TOMORROW morning sees the running of the second classic of the Japanese season when the Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas) is run at Nakayama, behind closed doors.

The race is over 10 furlongs and has a full field of 18 colts.

Last year’s winner, Saturnalia, helped boost the favourite’s record in the race a little, but the market leader has only won three times in the past decade.

The favourite is the unbeaten Deep Impact colt Contrail and his three victories have included the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes over the Nakayama course and distance at the end of last year.

Salios is also unbeaten and big things are expected of the Heart’s Cry colt, on his three-year-old debut. His three wins so far have all come over a mile and have seen him up with the pace before producing an extra gear. Damian Lane rides.

Darlington Hall is by New Approach and the Godolphin owned colt has two wins from four starts, including a victory in his latest race, the Grade 3 Kyodo News Hai (Tokinominoru Kinen) over 1,800 metres at Tokyo in February.

Mirco Demuro, four-time winner of the Satsuki Sho, takes the ride on Darlington Hall.

Christophe Lemaire gets the ride on the Deep Impact colt Satono Flag for trainer Sakae Kunieda and will have no problem seeing out the trip.

Weltreisende never finished out of the first two in his four starts, and the highlight has probably been his second place finish to Contrail in the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes. He also finished second on his debut this year.

Last week’s Oka Sho-winning jockey Kohei Matsuyama gets another shot at a big win here when he partners the Symboli Kris S colt Cortesia.

L’Excellence is another unbeaten colt and the Northern Farm-bred son of Deep Impact steps up to Grade 1 after winning the Listed Sumire Stakes over 2,200 metres at Hanshin in March, where he showed how powerful he is in a finish.