~1965 Pony Derby - ポニーダービー [import] by Keeney & さとみ (Satomi — Samy)

Name: Pony Derby - ポニーダービー
Year: ~1965
Company: さとみ (Satomi)

This tells us 里見治 (Satomi Hajime) was born in 1942.  He entered university in 1960, and while in university he began selling game amusement machines.  サミー工 業 (Sammy Industries) was founded in 1975.  They became サミー (Sammy Corporation) in 1997. 

23歳で独立してアミューズメント機の販売を始めた里見だったが、アミューズメント機の需要が多くなってくると、㈱セガや㈱タイトーなど大きなメーカーが製造だけでなく直接販売もするようになった。こうなると、メーカーからゲーム機を買って販売していた里見は価格面で太刀打ちできなくなった。
"Satomi started selling amusement machines independently at the age of 23, but as the demand for amusement machines increased, large manufacturers such as Sega Corporation and Taito Corporation began not only manufacturing them but also selling them directly.  When this happened, Satomi, which had been buying game consoles from manufacturers and selling them, was unable to compete on price."

That would mean that Satomi began selling amusement machines around 1965.

caption at the bottom:
(株)さとみが最初に市場へ投入したアミューズメント機 「ポニーダービー」
"Pony Derby, the first amusement machine introduced to the market by Satomi Co., Ltd."

If that text is accurate, it means the year for Pony Derby probably 1965.

If you look closely, you'll see that it uses the "Samy" brand:

They dropped the "To" from Sa-to-mi to make "Samy".  By 1970 this would be spelled as "Sammy".

Pony Derby is a bit of a mystery to me.  It was a machine first made by Keeney in the USA in 1964.  There were many new laws against gambling machines in the USA (the latest wave began in the mid 1950s) and in the 1960s the legislation was altered to allow for transport of gambling machines.  Keeney was selling console slot machines to the UK market via Mar-Matic.

Cash Box 1964-02-01

Cash Box 1964-02-01

In that same issue we get a glimpse of the Mar-Matics booth at ATE.

it is nigh impossible to see, but beneath the "L" in Limited is a machine I believe to be a Keeney Pony Derby based on the rough cabinet shape, legs, and payout slot.
Cash Box 1964-02-01

Pony Derby was also scheduled to make an appearance at the 1965 ATE
Cash box 1965-01-23

The machines being brought into Japan are very different in appearance than the ones for the UK and USA.  (With that statement I am assuming there were still some select markets in the USA that they were sold to.)

Photos of a Penny Derby machine were shared by a collector in the UK:

I have not heard of anyone else owning or discussing one of these, so I am unsure if they were successful.  Given the lack of mentions in magazines and by collectors, I assume it was not a success compared to their other slot machines.

The Japanese Pony Derby also has an entirely different backglass than the regular Keeney Pony Derby.

Keeney's Pony Derby glass
via ipdb

This is the glass from the 1965 Satomi version.  The image was stretched to proportion from the single archival photo I've seen.

This is the same backglass we see on New Pony Derby:

~1969 Pony Derby - ニューポニーダービー (New Pony Derby) by 昭和娯楽物産 (Showa entertainment products) & 日本遊園設備 (Japanese amusement park equipment)

1964 Penny Derby (1D Derby) by Keeney
(note: this image has been stretched from its original form into the current perspective)

Thank you to Chris Dade for the revelation that what we see in Japan is actually a reworking of "Penny Derby", which was released at the same time as Pony Derby.  If you look at the Cash Box articles above, it is referred to as "1D Derby", 1D being how British currency referred to a penny then.

1964 Penny Derby (1D Derby) by Keeney

1964 Penny Derby (1D Derby) by Keeney

Satomi's Pony Derby uses the iconic metal castings that we see on both Keeney machines, Pony Derby and Penny Derby.

Note: These castings are not found on the machine "New Pony Derby".

The small metal payout cup is typical of Keeney slot machines of that era.

1963 Blue Spot by Keeney

The game play of Keeney's Pony Derby is very basic.  One button to select your horse, and one button to start.  The Satomi Pony Derby also has just these two buttons.  Earlier Keeney slot machines had an iconic metal handle that would rotate to start (see the Blue Spot photo above) but that was not used on Pony Derby, just the Select and Start buttons.

It seems that Keeney created a special version of this machine for export to Japan.  The differences:

• Different cabinet dimensions
• Different buttons locations
• the backglass has many differences:
• The odds are not on the glass
• the name was changed from Penny Derby to Pony Derby
• The Trophy Entry and Copper Star areas in the upper-right were moved further to the right.

1964 Penny Derby (1D Derby) by Keeney
flyer via Chris Dade