“Are you girls ready?” Kouki asked, pulling out his specialized stopwatch as he addressed the three Umamusume lining up on the track.
After receiving their firm nods, Kouki raised his hand and shouted, “START!” All three Umamusume surged off the starting line almost simultaneously.
However, just two hundred meters into the run, Silence Suzuka had already opened up a two-length lead over Rice Shower in the pole position, and the gap was widening with every stride.
“Did you teach Suzuka that running style?
How did you know she’d be so good at it?” Tokai Teio asked Kouki standing beside her, watching Silence Suzuka take the lead with supreme confidence.
“Because I’ve always been watching her.” Kouki wasn’t lying.
Back when he first witnessed Silence Suzuka’s breathtaking power in the anime, he had fallen completely in love with her character.
He even went out of his way to study real-world horse racing history for the very first time just to read about her namesake.
As a result, he had been deeply heartbroken by the tragic “Silence Sunday” incident, remaining depressed for days.
Back then, he couldn’t help but think how wonderful it would be if he could somehow change Silence Suzuka’s tragic destiny.
Later, when he watched the anime’s alternate timeline where Suzuka’s fate was saved, he had been so overwhelmed with excitement that he couldn’t sleep, rewatching her racing scenes over and over again.
So when Kouki said he had always been watching over her, he was speaking from the bottom of his heart.
However, to Tokai Teio’s ears, those words carried a completely different implication.
“Are you…
some kind of pervert?” Tokai Teio looked at Kouki with deep suspicion and took half a step back.
Kouki felt a sharp stab of emotional damage.
“Although I have no idea how you reached that conclusion, please do not let this misunderstanding escalate any further, thank you.” “Hmph!” Meanwhile, back on the track…
By this time, Silence Suzuka had built an overwhelming six-length lead over Rice Shower in the Pace Chaser position, and she began to ease her stride slightly to conserve stamina.
In Kouki’s eyes, this was naturally the visual trigger of Silence Suzuka reactivating her stamina recovery skill.
It had to be said—this recovery ability, combined with Silence Suzuka’s signature Great Escape style, was an absolute nightmare for opponents.
Had it not been for that real-world tragedy, perhaps Silence Suzuka could have truly conquered the international racing scene in the United States and become a global legend.
Rice Shower, running in the Pace Chaser position, held a three-length lead over Special Week in the Late Surger position.
What impressed Kouki was that Silence Suzuka had covered the first 1,000 meters in a blazing 58.3 seconds—an extremely high pace for a front-runner.
Yet despite the blistering pace, Rice Shower’s rhythm remained steady and undisrupted by Silence Suzuka’s Great Escape.
This was clearly the result of the pacing strategies Kouki had spent the past month teaching her.
One had to realize that even the legendary Tokai Teio herself had once been thrown off pace by Mejiro Palmer and Daitaku Helios’ reckless dual Great Escape tactics, failing to make the top three—and that had happened to her three times!
Therefore, for a runner who relied on calculated positioning, an opponent executing an extreme Great Escape was undoubtedly the trickiest type of rival to deal with.
‘Should you chase them?’ What if you burn through your stamina early and fade down the stretch?
Sudden stamina depletion in the final stretch was common among reckless escapees—like the famous Twin Turbo, who didn’t care about winning as long as she could sprint in front first.
‘So why not hold back?’ What if the escape runner maintains a safe lead, recovers her stamina mid-race, and then accelerates again on the home stretch?
The legendary scene of Seiun Sky executing a masterclass 3,000-meter Great Escape to win the 1998 Kikuka Sho was still vivid in Kouki’s memory.
Seiun Sky had built a seven or eight-length lead over second place in the first 1,000 meters, slowed down to recover stamina during the middle 1,000 meters, and then exploded with a second acceleration over the final 1,000 meters, crushing Special Week by a staggering four lengths at the wire.
Commentator Sugimoto’s iconic words—*”Today at Kyoto Racecourse, the sky is clear and cloudless!”*—had served as the ultimate tribute to that legendary Great Escape.
Thus, against a Great Escape runner, you couldn’t afford to take your eyes off them, yet you couldn’t let them dictate your pace either—it was incredibly frustrating.
By now, the runners had entered the third corner, with Silence Suzuka still holding a massive lead.
‘The gap isn’t shrinking at all…
As expected, Suzuka-san is just too strong.
Even with all of Trainer Kouki’s pacing strategies, I still can’t match her…’ Rice Shower stared at the green figure in front of her, who had maintained a steady six-length lead the entire time, feeling a heavy wave of helplessness.
She had believed that after a month of structured training under Kouki’s guidance, she wouldn’t be so utterly outmatched when facing Silence Suzuka.
Yet an overwhelming sense of powerlessness continued to haunt her.
The harder she tried to calculate her steps and follow theoretical knowledge, the more disoriented she felt, making it harder to analyze the flow of the race.
As for Special Week, this was her very first time competing alongside other Umamusume on a real track.
Aside from nervousness, her heart was thumping with an indescribable thrill.
It was this primal instinct, embedded deep within the DNA of every Umamusume, that compelled them to run, compete, and strive to become stronger.
Only now did Special Week truly understand what it meant to be an Umamusume.
An Umamusume is someone who runs to carry her own dreams and the dreams of everyone supporting her across the finish line!
Staring at Silence Suzuka’s back seven or eight lengths ahead, Special Week’s vision suddenly blurred.
In her mind’s eye, she suddenly saw another figure running alongside Silence Suzuka.
She blinked in confusion, but that familiar silhouette didn’t vanish—instead, it gradually overlapped and merged into Silence Suzuka’s figure.
That solitary figure leading the pack…
looked so much like the legendary Umamusume President Rudolf had spoken of.
‘If Suzuka-san keeps running like this…
will there come a day when she becomes like that legendary Umamusume?
Growing stronger and stronger until no rival can match her, forced to run all alone with that heartbreaking, lonely look in her eyes?’ ‘No…
I will NEVER let Suzuka-san wear such a sad expression!’ Special Week screamed in her mind.
She drove her left foot into the turf and unleashed a sudden burst of speed along the outer lane as they rounded the corner.
[ Skill Activated: *Shooting Star* (Surge of acceleration when overtaking on the final stretch) ] Under Kouki’s awestruck gaze, brilliant rainbow-colored light particles shimmered around Special Week and fused into her body.
With 600 meters remaining to the finish line, Special Week launched her full sprint!
‘As expected of the General of Japan!
Her instinct on the track is incredible!’ Kouki marveled inwardly.
Special Week’s decision to accelerate at this exact moment was undoubtedly the sharpest tactical move she could make.
For a Late Surger who had been conserving stamina, initiating a 600-meter final sprint was well within her physical capacity.
Yet many Umamusume lacked the decisiveness to seize that exact window of opportunity.
Take Rice Shower, for example, who had just been overtaken by Special Week.
In truth, considering the intensive physical conditioning Kouki had put her through over the past month, Rice Shower’s sheer physical stamina was actually superior to Special Week’s right now.
However, Rice Shower lacked Special Week’s wild racing intuition and decisive courage.
Rice Shower relied heavily on sticking strictly to the pre-planned race scenarios discussed with Kouki.
That was why she had been confident about pulling two or three lengths ahead in her upcoming Debut race—that wasn’t empty boasting, but a realistic outcome she had practiced for.
The catch was that her confidence stemmed from her lack of real race experience and her complete reliance on Kouki’s guidance—at her core, she was still an inexperienced rookie.
Against standard opponents, Rice Shower’s peak physical condition and basic training would be more than enough to win.
However, when thrown against a top-tier runner of Silence Suzuka’s caliber, the race tempo shifted into a chaotic realm Rice Shower had never encountered before.
In that chaotic state, an inexperienced runner would panic, make wrong calls, and hand victory to the opponent on a silver platter.
Of course, Kouki didn’t mind this at all.
After all, Rice Shower was still a junior student who spent her days training and watching race broadcasts.
Compared to seasoned racers, she was like a two-year-old horse that hadn’t even run her Debut yet a lack of experience was completely natural.
Her lack of self-confidence was a byproduct of her upbringing—something that could be built up step by step over time.
Kouki had absolute faith in her potential.
Therefore, the true purpose of this mock race was to let Rice Shower experience firsthand what it felt like to compete against a legendary opponent—and, as a nice bonus, to recruit Tokai Teio onto the team!