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It is the year 2020. For generations, Uma Musume have competed in races across the globe, proving their worth as athletes. Japan, of course, was no exception. The history of Uma Racing in that island nation is a rich and delightful one, and many of its greats are still spoken of today. Greats such as…
Well, one should start with the first Japanese racer to make the journey across borders to compete internationally. She was a Dirt runner, the very best of her era, and thanks to her experience on those tracks she was able to travel abroad to the United States and the UAE, placing and winning several trophies in each. It was because of her domination of the soil in the late 70s that dirt racing became so popular in the otherwise turf-dominated realm of the rising sun.
Her name was not Speed Symboli. Speed Symboli has yet to even be born, not even a twinkle in her mother’s eye.
Her name was Forever Young. For all that her records were surpassed by those who came after, she will always be remembered as THE Uma that put Japan on the map.
In Young’s wake, several of Japan’s greatest followed, eager to carve their place in the relatively fresh clay of the 80s. While many were good, great even, three Umas in particular are most fondly remembered. In the eyes of the aging keiba fans, they are “the Big Three,” the greatest runners Japan has ever produced.
By 1984, when the first of the Big Three began her Classic year, two Umas had held the honor of winning the Triple Tiara. Liberty Island was the first, having achieved the nation’s dream of a Triple Tiara of their own in ‘79 before sadly passing away in a medical emergency two years later. After her came Daring Tact who, in honor of her fallen predecessor, clinched the award by the skin of her teeth alongside Contrail, the nation’s first Triple Crown. All told, three Uma Musume had achieved a “Triple” title when the time came for their records to seem positively quaint.
Almond Eye would prove to be the standard that almost none could match.
9 G1 wins. A Triple Tiara. A crown from Dubai. Two Japan Cup trophies against some of the best international runners in the world after skipping a year in-between. The Flawless Star quickly became a nationwide, nay, a global sensation before she retired. She was the Goddess of the Turf, a Kami who had deigned to show the lowly mortals just what victory could look like, if only from a distance. Her retirement ceremony was broadcast on almost half of Japan’s television stations, and recordings of it were sold for hundreds of thousands of yen before the URA uploaded it onto YouTube, killing the market.
Almond Eye’s record officially still stands today, in the eyes of global racing. None have acquired the same number of G1s to even come close to matching her, let alone beating her. Many point to her time as the high point of the Japanese racing scene, with Ai serving as the peak that others could not come close to surmounting. The truth of course is a bit different, but there are many a historian who grumble about “the good old days” as runners fail to reach even 8 G1 wins in the modern era.
Of course, Japan does not just have races that are internationally graded. They have local equivalents that for a time went unnoticed by the general public. Unnoticed, that is, until the second of the Big Three made her mark, around the same time as Ai herself.
No one in Japan would ever treat the sport of Steeplechasing anywhere near as well were it not for Oju Chosan. A figurative “street kid” from Tokyo, Chosan’s career started off poorly, not winning a single maiden race in turf or steeplechasing ‘82 and ‘83. The truth was that she had started professionally running too early, having not hit her “race ready” period just yet. That would change in ‘84, when her athletic growth finally kicked in and she began to place and, in some cases, win races. Even then, her performance was not excellent, but she still progressed in the sport, and in 1985 she took home her first JPN1 trophy. It would be FAR from the last.
Every year since that point, it was her name that was being chanted in the Steeplechase stands. Her picture that appeared in Twinkle Monthly, despite participating in a “lesser” sport. Not a single G1 race was claimed by her, yet she was one of the athletes that Almond Eye knew by name and had gotten along well with. They would never get to race together, and yet their rivalry still went strong. In the end, Chosan claimed 9 JPN1 trophies to match Almond Eye’s G1’s after a staggeringly long ten-year racing career. It is thanks to her achievements that Steeplechase remains a popular sport to this day, though few were able to replicate her hazardous “low jump” style.
And she would not be the only one to claim local trophies. In the world of dirt racing, while experts state that the “actual” successor to Forever Young was Marche Lorraine (current Matriarch of the Gold Clan of runners who ran a few years after Young did), the general public recognize Copano Rickey as the “true” successor to the legend. The Master of Feng Shui may have seemed like an oddball when she debuted in ‘88, but in 1990 she began her dirt dominance by winning the February Stakes and moving onto the JPN1 scene. 3 G1 victories on top of 8 JPN1 trophies gave her the technically higher record compared to her fellow Big Three members.
Any rumors of Almond Eye biting her hat in frustration at “having retired too early” after the total for Rickey reached 10 are of course just baseless tall tales.
With Rickey’s retirement in 1993, the world of racing never seemed brighter. With a turf warrior even the legends of Europe had to respect, a dirt pursuer that give the Americans a conniption as well as a reluctant nod, and a steeplechase figure that brought the sport into the spotlight, what would come next for the nation? Who else would prove their might before the world?
The answer?
No one, really.
Oh, there would still be great racers. Kitasan Black, Deep Impact and T.M. Opera O would all claim 7 crowns for themselves, with the middle of the group also claiming a Triple Crown. Vodka would make history winning the Japanese Derby despite having signed on for the Tiara track and claim her own 7 G1s. Smart Falcon, while not approaching Rickey’s record, would still win several G1 and JPN1 races. It’s not like success had died out in Japan’s runners. Really, it was the opposite problem.
There were so many great runners emerging out of the wood work, and only so many races that could be held, that dominant success streaks like Almond Eye’s just could not happen again. Oju Chosan’s hazardous style worked for her, and yet year after year those who tried to emulate her ended up in the hospital instead of the history books. And Rickey had simply seen too much success to be matched! Even as the sports became more competitive than ever, it seemed like the standards established by the Big Three would forever be out of the common Uma’s reach.
At Tracen Academy, more and more applicants come in each year, hoping that the school’s expertise will be the edge they need to succeed. Under the guidance of its director Croix du Nord and secretary Meisho Taberu, many do find at least a little triumph in their careers. Not enough to match what came before, but respectable all the same. Of all the racing schools, the central academy in Tokyo boasts the highest number of winners, and one Uma in particular looks to be a part of that number.
The year is 2020. A young runner from the “Symboli” family has begun her athletic career with the expectations that she will surpass Almond Eye’s record. That she will earn the Classic Triple Crown. That she will earn the Autumn Triple Crown after her older cousin Kris S’s failure to do so almost two decades ago. That she will compete internationally and not make a disgrace of herself, like her other cousin Sirius will prove to be.
Just the year before, a childhood friend by the name of Mejiro Ramonu became the latest Triple Tiara, the first such title for her clan. Such a victory weighs heavily now on Symboli Rudolf as she must prove that she truly has what it takes to win. In honor of her mentor, student council president Tokai Teio, Rudolf has to become the greatest racer that Japan, and the world, has ever known.
In another world where the past and future have swapped places, the Emperor must rise again.