Chapter 56. Adding Burden to the URA Association
After waking up, Shuta An yawned and rubbed his eyes.
"European jockeys really are much stronger than those in Japan—" he muttered to himself. "If I extrapolate that to the real world, it probably means there's still quite a large gap between Japanese Trainers and their European counterparts."
As for America, although Shuta An acknowledged that the American jockeys in the Dream World possessed excellent skills, he would never admit that the "Breaking Bad" group in the real world deserved any praise.
While washing up, Shuta An casually opened the attribute viewer, intending to check the rewards he had received after sharing victory in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes with Thierry Jarnet the previous night.
"SKILL: GHOST OF HEAVY GROUND. WHEN THE TRACK CONDITION IS LISTED AS GOOD, SOFT, OR HEAVY, EFFECTIVELY REDUCES THE STAMINA CONSUMPTION OF THE RIDDEN/TRAINED UMA MUSUME."
"A very versatile ability."
Shuta An stared at the skill description as thoughts rapidly flashed through his mind.
"Perhaps it could be useful for Dober's overseas campaign?"
However, after thinking it over, he felt the usefulness was somewhat limited.
"Taking Ascot Racecourse as an example, Dober might struggle even on good ground there. If the track is listed as heavy, this skill can indeed activate, but the reduced stamina consumption probably won't be enough to offset the additional burden caused by the heavy ground itself."
After completing his analysis, Shuta An felt that the skill's greatest value lay in the Dream World.
"From now on, I'm the specialist for bad-ground races."
The young man muttered to himself.
During his vacation in Hokkaido, although Shuta An still had plenty of work to deal with, it was nevertheless a relatively pleasant period of time.
After Mejiro Dober was entered for the Yorkshire Oaks, York Racecourse began its promotional campaign. As the reigning winner of last year's Yorkshire Oaks, Mejiro Dober even received a special invitation from the racecourse, hoping she could take a new set of promotional photographs in Hokkaido.
Mejiro Dober naturally agreed.
However, what left Shuta An unsure whether to laugh or cry was that York Racecourse did not send a photography team. Instead, they simply stated that they would reimburse all expenses if the photos were taken locally.
Having suddenly acquired a new task, the young man decisively handed the matter over to the URA Association.
The URA Association had also been extremely busy recently.
The new winning outfit promised to Mejiro Dober had already been completed and delivered for fitting. Soon afterward, her third winning outfit was immediately approved as well, this one featuring a Christmas theme.
At the same time, the URA Association was also designing a new winning outfit for Tokai Teio in preparation for her achieving the Undefeated Triple Crown.
The most outrageous part was that the URA Association had even sought Shuta An's opinion on whether Rice Shower's first winning outfit should be designed in advance.
At that point, Shuta An had not even decided which debut race Rice Shower would enter.
"Since the URA Association is being so diligent, I might as well give them a little more work."
The young man silently made up his mind.
—
In the Dream World, the following day marked the final day of Royal Ascot.
Shuta An participated in three races and captured one G3 victory.
"I missed the first day of Royal Ascot, so I had one fewer day than everyone else. Even so, I still managed to win two G1 races, multiple graded races, and eight class races."
"It's fair to say the harvest was abundant."
At the evening party following the final race day, Shuta An once again realized what his fierce duel with Thierry Jarnet had brought him.
A large number of Trainers and Horse Owner representatives whom he had never previously interacted with sought him out and enthusiastically offered riding commissions.
Rather than accepting everything immediately, Shuta An pushed the task over to his Agent for screening.
"Mr. André Fabre's and Mr. Gosden's riding invitations take top priority. After that, prioritize G1 races."
These were the instructions he gave.
As for Tokai Teio, he only needed to compete in the Epsom Derby.
As long as he did not accept any commissions scheduled for the same day, there would be no issue.
Furthermore, most European Trainers and Horse Owner representatives already understood that any invitation issued for that particular day would inevitably be rejected.
Ironically, this greatly reduced his Manager's workload.
—
On Monday morning, Shuta An accompanied Mejiro Dober to complete the promotional photo shoot requested by York Racecourse.
In the afternoon, he helped her thoroughly test the quality and comfort of her new winning outfit.
(This outfit should be the Summer ver of Dober right? or the wedding dress Supoca?)
After dinner that evening, Tokai Teio dragged him to the lounge to make up numbers for a board game session.
By the time he finally returned to his room, it was already past ten o'clock.
Yawning repeatedly, the young man slowly headed for the bathroom.
"I really should have taken a nap at noon."
As he drowsily showered, he muttered to himself.
"But how was I supposed to sleep after Dober walked in wearing that new dress-style winning outfit?"
After changing into his pajamas, Shuta An climbed into bed, pulled the blanket over himself, and immediately fell asleep.
His speed of falling asleep exceeded ninety-nine percent of his peers.
—
Upon entering the Dream World, he found Manager Kohara already waiting for him with the riding invitations she had filtered and deemed acceptable.
Shuta An scanned through them once before raising his head.
"The next graded race I can participate in won't be until this Saturday. And there are only two options: Curragh in Ireland or Newmarket in the UK."
Manager Kohara immediately explained.
"The advantage of Newmarket is that, besides the G3 Criterion Stakes, there are also two Listed races on the same card."
"The advantage of Curragh is that its only graded race is the G2 Pretty Polly Stakes."
"Pretty Polly Stakes..."
Shuta An checked the racing calendar before asking another question.
"This race is held on the final day of Irish Derby Race Day, which means the Irish Derby takes place beforehand."
"Did I not receive a riding invitation for that race?"
"Yes, you did."
Manager Kohara nodded.
"However, the stable that extended the invitation has extremely weak horses. Across their previous ten starts, they've only managed to win a single sprint race."
"You could practically describe it as purchasing a VIP viewing seat on the track."
"Then forget it."
If the horse possessed even a little potential, Shuta An would have considered trying to work some magic.
However, he had no intention of accompanying a participant whose sole purpose was satisfying a Horse Owner's desire to appear in a major race.
"If Shuta-kun wants to participate in a European Classic, Mr. André Fabre actually has a riding commission available."
Manager Kohara continued.
"It's for the Irish Oaks in half a month. He hopes you can ride Wemyss Bight."
"This Saturday, she'll compete in a G2 race at Longchamp. Afterward, she'll be transported to Ireland to prepare for the Irish Oaks. She finished fifth in this year's Epsom Oaks."
"No problem."
Hearing that he would have the opportunity to ride a strong contender in a Classic Race, Shuta An finally smiled.
—
The next day, Shuta An and Mejiro Dober once again finalized their departure date from Hokkaido to York, England—July 9th.
This arrangement would allow Mejiro Dober to rest and recover for a week after arriving in York, before beginning a full month of preparation for the Yorkshire Oaks.
Once that matter was settled, Rice Shower's debut race was also officially confirmed. It would take place on July 7th at Sapporo Racecourse, over 1000 meters on turf, two days before Shuta An and Mejiro Dober departed for York.
This race would mark Rice Shower's official debut.
"Although 1000 meters is really short, your talent is more than enough to handle it," Shuta An told Rice Shower. "After the gates open, keep your head down and gradually build up speed. Once you enter the final straight, unleash everything and sprint at full power. If you run like that, you'll win."
Rice Shower firmly engraved her Trainer's instructions in her heart.
However, Shuta did not merely make her memorize the race strategy.
Instead, at the training ground inside the resort, he called upon Mejiro Dober and Tokai Teio every day to sandwich Rice Shower from the front and back, repeatedly drilling her acceleration techniques within complex group formations.
"This kind of training lineup is something only Team Rigil could possibly match," Shuta An proudly boasted to Kurofune, who was standing beside him.
"Will I receive this kind of treatment in the future as well?" Kurofune secretly wondered.
"Though by then, it probably won't be Senior Dober and Senior Teio training alongside me."
—
Because the date of Rice Shower's debut race had been finalized, Shuta An explicitly instructed Tokai Teio over the following days not to disturb Rice Shower's preparations.
The price he paid for that decision was being constantly dragged away by Tokai Teio to play games with her, greatly reducing the opportunities he had to spend time alone with Dober.
Unfortunately, Tokai Teio belonged to the category of people who were terrible at games yet loved playing them.
Once Shuta An became familiar with the mechanics and controls, Tokai Teio could no longer defeat him unless he deliberately held back.
As a result, she could only let out indignant cries of frustration before pouncing onto her Trainer and wrestling him in protest.
—
Meanwhile, in the Dream World, Shuta An ultimately chose to travel to Curragh, Ireland, and participate in the Pretty Polly Stakes.
After all, he would be competing at Curragh Racecourse again in half a month for the Irish Oaks, so becoming familiar with the track beforehand was unquestionably the better choice.
Before the Royal Ascot Race Days, Shuta An had already studied Ascot Racecourse extensively in the real world. Yet even so, his understanding had remained largely theoretical.
Only after personally riding there did he begin to notice countless details that could never be discovered through racecourse analysis meetings alone.
"To truly understand something, you have to experience it yourself. That saying really is correct," the young man thought.
That night in the Dream World, after helping Gosden exercise several racehorses during training, Shuta An returned to the hotel he had rented to rest.
Yoshida Katsumi was not there.
He had gone out to "strengthen relationships" with Europe's leading breeding farms.
For Shadai Group, elite broodmares from Europe and America were resources they desperately desired.
Although the United States was willing to sell horses of virtually any caliber as long as the buyer could pay the price, Europe was a different story. European breeders were far more reluctant to part with their top bloodlines.
Nevertheless, Yoshida Katsumi believed it was absolutely necessary to establish strong relationships with those European farms.
—
After returning to the hotel, Shuta An did not immediately go to sleep.
Sleeping again inside the Dream World felt somewhat excessive.
As a result, he simply sat in the living room and turned on the television.
After some time, the phone he had recently purchased in London suddenly rang. Only people within the racing industry knew this number.
Shuta An casually picked up the receiver.
"Hello, this is Shuta An. May I ask who's calling?"
"Shuta-kun, this is Nakano Takayoshi."
The voice of Hokuto Vega's Trainer came from the other end of the line.
Shuta An paused slightly.
He had not expected Nakano Takayoshi to be the one contacting him.
Ever since Shuta An had proposed the idea of sending Hokuto Vega on an American expedition, the other party had never contacted him again.
The young man had even wondered whether the Trainer held some unspoken dissatisfaction toward that suggestion.
"Oh, Trainer Nakano."
After a brief pause, Shuta An adopted a tone of sudden realization.
"May I ask what this is regarding?"
"Mr. Mori Shigeru has decided to send Hokuto Vega on an expedition to America," Nakano Takayoshi explained. "We intend to select two races between July and September. Does Shuta-kun have any recommendations? Ideally, one turf race and one dirt race, with distances ranging between 1600 and 2200 meters."
"I understand."
During his free time, Shuta An had already considered what races Hokuto Vega should target if she truly traveled to America.
Several options had long been prepared in his mind.
After filtering them according to Nakano Takayoshi's requirements, only two remained.
"For the first race, I recommend the Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar Racetrack. It's a mares-only dirt G1 over 1700 meters."
"For the second race, I recommend the Flower Bowl Stakes at Saratoga Race Course. That's a turf G1 over 2200 meters. Both races satisfy your requirements, Trainer Nakano."
"That does sound quite good."
Nakano Takayoshi paused briefly.
"So what are the drawbacks?"
"The biggest issue is transportation."
Shuta An answered honestly.
"Del Mar Racetrack and Saratoga Race Course are separated by nearly 3,000 kilometers. That means transportation will place additional strain on Hokuto Vega. Mr. Mori Shigeru would also need to cover another round of long-distance transportation expenses."
"Additionally, the prize money for those two races isn't particularly high."
"Money isn't a problem for now."
Nakano Takayoshi immediately ignored the final point.
"Transportation is indeed an issue. I'll need to discuss Mr. Mori Shigeru's intentions with him."
"I understand."
Shuta An smoothly continued.
"If Mr. Mori Shigeru ultimately decides to send Hokuto Vega to America, then I'm willing to fly there and take the ride myself."
"Then I'll leave it to you, Shuta-kun. I'll contact you as soon as Mr. Mori Shigeru reaches a decision."
That promise was precisely what Nakano Takayoshi had wanted. The moment he received Shuta An's assurance, the heaviest burden weighing on his heart immediately disappeared.
When Yoshida Katsumi eventually returned, Shuta casually mentioned Hokuto Vega's situation to him.
"Even if you tell me, I can't offer any private assistance," Yoshida Katsumi replied, spreading his hands. "Shadai Group's resources can't be invested into a mare that won't belong to us in the future."
"That's not what I meant."
The young man wagged a finger.
"My point is that Vega's camp needs to understand something clearly."
"Even if Vega ultimately becomes an Undefeated Triple Crown winner, the biggest star of this year's mare division will most likely be Hokuto Vega if she manages to win a G1 in America."
"That doesn't matter."
Yoshida Katsumi's response was remarkably indifferent.
"Anyway, my mother doesn't care about things like that. As long as Vega wins the Triple Tiara, that's enough."