For those unsure whether the victory by SATONO CROWN over Highland Reel (IRE) in the Longines Hong Kong Vase last December was a one-off, or perhaps owing to a supreme piece of jockeyship, the answer arrived on Sunday in the Grade 2 Kyoto Kinen in Japan, a race he won for the second year in succession.

Committed for the line early, he was there to be shot at for the length of the straight and though last year’s Japanese Derby winner Makahiki got to his quarters at the furlong pole, SATONO CROWN gamely kept finding more to score by more than a length. Further international glory appears well within the compass of this very classy five-year-old and it comes as no surprise that the US$5 million Dubai Sheema Classic on March 25th at Meydan looms as his next lucrative target – and potentially a rematch with Highland Reel (IRE).

SATONO CROWN is listed as Japanese-bred, but his origins are 100 per cent Irish being by Derrinstown Stud’s late stallion Marju (IRE) out of Jioconda (IRE), formerly trained by Eddie Lynam to win a Listed race for Lady O‘Reilly. Jioconda (IRE) was sold privately to Japan with SATONO CROWN in utero, by which time his full sister Lightening Pearl (IRE) had won the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes for Pearl Bloodstock.