Satono Rasen is a stunning thoroughbred gelding who was born in Japan on 13th March 2012. He was first raced as a two year old in 2014 at Sapporo Racecourse in Japan. Twenty more races and the equivalent of almost AUD $2.2 million later he was transported to Australia. Under Chris Waller, the extraordinary results he had in Japan were not replicated. Sixteen starts over 2.5 years, with the best results for his connections being two seconds and three fourth placings, before he was last raced on 12th September 2020.
While no abnormalities were found, maybe Satono Rasen’s body had just had enough. While his connections winnings in Australia were a decent $100,000, it was nothing compared to the winnings in Japan. Racing Australia have his total earnings as AUD $2,287,451, an amount of money even the most sceptical would think would guarantee a horse a safe post racing life.
Whilst it seems as though he is cared for, registered as “Monsieur” with Equestrian Victoria, he has already had at least two owners since he finished racing. He was then listed in the Andrew Wilson sale that ended on 16th December 2022 as Lot 116 and known as “Toasty”. His vendor in this sale cared enough to put a healthy reserve of $5000 on him, but to list a horse in any sale and have no control over who buys them is fraught with risk. He was passed in for a measly $200 – that’s all he was worth to anyone. Meanwhile racing offers breeding incentives and no caps on the numbers that can be bred, knowing countless horses are unloved and unwanted.
We hope that someone realises Satono Rasen’s true value, not in the dollar value sense, but for more than an “it” or the horse that “blundered around the home turn” or was “a beaten horse”, as the industry had reported him to be. We hope that he finds horse friends and his lifelong human partner who cares for him as their equine friend. He deserves that. They all deserve that.
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