This is context for the upcoming (for a definition of “upcoming” at least) set of posts on Stay Gold, but it’s self-contained enough of a curiosity that I can tackle it alone.
If you rewatch the first season of Uma Musume with no extra context at all, you might notice that a certain girl in a black and gold outfit sure gets a lot of attention.
From episode 6’s cold intro all the way to episode 12, this girl sure gets close to the first place a lot of times for someone with less than zero lines.
If you were familiar with the historical background you might’ve had a suspicion, but those would be beyond confirmed the moment episode 8 hit and saw the name…
Kin’iro Ryotei, 金色旅程 (Golden Itinerary), which is oddly similar to the simplified chinese version of 黃金旅程 (Golden Journey), which was the name that Stay Gold was registered with when he raced in the Hong Kong Vase of 2001.
And once you notice her, it’s hard not to see that specific outfit, that haircut, and those green eyes.
…which becomes a problem when you rewatch Episode 5 and see her in the Winning Live of a race Stay Gold had nothing to do with.
But they basically made up a whole race for the anime version of Special Week’s Nihon Derby victory. Not only did El Condor Pasa not actually participate in it, they didn’t even have the balls to add Grass Wonder to go full on hypothetical Phantom Derby and oh my God I have opinions on this sort of thing now. I’m too far gone.
Anyway, let’s ignore the anime version of the 1998 Nihon Derby and by extension the reused design.
Like I mentioned before, Kin’iro Ryotei’s first appearance was in the cold open of Episode 6, winning against Air Groove but losing against Silence Suzuka.
By this metric we’re establishing, Kin’iro Ryotei should’ve showed up in Episode 7 during the 1998 Autumn Tenno Sho, but she was replaced by pre-redesign Hishi Amazon.
Mejiro Ryan shouldn’t be there either, it’s fine, who cares…
Next, in Episode 8, as mentioned before, is when her name is revealed as the positions of all runners are mentioned.
She appeared again in episode 10 for the 1999 Autumn Tenno Sho.
And finally, again in Episode 12 during the Japan Cup.
This unto itself would be enough of a curiosity… but what if I told you they kept the trend of “Stay Gold stand-in with shockingly consistent design” elsewhere?
Note the girl in a black outfit.
Now you might be thinking “Fer, you’re overthinking this”. And to that I say that twice builds a trend, so what if we took another race that Stay Gold ran in like… dunno… the 2000’s Japan Cup.
Wouldn’t it be funny if the same design was there?
It would be hilarious.
Now you’ll hopefully understand why I choked on my own saliva when I first saw Road To The Top and saw…
While admittedly this one is the flimsiest of all the sightings so far. Considering RttT is about a period where Stay Gold was very much still active I can be forgiven for being paranoid on the matter.
For those curious: She’s not in any races. Road to the Top is about the Classic generation of 1999 and Stay Gold was very much in the Senior category at that point. Not to mention we were beyond making up races for the anime.
Also, I can’t recall any sightings in Door to a New Era, but by that point I’m pretty sure they were probably working on Stay Gold proper, since she was namedropped offscreen in Dream Journey’s scenario around June 2024.
The picture this paints is that from day one Cygames wanted Stay Gold in the cast, that even if they had to “reserve” her spot with black-colored mob girls, they showed their reverence for his legacy. And that’s just counting Kin’iro Ryotei and its iterations, I haven’t even touched about how the game has alluded to Stay Gold as far back as Kitasan Black’s implementation.
And aside from just how curious this all is, it’s important to note this, because this love and reverence is something that bleeds forth from ever single word of Stay Gold’s scenario.
But that’s a story for another day.