Chapter 135. Finally, not the Outer Gate: Victoria Mile Established
When the draw ceremony officially began, Super Creek and Tamamo Cross stepped onto the stage together.
Noticing Tokai Teio staring at the two seniors, Shuta An said, "In a few years, Teio can also attend as a draw guest."
"That'll be several years from now."
Tokai Teio stretched and narrowed her eyes.
"At least three years, right?"
Then she stretched her neck and muttered loudly enough for the young man to hear clearly, "By then, I want to receive even more enthusiastic applause than I do now."
"I'll help Teio achieve that."
Shuta An met Tokai Teio's gaze and answered her sincerely.
"With Teio's popularity, you could actually do it now, but I know Teio won't be satisfied with the status quo. We want to challenge more, don't we?"
"That's right."
Tokai Teio smiled brightly.
"So I hope Trainer can be stricter with me, letting me compete for achievements that surpass all my seniors."
"Only then—" she murmured, while avoiding her Trainer's gaze.
After Tamamo Cross and Super Creek chatted for a while, the draw officially began.
Tamamo Cross was responsible for drawing the Uma Musume, and the one below the stage would stand up and choose a letter. Super Creek would then open the "golden egg" marked with that letter and display the gate number hidden inside.
The first runner drawn by Tamamo Cross was Carib Song, whose biggest previous victory was this year's G2 Meguro Kinen.
"Since the first letter of my name is C, I'll choose C," Carib Song said without hesitation, naming the "golden egg" she wanted.
Super Creek smiled, picked up the egg, broke it with a small hammer, took out the slip of paper inside, and displayed it: "14."
Pfft—
The venue burst into laughter.
A total of 16 Uma Musume were participating, and Carib Song drew gate 14, which meant one bad gate had already been taken.
By the time it was Daitaku Helios's turn, six gates had already been drawn.
"It's a good thing she announced before the race that she'd be running a senko tactic," Shuta An remarked.
"Because Palmer-san can't compete in the Arima Kinen, Daitaku Helios isn't in the mood for a great escape," Tokai Teio said, clearly knowing the inside story. "Their friendship is really deep."
"If they both ran a great escape, plus Twin Turbo, that would give Teio a lot of trouble," Shuta An said with his eyes closed, easily imagining the scene.
As for Tokai Teio's weakness against great escape tactics, he had thought about how to compensate for it for a long time, but in the end, it was tied to her racing style, and that style was one of her defining traits.
He could not think of a way to preserve her style while also neutralizing great escape runners. Besides, if she raced in Europe in the future, she would rarely encounter such runners, so he simply pushed the issue aside for later.
Just as Shuta An and Tokai Teio were whispering, Daitaku Helios's gate was also drawn.
Gate 4.
"Now I'm even more relieved she doesn't have a great escape plan," Shuta An said.
"Indeed," Tokai Teio agreed.
The destructive power of a great escape Uma Musume starting from an inner gate was terrifying; there was no need even to imagine it.
Next Tamamo Cross drew Air Groove.
"I choose A!"
Although Carib Song had already been unlucky by choosing the first letter of her name earlier, Air Groove still followed suit.
"It can't be unlucky again, can it?" Air Groove thought.
Then Super Creek drew gate 2 for her.
"..."
Air Groove was speechless for a moment.
Although outer gates are said to be very disadvantageous in the Arima Kinen, gate 2 is not especially favorable for an Uma Musume like Air Groove either, especially with gate 4 being Daitaku Helios. Even though Daitaku Helios had already announced she would be using a senko tactic in this Arima Kinen, Air Groove's ability to secure a good position at the start was already weak.
One could only say it was a case of bad timing making things worse.
"This is bad, this is really bad," Tojo Hana said at the same time, clicking her tongue. "Now the race plan we made earlier will have to be redone completely."
Shuta An said nothing.
They were opponents next, and he would not do anything to give the enemy an advantage, especially with Tokai Teio right beside him.
He was sure that if he tried to give Tojo Hana advice now, Tokai Teio would definitely grab his arm and shake it, complaining that he was helping the opponent in front of her rather than taking her side.
This was live on television, and he did not even want to imagine the fallout from that.
"Gate 16 still hasn't been drawn yet."
When only three Uma Musume remained, the only gates left were 6, 9, and 16.
Gates 6 and 9 were naturally excellent.
Gate 16, of course, was a hellish gate.
Then Osumi Shadai was drawn.
After she stood up, she glanced at her Trainer. Miss Fumino Nase nodded, seemingly giving her approval.
"I choose O!"
Osumi Shadai also chose the "golden egg" matching the first letter of her name.
Super Creek raised an eyebrow.
"Really? The several Uma Musume who chose based on the first letter of their names earlier haven't had much luck."
"I'm sure!" Osumi Shadai replied firmly. "This is the result I decided on with my Trainer!"
Super Creek had no choice but to comply. She opened the "golden egg" marked O, took out the gate number, and displayed it without even looking.
"Yes!"
Tokai Teio excitedly high-fived Shuta An.
Super Creek also gave a helpless wry smile, because Osumi Shadai had drawn gate 16.
"Whether it's gate 6 or gate 9, both are excellent gates!"
The young man patted Tokai Teio's shoulder.
"And both are the most suitable gates for Teio."
Tokai Teio was drawn next.
She raised her index finger and said, "I choose I, because it's ME!"
Super Creek displayed the number from inside.
9.
—
"This year's Undefeated Triple Crown Tokai Teio will start from gate 9 in the Arima Kinen!" Twinkle Magazine quickly posted the bulletin on its official account.
"Finally, it's not an outside gate!"
Tokai Teio's fans celebrated one after another.
—
That Sunday, Arima Kinen race day, several of Team Sadalsuud's still-undebuted Uma Musume came to Nakayama Racecourse to watch. Rice Shower and Mejiro Dober, however, did not come.
Mejiro Dober had noticed Rice Shower's artistic talent, and recently she had been working with Agnes Digital to persuade Rice Shower to join them for the upcoming winter Comic Market.
Shuta An did not concern himself with their creative progress.
He only knew that Dober planned to draw a sequel to a pure-love doujinshi she had made before, and Agnes Digital had strongly agreed and joined in. Rice would very likely end up drawing with them too. He did not think Rice could resist the persuasion of Dober and Agnes Digital.
Even if she did not really want to join, Rice Shower's personality meant she was not good at refusing.
In any case, Dober's side would not delay Rice Shower's training or get her involved in any trouble, so Shuta An did not plan to intervene.
Meanwhile, Oguri and Suzuka were busy preparing for Christmas a few days later, so they did not have the time to come watch the race live.
More precisely, it was Berno and Suzuka, the two Uma Musume, who were preparing for Christmas. Oguri had to send Tamamo Cross to the airport that day, and she also had a newly signed advertisement to film.
Although she had retired from the Twinkle Series many years ago, Oguri Cap's popularity had not declined at all. In fact, it had only grown, and the promotional power of the Dream Trophy Series was far stronger than Shuta An had imagined.
"No wonder Uma Musume are so eager to prove themselves in the Twinkle Series just to get a ticket to the Dream Trophy Series," Shuta An thought.
Kurofune and Admire Vega were brought from Central Tracen Academy to Nakayama Racecourse by Shuta.
Kurofune had already witnessed many major races live and was not a native Japanese Uma Musume, so she was not as excited about the Arima Kinen.
Admire Vega was different. Following Shuta An into Nakayama Racecourse, it was her first time entering the stakeholders' box. Along the way, she looked left and right, completely unlike her usual aloof self, which made her seem as though she did not care much about anything.
Shuta An did not notice this, but Kurofune saw everything.
"It seems Ayabe-chan isn't as cold and hard to approach as she looks," Kurofune thought silently. "I need to figure out how to get along with Ayabe-chan by watching her behavior."
After all, they were teammates, and Kurofune really wanted to build a good relationship with Admire Vega.
Shuta An, however, was not too concerned about the relationships between the Uma Musume in Team Sadalsuud—as long as they did not develop negative feelings toward each other.
When they entered the box, Admire Vega sat obediently on the sofa. Kurofune went to the refrigerator, took out two bottles of carrot juice, and handed Shuta An a can of sparkling water.
"Thanks, Kurofune."
Shuta An took it, nodded, and then took the initiative to suggest,
"There are still several hours until the Arima Kinen. If you two want to go out and look around, that's fine. Take your box pass with you. Aside from the Uma Musume waiting areas and some restricted zones, you can go anywhere else without trouble."
He was not sure whether the two Uma Musume could patiently stay with him here until the race began, and even if they chatted, he did not know what he could talk about with Admire Vega.
It was a little embarrassing to admit, but after returning from Hong Kong, he had not really paid much attention to Admire Vega's private life. He had only given her various training instructions.
"Later, I should ask Curren-chan whether Admire Vega's personal life has changed recently," the young man thought. "If possible, during next year's New Year holiday, I can arrange a visit to Mrs. Kondo again and talk with them about Admire Vega's recent situation."
"Ayabe-chan, do you want to go out and look around?"
Kurofune heard the Trainer's suggestion, then turned to Admire Vega, who was sipping her carrot juice.
"Curren-chan told me Nakayama Racecourse has been selling various Uma Musume dolls recently! Even Oguri Cap-senpai's horse doll is a limited edition. She bought a small one during her break, and I thought it was very cute. I want to buy a few to put in my dorm."
Shuta An stared at the two Uma Musume and suddenly noticed something.
"When Kurofune mentioned dolls, Admire Vega's ears twitched. Is she very interested in dolls?"
That thought made his heart stir.
"Is this a way to increase Admire Vega's favorability?"
On the attribute screen, ever since Admire Vega joined the team, her favorability had been locked at 20, which was clearly not high.
Shuta An did not intend to max out Admire Vega's favorability, but no matter whether he gave her effective training advice or occasionally invited her and the other Uma Musume to drink tea in the activity room, that value never moved at all. It was extremely stable.
He could not be sure whether a favorability of 20 would cause problems later, so he hoped to find a way to raise it.
Now, a possibility seemed to appear before him.
Admire Vega followed Kurofune out of the box.
Shuta An sat on the sofa, first turning on the TV to watch the news, then taking out his phone to check Line and chat.
After discussing recent European Twinkle Series news with Miesque, he received a Line message from Symboli Rudolf.
"The annual meeting unanimously approved Shuta-kun's proposal, and it will be announced to the public tonight. They plan to name that race the Victoria Mile."
"Oh~"
Shuta An read the message and let out a soft sigh.
"As expected."
"However, as a newly established G1, the URA Association also has a basic requirement: the average rating of the top four finishers cannot be below 115 for three consecutive years. If that happens, an IFUA warning will be issued, and if the requirement is not met for five consecutive years, the value of the Victoria Mile will be re-evaluated."
Symboli Rudolf's follow-up message did not put pressure on Shuta An.
"It won't trigger the warning mechanism."
Shuta An was very confident about that.
After all, in the first half of the year, there are too few races suitable for senior Triple Tiara-route Uma Musume, and most of them are G2 or G3. For those who do not want to face stronger opponents in the Yasuda Kinen and Takarazuka Kinen, the Victoria Mile will become the best option for all Triple Tiara-route Uma Musume.
"Victoria Mile in the first half of the year, Queen Elizabeth Cup in the second half. Most Triple Tiara-route Uma Musume will set those two races as their yearly goals."
Shuta An was completely certain of that.