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Sunday, Apr 05, 2026 - 23:13 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

More On The Uma

Following onto the introduction to Umamusume: Pretty Derby (U:PD) in the previous post, the past weeks have seen another Team Trials promotion from Class 5 in fifth place, before currently hovering somewhere within the top thousand for Class 6 on close to 900k points, basically within expectations.

The latest monthly Champions Meeting (CM) has also just concluded with the Pisces Cup, a 3200m course run under heavy conditions that has been acknowledged as the most stamina-intensive test thus far. Strictly speaking, one should specialize one's CM Umas by picking skills targeted for the specific track and weather conditions, since these are constant through the entire tournament. Time constraints had me simply put up my Long squad for Team Trials, however, and a misunderstanding on how entry tickets carried over had them run just 45 races in the group stages, against 80 for old-timers in the know - which cost some rewards.

This remained sufficient to take second place in the Group A finals, with a roughly 58% win rate in the preliminaries - which is frankly not very impressive with some claiming over 90%. This is quite believable, mind, given how much more optimization was possible, beginning with simply learning CM-specific skills, to choosing Umas based on racecourse quirks and team strategy, the most common of which include picking (at least) two frontrunners to have them egg each other onward and open up the early lead. The rabbit hole goes extremely deep, by the way, with the truly-serious players going as far as to analyze their Uma's skill activations and overall performance on race simulators (i.e. Umalators) and room matches.


Yes, that smug face over there!


Considering all this, I confess to approaching the CM with some trepidation given my general-use team, but as it turns out, most players ain't that serious - and Gold Ship does what Gold Ship does. She would end up the undisputed team ace for this Pisces Cup, with a 49% win rate by herself (and 76% top-three finish rate); Oguri Cap came a distant second with a win rate of 9% despite often being assessed as the race favourite, while poor Kitasan Black managed zero wins despite having both Speed and Stamina stats maxxed out at 1200; I suspect the lack of S-rank for distance - and the associated 5% bonus to base speed - really hurt, alongside not having meta late-race skills.

Watching the actual races does impart a feel for what's working, and what's not, after awhile. In Kitasan's case, she generally had no problems with taking the lead even against other fronts, but just had no answer to the final kicks of the competition. For Oguri Cap, the problem was reaching the final 200m (for Triumphant Pulse) too far behind the leaders, though she could still squeak out wins when (almost all) her relevant skill activations came out well. Nothing too flashy for Gold Ship: she just starts swinging a big damn golden anchor around about midway through the race, and slowly starts accelerating until she cruises past other Umas frantically activating their so-called Ultimates, with an air of amused inevitability.

I suppose I'll defer the exposition on game mechanics for a future post, to comment on the cultural aspect. First off, it should be noted that the local Singaporean horse racing scene came to an end in October 2024, after over 180 years. I had attended the final race for its historical significance (long before I was ever aware of Uma Musume), and gotten lucky with my only flutter then or since, on Pacific Warrior (chosen purely because of the number). The decision to shut down horse racing here was quite abrupt, and apparently took many trainers and owners by surprise; dwindling attendances were cited as a major factor, with the latest plans being to build some 14000 homes on the site (as also for the former Bukit Timah course)


Late spurt activated on the final straight!
(Source: straitstimes.com)


While horses do still exist on the island (two of which briefly escaped in Pasir Ris last month), the Kranji closure might be interpreted as just another milestone in the hyper-optimization of Singapore; sure new housing is nice and all, but what's there after forking out a million bucks for the latest slice of thin air? And for that matter, could Uma Musume (now a multi-billion dollar franchise, mind) have been developed in Singapore? Just imagine trying to sell the idea to EDB (though to be fair, they have been willing to splash the cash on supposed sure-wins)! Conversely, the U:PD developers coordinated with Japanese horse owners in a mutually-beneficial arrangement, which has reignited interest in the sport - and horses, with fans donating tons of ryegrass and even renovating their graves.

As it is, the shutdown of local racing has coincided with its revival elsewhere, with thousands for example attending a cosplay race in Peru*, and the Penang and Sarawak tracks in neighbouring Malaysia supposedly saved thanks to Uma Musume fans while not even being as popular as in Thailand or Indonesia. Further afield, the Hong Kong Jockey Club has been holding tie-ups (if with a local clone), with Cygames having just been a sponsor at the latest Kentucky Derby (alongside a... diverse** American scenario release); heck, even communist China is getting in on the act with a new racecourse in Guangzhou (after the bourgeois practice was stopped in Shanghai and elsewhere), though it remains to be seen if wagering*** will (eventually) be allowed - along with some of the usual expected censorship (where's my starting gate?!)

Although it looks like Singapore will be missing this wave, expansion to other countries and racing cultures might not be straightforward, despite the game having explored the American Breeders' Cup and French Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe; for one, Japanese owners might be expected to be more familiar with anime anthropomorphism, and even then not all of them agreed to have their horses adapted, requiring pseudonyms to be used (e.g. "Obey Your Master" for Pay the Butler, etc.). One then wonders how the top-hatted racing aristocracy in the West would react to the sales pitch: yeah, you know your star stallion that just won the Belmont Stakes? Well, he's a girl now!


Real advert for Top Gun: Maverick when released in Japan
[N.B. the Uma/horse Mayano Top Gun was in fact named for the original 1986 movie, so this is just the reference coming full circle.]
(Source: r/umamusume)



[*Unrealistically won by a Haru Urara, whose claim to fame in real life was in never winning any of the 113 races in her official career, leading to her betting slips being adopted as vehicle crash avoidance lucky charms (because they never hit); she did apparently win a casual "soft keiba" under special rules fifteen years after her official retirement, despite finishing third. Uma Musume racing gear does seem to boost speed, regardless.]

[**If still somewhat cookie-cutter.]

[***One feature China shares with the Uma Musume universe (for now), is that betting on Uma/horse races is (ridiculously) disallowed. Of course, this never stopped the Chinese, who have to be some of the biggest gamblers around, and the state would eventually figure that it was alright as long as the citizens lost money to them only.]



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