Danehill colt, Overlord, who made A$2,200,000 as a yearling.

Her trip to Ireland has also proved very worthwhile. Her 2005 Sadler's Wells colt, Achill Island, was good enough to finish second in the G2 Royal Lodge S. and the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf. But it is Prawn Cocktail's Irish-bred Danehill filly, Satono Amazones, who concerns us here, as the dam of Satono Ares.

Satono Amazones raced just three times as a 3-year-old in 2007, when she won a six-furlong maiden. However, her pedigree was strong enough to gain her access to Japan's dominant stallion, Deep Impact. Satono Ares is her third foal and third winner by him. The mare also has a 2015 colt by dual Arc runner-up Orfevre.

Two years ago, when writing about the Asahi Hai Futurity, I commented that this one-mile test could accurately be described as the Japanese equivalent of the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile–not least because success in this mile test seems to carry an automatic ticket to the JRA's award for champion 2-year-old colt.

I also mentioned that the Breeders' Cup Juvenile has proved a very poor guide to the GI Kentucky Derby, and that the Asahi Hai Futurity has fared no better as a stepping stone to victory in the G1 Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby). Although Nyquist improved the record of Breeders' Cup Juvenile winners at Churchill Downs, Leontes–the 2015 Asahi Hai Futurity winner–could finish only fifth in the Tokyo Yushun. This means that no Futurity winner has gone on to win the Derby since Narita Brian completed the double back in 1993/94.

So where does that leave Satono Ares? I'm afraid that he too is likely to find a mile and a half against him, although his pedigree suggests he could be anything–his sire Deep Impact won at up to two miles, whereas his dam is a sprint winner from a fast family. One of his older brothers, Satono Hero, was four when he won a pair of six-furlong races which are classified as stakes races in Japan. The other, Satono Ferrari, also won at that level, taking a nine-furlong prize as a 3-year-old. The style of Satono Ares' Group 1 victory suggests he too could stay beyond a mile, but he would need to get a mile and a quarter to become a classic winner. Perhaps the G1 NHK Mile Cup in May is a possible alternative for him. Satono Ares's sire Deep Impact supplied the 2014 winner Mikki Isle.

Satono Ares has now won the last three of his five starts. He is worthy of the title of champion 2-year-old colt, especially when the opposition at Hanshin included several well-qualified contenders which were either conceived or bred outside of Japan. 'TDN Rising Star' Mi Suerte, the well-connected Frankel filly who started favorite on the strength of her G3 Fantasy S. success, was a staying-on fourth; Trillionaire, a progressive representative of the very successful Dubawi-Green Desert nick, was sixth; and Levante Lion, a Group 3-winning son of Pioneerof the Nile, was among the back markers.

Satono Ares's efforts mean that Deep Impact, in addition to heading for his fifth consecutive sires' championship, is also likely to end 2016 as Japan's leading sire of 2-year-olds, although it has been a close race with Daiwa Major, another son of Sunday Silence. Deep Impact has had 76 2-year-old starters, many of them lightly raced, and 29 have won so far. Perhaps a stronger contender for next year's classics will be his son Cadenas, a recent Group 3 winner over a mile and a quarter.

If Deep Impact hangs on to his lead on the 2-year-old table, it will be his sixth title in the seven years he has had runners. Deep Brillante, the Tokyo Yushun winner from Deep Impact's second crop, is in a race with I'll Have Another for second place among the first-crop sires behind King Kamehameha's middle-distance son Rulership. Could this be the start of a Deep Impact dynasty? The Japanese stud book already lists 13 stallion sons of Deep Impact, including the Group 1 winners Deep Brillante, Kizuna, Real Impact, Spielberg and Tosen Ra.