Chapter 17: Keisei Hai Under the Winter Sky

Nakayama Racecourse. Today’s main event is the Keisei Hai (GIII), a 1600m turf race.
With snow piled along the course, it’s a bitterly cold day for racing.

This is the first graded stakes of the Classic tier for the year—only seven runners, but every one of them a proven talent.

The Uma Musume are loading smoothly.
The center of attention, Witolum Pedes, steps into gate 7. After finishing her Junior season with six wins out of six, will she be the first to stake her claim for Classic dominance? Or will someone rise to halt her momentum?

Gate 5: Hyper Minimum settles into place. This will be her third showdown against Witolum Pedes.

Gate 4: Rocket Bourbon enters, completing the lineup.

The race begins! No major stumbles out of the gate.
Witolum Pedes gets a clean start as well.

The fight for the lead draws the eyes of the crowd—who will take command?
Hyper Minimum and Witolum Pedes move up side by side. The blue-saddled Rocket Bourbon runs slightly behind.

"I'm going!!!"

As expected, Witolum Pedes bursts forward, outdueling Hyper Minimum. She slices inward along the rail, seizing a clean, uncontested lead.

Just like her previous race, she widens the gap as they approach the second corner.

Witolum Pedes leads comfortably; five lengths behind, Hyper Minimum gives chase. Close on her tail follows the black-saddled Velour Smile.
In mid-pack, the green-saddled M-One Asahi runs patiently on the inside, seemingly saving her finishing kick, while Rocket Bourbon circles wider on the outside.

Already at the midpoint of the second corner, the field begins to string out.

Entering the backstretch, Witolum Pedes expands her lead to over ten lengths. She quickens the pace—just like last race, the margin grows and grows.

The second group: Hyper Minimum holds the inside, while Velour Smile advances from the outside. They’ve pulled four lengths clear of those behind—but can they possibly catch Witolum Pedes?

And now—already—Witolum Pedes charges from the backstretch into the third corner with an enormous, overwhelming lead! Will the Junior champion simply run away with this, or will someone behind make a move?

Hyper Minimum eyes the front, but Velour Smile looks to be struggling. M-One Asahi begins to accelerate, gradually closing the gap—but Witolum Pedes may already be untouchable.

They enter the curve for the fourth corner. Witolum Pedes remains in front—her lead entirely unchanged. She still holds more than fifteen lengths as the field turns toward Nakayama’s famously short homestretch.

The second group tightens but still cannot approach the leader.

400 meters remaining. Will the chasers make it in time?

No murmuring from the crowd—only applause. Witolum Pedes leads.
Maintaining an enormous advantage, she enters the final straight. Is this a safe lead?

Hyper Minimum inches into a clear second. Rocket Bourbon surges from the outside to challenge for second as well.

But—no, Witolum Pedes remains alone at the front! 200 meters to go. A complete runaway.
She claims the first Classic-stage race with commanding style, extending her undefeated streak to seven.

The battle for second continues—Hyper Minimum clings on while Rocket Bourbon closes from the outside!

Witolum Pedes crosses the finish first.
With a lead of more than twenty lengths, she wins the graded stakes in brilliant fashion.

Second place is tight—Hyper Minimum appears to have the slight advantage on the inside.

Witolum Pedes’ POV

Whoever invented the concept of hatsumōde—New Year’s shrine visits—clearly lacked even a shred of human empathy.
If they had an ounce of compassion, they wouldn’t have come up with such a bizarre ritual as voluntarily going to a shrine in the freezing cold of winter. And if they had any real wisdom, even if the idea crossed their mind, they’d never have spoken it aloud.

That’s what I said last year while clinging to the warm floor of my parents’ house.

Unfortunately, my parents are creatures capable of learning.

This year, they apparently recruited my Trainer as part of their scheme ahead of time.

During the end-of-year slump, when I was thoroughly unmotivated, my Trainer skillfully extracted a “Yes” from me.
In other words, because I gave my usual thoughtless automatic reply, I ended up forced to wake up before noon on New Year’s Day.

While walking with Trainer to the nearby shrine, we ran into that trio of little troublemakers.
Despite it being midwinter, the boys were in thin T-shirts, absorbed in a snowball fight with the light dusting of snow on the ground—classic elementary-school-boy behavior.

They hadn’t noticed us, so I gathered the thin layer of snow on the concrete wall, packed it, and prepared to toss it at them.
Just as I wound up, Trainer hurriedly stopped me.

Worse still, the commotion made the trio notice us.

Their attitude immediately flipped—they greeted Trainer over my head with suspiciously polite “We’re good kids!” energy and quickly warmed up to him.
Before I knew it, all three of them had been absorbed into our shrine-visit outing.

Because of the heavy crowds at the shrine, I was left waiting in the freezing cold.
The moment we finished praying, I abandoned all of them and headed straight home.
Unfortunately, that earned me a scolding from my parents.

When I returned to Tracen Academy, the world had transformed within just a few days thanks to a heavy dump of snow.

In this silver-white world, training had effectively vanished.

…Well, that’s an exaggeration, but until the accumulated snow was cleared, outdoor training was heavily restricted.

Still, thanks to the snow and the cold, the number of lunchtime nap spots had been steadily dwindling.

The old science classroom I recently discovered is an unused room with perfect sunlight—making it a prime location. Naturally, though, napping buddies keep an eye on places like that. Lately, the dapple-gray Uma Musume from the neighboring class has been getting there before me, taking the comfiest sofa for herself.

As I dawdled and avoided training like usual, race day finally arrived.
The Keisei Hai: the usual 1600 meters at Nakayama Racecourse. And since it’s a graded stakes race, it guarantees three whole weeks of paradise afterward.

…But cold is cold, no matter how you justify it. And today is particularly freezing.

It’s cloudy, and the high temperature is a miserable seven degrees. Snow mounds are scattered around the racecourse, making the entire scene look cold enough to shiver at.

And for some reason, we’re racing in gym uniforms. I can only assume someone lost their mind.
If at least we were in our racing outfits—those have long sleeves and gloves, so they’re fairly warm…

Sure, running warms you up, but the waiting time in the starting gate is unbearably cold.

Since there are few runners, my strategy is the usual front-running escape. Once the gates open, I head straight to the lead.

Unlike last time with Grass-chan chasing me everywhere, no one seems inclined to hound me this race, so all I need to do is run my course at my leisure.

Once I’m running, I feel the cold less than expected. Running produces heat after all—it warms the body.

Come to think of it, rather than training day after day in this cold, it’s far more rational to race now and then spend the following days lazing around indoors where it’s warm.

As it turned out, the day after the race had a high of four degrees, with sleet mixed with snow falling all day long. I secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Recently, the fridge in the Trainer’s office has been stocked with a slightly bitter juice and some cupcakes. Apparently, they’re Trainer’s special recommendation—and they’re actually delicious.
The cupcakes, of course, are great, but even the juice has a rich depth beneath the bitterness. Perfect for gaming sessions.

I’ll spend my break for a while relaxing, watching the snow outside the window!

By the way, my next race is the Kyodo Tsushin Hai in February—the same race I watched last year with King-chan and Spe-chan when Suzuka-san ran it.

And this morning, when I was heading to class from the dorm, for some reason Tazuna-san already knew I was entering the Kyodo Tsushin Hai, and she encouraged me: “Make it a good race, okay?”

…What was that all about?