I briefly talked about it last post, but let’s go into detail for kicks.
So, Keiba Densetsu Live (競馬伝説Live！) is an online horse racing simulator that has been around since 2004 (if you count its closed beta period). It’s actually the sequel to Keiba Densetsu 3, and the whole Keiba Densetsu series has been around since 1997.
In April Fools 2014 as many companies do, they teased a dating sim, for which they drew a lot of famous mares as human girls. Which, sidenote, when I say the mid-2010s were SATURATED with anthropomorphized THINGS all over the place I almost feel tempted to look for numbers to illustrate what’s mainly anecdotal so far.
Here’s the funny thing though. They did add the designs to the main game as support cards and interestingly they still use the illustrations for the main game to this day.
So I thought it would be fun to compare what they envisioned and how it compares to Uma Musume.
Lys Gracieux
No Uma Musume counterpart right now. But her father is also Cheval Grand’s father (Heart’s Cry).
Lys Gracieux was born in 2014 and is notorious for winning both Arima Kinen and Takarazuka Kinen.
“But Fer” I hear you protest “How can a horse born in 2014 be depicted to a 2014 April Fools’?”
BECAUSE THEY’VE UPDATED THE DANG THING A FEW TIMES (link to the Internet Archive page for it)
Anyway, Lys Gracieux had a famous rivalry with the next one.
Almond Eye
No Uma Musume counterpart yet.
Almond Eye is notorious for being the fifth filly ever to win the Triple Tiara, which makes up 3 out of the ELEVEN G1 victories she amassed while active.
Her father is Lord Kanaloa (which you might remember from the Curren post) and her mother is Fusaichi Pandora (who you might remember from the Kawakami post).
I find funny how this is the only design to integrate the real horse’s blaze mark (the name for the mark in a horse’s forehead assuming it’s a single spot and not longer), since that’s a clear design cue Uma Musume used and as shown above this Almond Eye was added to the image after Uma Musume was officially a thing that existed.
Vodka
FINALLY an example we can compare.
First thing I like to point out is how both convey the same color scheme, but beyond that it’s interesting that in both cases they try to convey this element of… coolness. But not the sort of coolness of someone naturally cool but of someone TRYING to be cool.
It’s also interesting that both depict Vodka more on the petite side, evoking how the original horse wasn’t small but was definitely thin.
Gentildonna
No Uma Musume counterpart yet.
Almond Eye was the fifth filly ever to get the Triple Tiara, but Gentildonna was the fourth.
Gentildonna is descended from Deep Impact, so thankfully she was able to fill those big shoes no problem with such an accolade.
Daiwa Scarlet
Bit different ain’t it? Nah not so much once you get under the hood.
Both in Uma Musume and in real life, Daiwa Scarlet is noted as being an honor student and an overachiever. The Uma Musume staff saw fit to adapt the idea to a throwback to early 2000s Tsundere and the Keiba Densetsu people saw it fit to turn her into the only one so far with both an outgoing pose and her uniform in proper order (skirt nonwithstanding).
Honestly, kudos to the illustrators for conveying so much in a single drawing.
Hokuto Vega
No counterpart yet.
Hokuto Vega attempted the Triple Tiara to no avail, but she then shifted to dirt where she was known as “The Queen of the Sand” because she was able to keep up with colts in those races.
Unrelated to Admire Vega by blood, though her grandpa is Nijinsky, Maruzensky‘s father.
Dance Partner
No counterpart yet.
A filly that was on the verge of greatness but was always overtaken by another horse. Interestingly, she lost at different points to Mayano Top Gun, Sakura Laurel, and Marvelous Sunday (Who were their generation’s power trio like BNW a couple of years before). So she lived up to her name if you think about it.
One of the many descendants of Sunday Silence.
Still In Love
No counterpart, but I love how the designs have gotten really on the nose with the names.
Another Sunday Silence descendant, Still In Love has only three important victories to her name… the three victories that put her as the second ever filly to ever get the Triple Tiara. By that point only Mejiro Ramone had earned that.
Snow Fairy
No counterpart, but the real Snow Fairy had most of it career overseas so it’d be a really tricky filly to add to the game unless you made her into an NPC in a scenario or something similar.
She won the Queen Elizabeth Cup back to back in 2010 and 2011.
Another interesting one.
In Uma Musume, Kawakami’s definition of “Princess” is “Go! Princess Precure”, and the artwork of Derby Girls seems to lean more towards the traditional Japanese Princess side of things.
The real Kawakami Princess was so fierce that the stables warned people that the horse inside was dangerous. In Uma Musume this shows as Kawakami being one of the physically strongest characters in the cast, while the Derby Girls version seems to bank on the stereotype of the traditional Japanese beauty that hides a really fearsome side.
Buena Vista
Not OFFICIALLY implemented… Buena Vista is part of the quartet of designs from the initial reveal that are nowhere to be seen.
Buena Vista is the daughter of Special Week who, as I noted in the past, has a story that fits perfectly for a regular anime heroine. Buena Vista isn’t too far away from that shadow, being simultaneously relatively unassuming as a horse AND skilled enough in the track she was often called a “female Deep Impact”.
Air Groove
Air Groove was known as “The Empress” due to the fact that she was able to keep up with Colts in their races and often win or give them one hell of a fight.
It’s interesting to see how both sides got the same general image of extravagance, with one side leaning more towards femme style and the other leaning towards that “looks like she can keep up with the boys” side.
The hair color of the Derby Girls one reminds me of Obey Your Master from Cinderella Gray a bit, actually.
Flower Park
Not implemented yet.
Flower Park was a filly that promised a lot at the start of its career only to fall through afterwards.
Interestingly, after Winning Ticket’s death last year in March, Flower Park is the oldest, still alive JRA-registered horse to have won at least one G1 race. She’s 32 as of this writing.
Another interesting detail, her dad is Nihon Pillow Winner, father of Yamanin Zephyr and a horse with an interesting history with Symboli Rudolf I wrote about months ago.
Toumei
No counterpart… and honestly it would be tricky to add her.
Toumei was the first filly to ever be inducted as a meritorious horse by the JRA. She also ran in 1971.
For perspective, Maruzensky is ANCIENT by the playable character standards (to the point it’s borderline a problem to adapt that story) and her real life counterpart ran in 1974.
North Flight
Not implemented, but announced (as of this writing).
North Flight was a Sprinter so fierce that she was effectively Sakura Bakushin O’s rival. Often called “The Queen of the Mile”.
No other comments yet since her racing costume (and personality/story) haven’t been unveiled yet.
Hishi Amazon
Hishi Amazon’s career is so varied that even Uma Musume has evolved what her depiction entails exactly. From punching bag that overreacts in Starting Gate, to Narita Brian’s “sparring” partner, to the motherly-but-not-mommy characterization of her current stage.
If I had to take a guess, Hishi Amazon’s career was so varied, going through all the distances and facing off against a who’s who of their generations, that they took this to mean “kinda trendy girl”.
Sweep Toushou
No notes, this is so hilarious.
Sweepie’s brattiness is so legendary that two separate teams saw the same Tsundere.
Apapane
No counterpart yet.
So Mejiro Ramone is the first Triple Tiara, Still In Love is the second, Gentildonna the Fourth, and Almond Eye the Fifth.
Apapane is the third, in case you were keeping track.
For the sake of completion, there’s been two other Triple tiaras since: Daring Tact in 2020 and Liberty Island in 2023.
Cesario
No counterpart, but speaking of Daring Tact, this is her paternal grandma.
Cesario is actually descended from Special Week, and is famous for being the first Japanese racehorse to win an American G1 race, the American Oaks Invitational Stakes of 2005 to be moe specific.
If I had to take a guess as to what prompted the design, the real Cesario was often said to “not waste any moves” when running, so I’m guessing that level of discipline is supposed to be reflected in the attire.
Mejiro Ramone
So, in real life Mejiro Ramone was always noted to be very beatiful, to the point where the daughter of Yuji Kitano (of the Kitano family that owns Mejiro Ranch and President of it from 2004 to 2011) asked to take pics with her, and racing critic Keijiro Okawa often wondered how such a beautiful filly could come from the genes of her father Mogami.
One way you can read into the design is that it’s an alternate idea of what “Beautiful” entails, the difference between Precious Cinammon Roll and…
That.
What tickles my interest though, is that one of the fun discoveries of Ramone’s story is how despite her perennially bored demeanor, only while running is she smiling and properly happy, so the fact that the Derby Girls version features a smiles so prominently makes me think there’s an undercurrent I’m missing.
Not gonna lie, it’s kinda funny that I fall into this rabbit hole right as I was writing drafts for posts about Scarlet and Vodka.
Next post will be either that or me posting about the Umadonna manga, whichever comes first.