About

Welcome to The Real Life Horses of Umamusume, a home for long-form essays on the real racehorses behind Umamusume Pretty Derby. Each month I choose a champion of Japanese horse racing to write about, tracing their career arc against the cultural forces influencing Japan at the time.

I have written about racehorses for a long time, but there is something truly intoxicating about the myth, legend and - dare I say it - aura, that frames the stories of these Japanese titans of the turf exude (yes Urara, dirt is good too).

These essays are the most detailed tellings of these stories.

Alongside my essay series, this is also home to The Tracen Telegraph, a never-established tabloid newspaper where real racehorses meet real (read: entirely made up) headlines. These are the fake stories about the real life horses of Umamusume you never knew you needed.