On a Pale Horse (Umamusume/Youjo Senki)

[guisniperman]

How would this world's Godfather depict the horse head scene? It would be twisted how some innocent, umamusme gets her head cut off because her trainer's boss didn't give a movie role to some mobster.

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Same but with a Dash of bring framed for the murder and desecration of his trainee.

 

[JKD_666]

Same but with a Dash of bring framed for the murder and desecration of his trainee.

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Or maybe by said trainee having her legs so broken that she'll never walk again. Sometimes leaving a person alive is a bigger cruelty.

 

[macdjord]

Eh, given how irl American horse racing is filled with more drug abuse than most Russian Olympic athletes then I don't think Shirogane would actually race there.

When all you're competitors are mainlining painkillers and the top trainers get caught doping their trainees/horses, and other minor drugs that most countries only allow while training but not for racing, then I don't think Shiro would enjoy that environment.

Also there's some suspicion that the reason why so many American horses can no longer do that same schedule, beyond not being bred for it, is the rampant usage of Lasix, which through the dehydration and weight loss it causes weakens the horses to much. Also there's speculation it can also make the bones more brittle.

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Tanya: "I mean, compared to the combat meth..."

 

[Admiral Halsey]

People may rip on the Japanese horse racing circuits for being soft but its still better than the druggy mess with organized crime ties that's American horse racing.

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I seriously doubt Japanese horse racing isn't just as bad as US horse racing in that regard. As someone who grew up in Kentucky, have friends in the horse racing business and have helped them out on occasion that shit is everywhere. It also is nowhere near as prevalent as it used to be, most of the mafia/mob shit got squashed by the end of the 70s and doping is frowned upon because of how expensive the horses get now, how badly it can fuck their health up hence ruining your investment, and how strict the testing actually is. There's a reason Bob Baffert is hated by pretty much eveyone involved in the industry.

 

[Stracio]

...Shiro is gonna pass on the Arima Kinen to race her friend, isn't she?

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She'll have to. In 1998, the Tokyo Daishoten and Arima Kinen take place in December 23 and December 27 respectively. The gap is too short that Shiro can't enter the Arima if she fulfills her promise to Steady.

It would also surprise her genmates because Shirogane would have qualified to enter Arima on sheer popularity alone...and passed on the chance of a much higher prize money for a lower prize money race.

Edit: Then again, they'd probably find out about Shiro's plan ahead of time the moment it becomes public that she's also adding dirt races to her schedule. At the very least, Pasa is definitely going to want to challenge Shiro at least once on dirt once she finds out. As an aside, Shiro training for dirt is gonna benefit her turf performance too as her legs will gain more power which would allow her to be able to accelerate faster and hit her top speed sooner.

Lastly, those poor dirt runners won't know what hit 'em when Shiro does a Runaway on Dirt

 

[arky4444]

At the very least, Pasa is definitely going to want to challenge Shiro at least once on dirt once she finds out.

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El Condor Pasa could run the Tokyo Daishoten. IRL his last race in Japan was the 1998 Japan Cup in November, but he doesn't leave for France until April 1999. Tokyo Daishoten has no trial race either, you just submit your entry form and hope that they pick you based on your race record and points. If the Japan Cup champ with a graded dirt win says they want to race in the Tokyo Daishoten, they are absolutely getting in.

Abukuma Poro vs. El Condor Pasa vs. Shirogane vs. Steady Distance at the Tokyo Daishoten would be wild.

EDIT: I forgot to point out that IRL El Condor Pasa would not be allowed to run the Tokyo Daishoten because he's a foreigner. NAR was even more restrictive than the JRA. Anything goes in Umaland though.

EDIT to prevent double-posting:

Am I just a pervert, or does the kanji on Shirogane's mom's face look a bit like sideways boobs?

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Considering it's the kanji for mother, Freud is giving you the devious side eye. Joking aside, I guess that's the nature of a pictograph, to depict imagery associated with it's meaning.

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Off-topic, but YES - https://wapbaike.baidu.com/tashuo/browse/content?id=3751d6bc37714c63b8d1cac9 - third picture illustrates the evolution of the character, accompanied by a censored sketch of a breastfeeding mother.

They also show the original form of "woman" farther down, showing that the only difference between "mother" and "woman" was the two dots for the nipples.

 

[WrandmWaffles]

I think I found Shiro's running style while she was a horse.

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"How the hell Is that horse sprinting like that?!"

If that's the case, Uma Shiro's game mechanic would involve a chance of any random training option to trigger instead of her going to rest or recreation

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You hit rest and she trains anyways...and still recovers energy

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If you hit rest or recreation, there's a chance she does Wit Training instead with more energy recovery.

Sometimes on recreation she doesn't get Mood Up. This is more common when there's a career race soon.

Shiro's Uma events will be filled with energy regeneration lol.

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For her, not for the poor Uma who has her as a support card. Well, Shiro does have events that give energy back when she gives the Uma food or electrolyte gel, but her friendship training drain more energy in exchange for higher stats. Her cards would also have failure protection to encourage risky training.

so if you don't give her enough training she starts adding mandatory races to her schedule at random.

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She gets Mood down if you don't race her for too long.

The perfect Uma for Trackblazer. Just put copious amounts of races on her roster

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Me, checking my race schedule for her:
"Yeah that's a lot of races."

Which would most likely place Shiro in the "moody horses" category for most of the playerbase, however unlike Rice Shower, who will bomb her mood from Great to Bad on any given turn, for Shiro it will be a struggle to get there in the first place.

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Yeah she'd be a Mood problem horse because while she has no random Mood drops, it's also harder to get her Mood Up. Her mood events are mostly controllable, but wouldn't be readily apparent to start with.

Despite the talk about how Shiro won't be negatively affected by low moods, the fact that high moods give a bonus to training, which gets amplified by most support cards, makes me think that it would be optimal to have her in high mood anyway.

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She get training bonuses at low moods too, but it's probably better to have her at high mood. The worst would actually be for her to be at Neutral, which is a bit unusual.

When all you're competitors are mainlining painkillers and the top trainers get caught doping their trainees/horses, and other minor drugs that most countries only allow while training but not for racing, then I don't think Shiro would enjoy that environment.

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Shiro would probably get tested for drugs, and the testers are just very perplexed that this horse has no drugs. Eventually testing finds she has an insanely high pain tolerance.

I feel like adoption would work well for her, but I wonder if there are any issues with Uma adoption...

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There's also the unstated wish from the Polish side of the family that there'd be more umas born into their family. They're not going to pressure Shirogane seriously about it, but they would be looking forwards to it and Shirogane will try and meet expectations.

The fact that her grandparents visiting completed eclipsed her debut race in chapter 15 in terms of importance really does set Shiro apart from her fellow racers, its an interesting contrast because its also an almost complete reversal from Salaryman's view on work life balance.

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Part of the premise of this fic is Tanya actually getting her retirement and trying to figure out what to do with it, so she's not going to be as enthusiastic about work. Funny enough she'll probably make the most money in this life where she wasn't really chasing it initially.

I'm pretty sure the catalyst was having a loving family, which neither the Salaryman or Tanya ever had but Shiro has. The chance to be a child without outside pressures forcing her into a specific path or mold did wonders for Shiro and it's what's really driving her this life.

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Part of the reason she was very strange child is that she couldn't understand what her parents expected of her (they expected her to be a normal kid and to grow up later), so she kept on trying to do things to see what got a positive response, which is why she eventually got on continuing the family business.

Then again, they'd probably find out about Shiro's plan ahead of time the moment it becomes public that she's also adding dirt races to her schedule.

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They could just ask her why, and of all the explanations for her actions Shiro has given up to that point, wanting to race her senpai in her retirement race would make sense to them.

This does mean she won't run against Air Groove in her last race, but they'll probably compete in the Japan Cup, so it isn't the worst.

Lastly, those poor dirt runners won't know what hit 'em when Shiro does a Runaway on Dirt

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Hana watching as the runner she picked up on the street keeps on developing unexpected talent.

I forgot to point out that IRL El Condor Pasa would not be allowed to run the Tokyo Daishoten because he's a foreigner. NAR was even more restrictive than the JRA. Anything goes in Umaland though.

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One of the things about Umaverse seems to be giving umas changes at things their horse counterpart couldn't. It's why Grass Wonder, El Condor Pasa and Maruzensky have the Tokyo Yushun in their career goals despite not running in it IRL, or why Seeking the Pearl has a special line about winning the Triple Tiara when she couldn't IRL. And well, there's Silence Suzuka and Rice Shower as well (poor Hokuto Vega is in legal limbo)

 

[TheGrog]

Me, checking my race schedule for her:
"Yeah that's a lot of races."

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Shiro: "What do you mean there is a distance race I'm not in? When I said 'all the silver' I meant ALL the silver. Classics? Sure, why not."

Shirogane Facts:

Shirogane's best surface is asphalt. Too bad no other Uma is willing to race.

She's just on vacation, not in retirement.

Shirogane isn't placing second. She's finishing her warmup. There are deliveries to make after the race.

If you recite the introduction to Das Capital in the racetrack's locker room mirror before a race, Shirogane will join the race and get second place. You will get first whether you like it or not, as she'll run directly behind you with the murder face the whole time.

Shirogane got rejected from the Man vs Horse Marathon. The race organizers called it 'a blatant act of bullying'.

Shirogane is actually a time traveling machine sent back to crush the morale of umas and otaku alike by UmaNet, a gacha gambling optimization program that achieved sentience.

 

[steamrick]

Shirogane's best surface is asphalt. Too bad no other Uma is willing to race.

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At some point, Shirogane should take her class out on a recreation of what a 'typical delivery run' would look like.

Cue a half-marathon through busy inner city streets with a bunch or Uma used to sprinting a tenth of that distance.

 

[Jack Trade]

At some point, Shirogane should take her class out on a recreation of what a 'typical delivery run' would look like.

Cue a half-marathon through busy inner city streets with a bunch or Uma used to sprinting a tenth of that distance.

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Y'know with how consistently good a racer Shiro is and if info about her past as a delivery Uma becomes common knowledge. I could see trainers holding mock delivery runs for their trainees and Umas looking to get into racing picking up delivery jobs as a cheap way to train.

If nothing else it'd be a good way to train wits and guts, as well as stamina if a Uma does it early and consistently enough.

 

[Zootsuit]

All the Uma are pulling ahead, and all of a sudden Shiro starts blasting the 1812 Overture or SABATON.

 

[zecorezecron]

If nothing else it'd be a good way to train wits and guts, as well as stamina if a Uma does it early and consistently enough.

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That brings to mind the anecdote I heard about Arnold Schwarzenegger and his buddies doing landscaping as a side hustle to get paid for cardio.

Unfortunately, it seems that pro racing in this universe is mostly limited to highschool so meaningful employment is less realistic.

 

[Stracio]

Unfortunately, it seems that pro racing in this universe is mostly limited to highschool so meaningful employment is less realistic.

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And then you get someone like Stay Gold once in a while.

One of the biggest reasons why Japanese uma racing is mostly three years is due to it reflecting IRL JP horseracing, where horses are retired after 3‐4 years to stud.

If you go to other parts of the world where horse breeding is less focused in favor of actual racing itself like Hong Kong, it's normal to see older horses still racing at high level. The recently retired Romantic Warrior, a gelding, retired at 8 years old this year shortly after achieving the Hong Kong Triple Crown due to injury. The HK Triple Crown isn't limited by age.

To those who don't know, Romantic Warrior achieved 15 G1 wins, including the aforementioned HK Triple Crown and primarily races on Turf.

I say primarily because he did compete in a G1 Dirt race once last year because his connections wanted to find out how he'd perform on that surface. And boy did he deliver.

Yes, he lost to our lovable nepobaby Forever Young. But it was a glorious duel!

 

[LeonTrollski]

I could imagine Shiro accepting a marriage proposal from a racing family if it included an investment into her family's restaurant, and perhaps some stipulation on how many children she'll be expected to have, and how often she'll be pregnant.

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Tanya might have just accepted a comfortable arranged marriage proposal, but Shirogane actually experienced growing up in a loving home and I expect would want something like that for herself? She is not above wanting nice things. Especially when, if she did start considering this kind of thing, her whole family would be on her ass about if it's what she really wants.


Which is to say anyone making a flatly mercenary offer with just a big dowry or what have you is probably barking up the wrong tree.

On the other hand, if some cousin of a big name tried to actually seduce her, she'd probably take a lot less offense than the typical person who wants to marry for love would. "Yeah man family duty, I know what that is. Go ahead and shoot your shot."

 

[Winged One]

I think you guys are overblowing the academic difficulties of umas. They're not dumb by any means,

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Apart from the ones who are, you mean?

Romantic Warrior, a gelding,

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I feel like the irony of naming a horse with his balls cut off that is rather mean-spirited.

 

[manatherindrell]

Apart from the ones who are, you mean?

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You take that back! Calstone Light O is an intelligent young lady! She's just very focused!

 

[Maiden_Soliloquy]

Yeah. Focused enough that she outruns her singular braincell.

 

[Winged One]

You take that back! Calstone Light O is an intelligent young lady! She's just very focused!

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I don't know that one, so I'll absolutely not take your word for it.

 

[manatherindrell]

View: https://youtu.be/s-Yiq4K21IE?is=p7uJU6LPymBF7mrN

 

[Kuroyanagi]

"If you really want to run against your junior in a big race this year…there's the Tokyo Daishoten." It was a dirt G1, open to classic year runners and up, and it took place after the classic triple crown circuit was over. "Would mean she can't run in the Arima Kinen, if she makes it that far."

"Yeah…dunno if she'll pass that up." Apparently Steady had no doubt her kohai would either win the popularity contest or prize money rankings, what a scary uma that must be.

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You know, I think this will be the moment it finally clicks for Shiro.

Given her attitude and logic for her schedule, for her to have the choice between the Arima and the Daishouten, everything points to her choosing the Arima Kinen, everyone that knows her expects her to run the Arima Kinen. It has the longer distance, it has the bigger prize pool to the point that the 3rd place prize beats out the 1st place prize for the Daishouten, with 1st place being 5x higher. Running the Arima Kinen is higher prestige and better for branding because it's the biggest year-end race.

And yet she chooses the Daishouten because Steady is retiring and it's the last opportunity to face her at her best, and despite it being less optimal, she WANTS to run it more so than choosing to do it because it's optimal. For once, Shiro is racing for reason that isn't just to chase the bag. Maybe, this will be the moment she comes to realize she might actually like running for the love of the game. A reason to actually put her all into it instead of settling for just "good enough to get paid". If she wanted to be paid, she would've ran the Arima Kinen. For once, this is personal, she has an emotional stake.

 

[ranmatoushin]

"How the hell Is that horse sprinting like that?!"

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Sorry, just to check is that an actual question?

 

[Piss_harder]

Sorry, just to check is that an actual question?

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it wouldnt be in quotes if it was

 

[Mentos]

Unfortunately, it seems that pro racing in this universe is mostly limited to highschool so meaningful employment is less realistic.

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While the first three years are treated as the most important, most of the career endings imply that they continue to race professionally, for years. It's just not shown, because making too much stuff up kind of lessens the link to real racing.

 

[Numina]

While the first three years are treated as the most important, most of the career endings imply that they continue to race professionally, for years. It's just not shown, because making too much stuff up kind of lessens the link to real racing.

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You did promise Sakura Bakushin O that you'll make run the Arima Kinen. You can't do that in 3 years.

 

[Mentos]

You did promise Sakura Bakushin O that you'll make run the Arima Kinen. You can't do that in 3 years.

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You can, if you really love her.

 

[Jylland]

Apart from the ones who are, you mean?

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Look Tosen Jordan might be dumber than a rock, has never passed her exams successfully and is dumb enough to shock Gold Ship into seriousness, but she has a heart of gold and is willing to break down any brick walls in her path.

Besides you don't actually have to complete the academics at Tracen. God knows Tosen Jordan and others could never have completed their careers if they needed to compete even remotely academically.