Umamusume Pretty Derby is a horse girl racing franchise created by Japanese company Cyber Agent. The franchise includes an anime, manga, and mobile/PC game, as well as limitless merchandise opportunities. The franchise follows the lives of the horse girls (umas) and incorporates the real life events of the horses they are based off - including race wins, injuries, and unfortunately deaths. The franchises popularity has caused a boom in Japans racing scene, the creation of a welfare scheme for retired race horses, and is influencing the way races are run all over the world. The horse girls are also pop stars but that doesn’t come up much.

So saddle up, grab the reigns, and prepare to be taken on a magical journey into the crazy world of Pretty Derby racing. Our longest episode yet features a string of mispronounced places, the oddity of race horse naming conventions, and the ranking of this story on our quest to find the wildest story from the world of sport.

Sources:

https://www.historyskills.com/classroom/modern-history/sakoku/?srsltid=AfmBOophc690UYOfSxPt2wSXLkanxsoIyMm-O2NWxE7BGQotPdVnwL5F

https://japanracing.jp/_pdf/jpn-racing/jra/king/03.pdf

https://www.jbis.jp/horse/0001104811/sire/generation

https://japanracing.jp/_statistics-local/2024/local01.html

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-26/rehoming-racehorses-expensive-fantasy-retirement-for-a-lucky-few/11640644

https://idolhorse.com/horse-racing-news/umamusume/umamusume-can-reap-the-rewards-of-susumu-fujitas-savvy-timing

https://umamusume.fandom.com/wiki/Umamusume_Wiki

Presenters:

James Whybrow

Ben Whybrow

Carlin Sheaves

Music and cover art:

Zoe Behrendt