His assistant trainer Atsunori Hashimoto commented "even though he wasn’t in tiptop shape he had an excellent race. I think it was utterly fantastic". The colt started favourite for the Satsuki Sho over the same course and distance on 19 April, but after starting slowly and being forced to the wide outside on the final turn he finished sixth of the fifteen runners behind Duramente (also trained by Hori), Real Steel, Kitasan Black, Bright Emblem and Clarity Sky. On 31 May he started third choice in the betting behind Duramente and Real Steel for the Tokyo Yushun over 2400 metres at Tokyo in which he was ridden as in his previous start by Christophe Lemaire. After being restrained in the early stages he stayed on well in the straight and finished third behind Duramente and Hajime Satomi's other runner Satono Rasen. Satono Crown was given a long summer break before returning on 1 November when he was matched against older horses for the first time in the Tenno Sho over 2000 metres at Tokyo. After racing in fifth place for most of the way he weakened badly in the straight and finished seventeenth of the eighteen runners, ten lengths behind the winner Lovely Day. In the 2015 edition of the World's Best Racehorse Rankings Satono Crown was given a rating of 115, making him the 139th best racehorse in the world and the fifteenth-best horse trained in Japan. 2016: four-year-old season Satono Crown began his third campaign at Kyoto Racecourse on 14 February when he started at odds of 8.2/1 in a fifteen-runner field for the Grade 2 Kyoto Kinen. Ridden by Mirco Demuro he recorded his first success in eleven months as he won by three lengths and a neck from the filly Touching Speech and the five-year-old Admire Deus. He was then sent to Hong Kong to contest the Queen Elizabeth II Cup at Sha Tin Racecourse in April but made little impact and finished unplaced behind the locally trained Werther. His jockey Zac Purton commented "He jumped well and we were in a lovely spot, but when the pressure came he didn’t respond." Satono Crown was back in Japan for the Takarazuka Kinen at Hanshin Racecourse on 26 June in which he started a 28/1 outsider and finished sixth of the seventeen runners behind Marialite, Duramente, Kitasan Black, Lovely Day and Staphanos. After a four-month break Satono