Connections of Sacred Satono have waived an Australian campaign for the in-form three-year-old in favour of chasing a domestic Group One prize.
The son of Satono Aladdin is making a good fist of fulfilling the potential he showed last season with consecutive victories and will attempt to complete a hat-trick of wins when he runs in Saturday's Group 2 James & Annie Sarten Memorial (1400m).
Sacred Satono will be ridden by Michael McNab at Te Rapa before heading south for the Group 1 Al Basti Equiworld Dubai New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) at Riccarton.
“He's as good as gold and will go to the Sarten. He had a couple of good gallops last week and will work again tomorrow, he's fine,” said Grant Cooksley, who trains in partnership with Bruce Wallace.
“It will be four weeks between races for him because of the heavy tracks, we wanted to keep away from them.
“Riccarton is the main goal and I don't think the mile down there will be a worry for him.”
He is currently on the third line of betting at +700 for the Classic behind equal +400 favourites Cognito and Pier.
Australia had been on the radar for Sacred Satono before the 2000 Guineas was confirmed as his major target.
“We considered taking him over for 1100 or 1200m races in Melbourne or in Sydney, but we decided against that,” Cooksley said.
Sacred Satono impressed during his juvenile campaign that saw him follow up a debut second at Te Rapa before a return to the Hamilton course to finish runner-up in the Listed Fastttrack Insurance Stakes (1100m).
He made his next three appearances at Ellerslie and ran fourth in the Group 2 Eclipse Stakes (1200m), seventh in the Karaka Million (1200m) and fifth in the Group 1 Sistema Stakes (1200m).
After a break, Sacred Satono was a trial winner before he effortlessly broke his maiden on the synthetic track at Cambridge at the end of August and last month was untested to win an age group event at Ruakaka.
“He has come back a bit stronger and is coming along really well. He always tries his best,” Cooksley said.
Purchased by Wallace for NZD$34,000 out of Rich Hill Stud's draft at New Zealand Bloodstock's National Yearling Sale, Sacred Satono was bred by Archer Equine Investments.
He is a son of the Mellifont mare Belle Joie, a half-sister to the 10-time Group One winner and dual New Zealand Horse of the Year Mufhasa and to Keepa Cheval, the dam of the three-time Group One-winning sprinter (The) Bostonian.
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