This is like the Zephyr one, god knows I have a LOT to say about Maruzensky, but for now I wanna focus on a random piece of trivia.
Maruzensky’s victory record might not look as impressive as the rest at a glance. 8 victories in a bunch of ungraded races and one G1 race. Does that really merit her fame as a strong and scary opponent? After all, quite a lot of the cast has more victories.
Maruzensky’s track record, however, doesn’t tell the whole story by itself.
It’s important to understand that the Race Grading system was introduced in 1984, and Maruzensky debuted in 1976. So for starters, as far as the people were concerned, Maruzensky wasn’t getting victories in a bunch of small races, Maruzensky was utterly obliterating any race they got into leaving everyone else to bite the dust.
Moreover, the low racing count wasn’t a deliberate thing. Maruzensky has a small racing record because everyone was too afraid of them and refused to run against them and risk getting trounced.
The game treats this beautifully. With Maruzensky just wanting to have fun, race against others! Have a grand ol’ time and let youthful energy overflow the racetrack… and everyone else only sees a monster that completely destroys them and then smiles as if it was absolutely nothing for them, just another fun day jogging in the park.
In fact, her training campaign sells this even further by making her objectives surprisingly easy to achieve, even when you have to run a long distance race and even if you don’t boost her proficiency for it (because the objective just says “participate” instead of “win”), it’s nnot uncommon for a properly trained Maruzensky to win anyways.
This is best sold in Sakura Chiyono O’s campaign (the only direct Maruzensky descendant), where one of the last objectives actually has you face a Maruzensky with obscenely high stats, giving the player an idea that THIS is what everyone sees when Maruzen-senpai wants to run. In fact, it seems like the event only happens in URA Finals and Aoharu Cup (where the power level is lower on average) to further sell this.
For comparison, this is what Happy Meek looks like at max rivalry in URA Finals in the last race.
And this is Maruzensky on that last confrontation with Chiyo-chan (depending on your choice you can also face Mr. CB).
Even without knowing the game inside and out, the Bigger Numbers should be enough of a sign.
Debates over the best racehorses have always been around, and the franchise does something really appropiate (and smart) by treating Maruzensky as a beast from a different time, a senpai that everyone respects and they’d rather not be on the wrong end of, where she predates even Rudolf and Rudolf herself comments that if Maruzensky was running she might’ve lost.
In short, imagine being such a scary opponent that your victory record is thin BECAUSE everyone refused to run against you out of fear. Even if all her races were measured with the current prestige their grades have, that’s still one hell of an honor to have.
