Satono Reve Defends Takamatsunomiya Kinen Title, Sets New Race Record

Nobody in Japan's sprint division had repeated as Takamatsunomiya Kinen champion in 15 years. Satono Reve erased that drought Sunday and took the race record with him.

The seven-year-old son of Lord Kanaloa won by two lengths at Chukyo Racecourse on March 29, stopping the clock at 1:06.30 on firm turf to set a new race record by 0.4 seconds and become the first horse since Kinshasa no Kiseki to win the race in consecutive years. Kinshasa no Kiseki accomplished that feat in 2010 and 2011; nothing had come close in the decade and a half since. Satono Reve finished a tenth of a second shy of the Chukyo course record for 1,200 meters, having broken Big Arthur's 2016 race mark of 1:06.70 to get there.

Christophe Lemaire was aboard for the first time, which made the performance notable on two levels. Breaking sharply from stall 9, Satono Reve settled around 10th in mid-division as the field rounded the corners, then launched through the stretch with a turn of foot Lemaire described as immediate and electric. "Once we entered the stretch, he really accelerated," Lemaire said. "It felt great. It was my first time riding him, but having raced alongside him many times, I knew him well. He's an easy horse to ride, so it wasn't difficult at all." The victory was Lemaire's 59th JRA Grade 1 and his first since taking the 2026 February Stakes aboard Costa Nova.

The win carried equal weight for trainer Noriyuki Hori, who earned his fourth Takamatsunomiya Kinen title and 17th JRA G1 overall. Two of those four trophies came with Kinshasa no Kiseki, meaning Hori has now trained both horses that hold the race's back-to-back distinction.

Satono Reve's international credentials frame Sunday's performance in sharper relief. After winning this race in 2025, he ran second in the Chairman's Sprint Prize at Sha Tin, second in the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot beaten only by Lazzat, fourth in the Sprinters Stakes at Nakayama, then ninth in the Hong Kong Sprint in December behind Ka Ying Rising. Assistant trainer Tatsuyoshi Kawahara read those overseas campaigns not as setbacks but as development. "He's much more settled now at 7 years old," Kawahara said before Sunday's race. "I think he's a late bloomer and he seems to be in his prime now."

Win Carnelian finished third. Namura Clair, who had placed second in three consecutive editions of the Takamatsunomiya Kinen, was jammed up in traffic rounding the turn and finished sixth.

The connections' scheduling decisions will shape what comes next. Satono Reve was originally pointed toward the Al Quoz Sprint in Dubai before that trip was canceled, a signal that the team prioritizes conditions over calendar prestige. His Royal Ascot form against elite European competition makes a return to the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes in June the most natural target; the surface is familiar, the level is proven, and the unfinished business with Lazzat is genuine. A December Hong Kong Sprint rematch with Ka Ying Rising would close the other open loop. Both paths require the same measured approach the connections used to arrive at Chukyo fresh and sharpened, and on the basis of 1:06.30 on firm turf, Satono Reve has made the argument that patience pays.