Crown returned for a second attempt at the autumn edition of the Tenno Sho on 30 October. He was never in contention and finished twelfth of the thirteen runners behind Maurice. Satono Crown ended his season with a second trip to Sha Tin and started at odds of 19.5/1 for the Hong Kong Vase, a race in which he was ridden by the locally based João Moreira. The race attracted a strong international contingent headed by the Irish horse Highland Reel who was made the odds-on favourite. Other overseas contenders included Nuovo Record (Yushun Himba) and Smart Layer from Japan, Siverwave (Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud), One Foot In Heaven and Garlingari from France, Big Orange (Goodwood Cup) from England, Benzini from New Zealand an Quechua from Singapore, whilst the bet-fancied of the local runners was Helene Happy Star. After being restrained behind the leaders on the inside Satono Crown "weaved" his way through the field to move into second place behind Highland Reel approaching the final furlong. He was still three lengtha behind the leader but reeled in the Irish horse in the closing stages, took the lead in the final strides and won by half a length. There was a gap of almost seven lengths back to One Foot In Heaven, who took third place ahead of Nuovo Record and Smart Layer. After the race Moreira said "I had to wait a little bit, get down to the fence, and track the French horse (Silverwave). When I got him in the open, he gave me everything". Highland Reel's trainer Aidan O'Brien offered no excuses saying "He's had a long season but he ran a great race". Commenting on Satono Crown's improvement since his previous run in Hong Kong Noriyuki Hori said "I think he has matured since the QE II Cup, but the big difference has not been physical but his mental maturity". In the 2016 World's Best Racehorse Rankings he was rated on 123, making him the twelfth best racehorse in the world. 2017: five-year-old season On his first appearance of 2017 on 12 February, Satono Crown attempted to repeat his 2016 success in the Kyoto Kinen and started third choice in the betting behind the four-year-olds Makahiki and Mikki Rocket. After racing in third place he was produced with a strong run on the outside by Mirco Demuro and won by one and a quarter lengths from