A son of the Group 1 AJC Australian Derby and Group 1 VRC Australian Guineas heroine Shamrocker, the 2yo Lord Kanaloa colt Satono Shalom made the perfect start to his track career in a 2000m Newcomer race at Hanshin on Saturday.
Sent off the favourite, Satono Shalom was ridden by Yuga Kawada for trainer Yasutoshi Ikee. He looked to be in trouble at the 200 metres but found plenty under pressure to defeat Sylvis (Rulership) by a half-length with Lichtblick (Deep Impact) a neck back in third.
Purchased for 194,400,000 yen at the 2017 Select Sale, Satono Shalom is the second winner from three to race out of Shamrocker.
The daughter of O’Reilly has a yearling filly by Deep Impact named Julia Barows, a filly foal by Deep Impact and was covered by the Arrowfield shuttler Real Steel.
The main attraction in Japan on Saturday cantered on Nakayama for the running of the Group 1 Hopeful Stakes (2000m) where the outstanding Deep Impact colt Contrail kept his record at a perfect three for three.
It’s been some year for Contrail’s trainer Yoshito Yahagi who won the Arima Kinen last week with his Cox Plate heroine Lys Gracieux.
Ridden by Yuichi Fukunaga, Contrail raced close to the speed set by Panthalassa before launching at the 300 metres and was under little more than a hand-ride to defeat Weltreisende (Dream Journey) by one and a half lengths with Wakea (Heart’s Cry) two lengths back in third.
“He was really strong. I didn’t have to do anything but just sit on him,” Fukunaga said.
“He’s always been a good starter and I didn’t want to pull him back too much but was able to settle him behind another runner—although he was racing well up front I was confident that we could make it through to the end.
“He does tend to be a little keen but the training staff had conditioned him to be in a good motivated mood so it worked well in the race. He really changed gears effortlessly but did become a little lost once up front. He’s still a little green, and no wonder Ryan (Moore) drove him the way he did in his last run—but the colt really showed his potentials towards his three-year-old campaign next year.”
Contrail is the best of three winners from as many runners out of the Unbridled’s Song mare Rhodochrosite.
Interestingly, the former Arrowfield shuttler Unbridled’s Song was the sire of the dam of another Group winner on the day the Street Sense entire Wild Card who won the Betelgeuse Stakes at Hanshin.
Rhodochrosite is a daughter of the Champion 2YO filly in USA in 2005, Folklore (Tiznow) whose four wins included the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies and the Matron Stakes at Belmont.
After foaling a Deep Impact colt this year, Rhodochrosite was covered by Heart’s Cry.
Contrail becomes the 46th Group 1 winner for the legendry Deep Impact (JPN) who has one lot on offer in the Arrowfield draft at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
The bay or brown colt is the first foal of the Redoute’s Choice filly Honesty Prevails who won her first two starts including the Group III Widden Stakes at Rosehill.
Arrowfield will also offer two royally-bred colts by rising start Lord Kanaloa (JPN).
