Kitasan Black's burst of speed was like a bolt of black lightning, tearing through the already fierce state of the race in an instant.
At almost the exact same moment, the Umamusume at the front of the field all changed expression.
There was gravity in their eyes, shock, disbelief—and even confusion under the impact of absolute power.
Gold Actor reacted the fastest.
She had already weighed the pros and cons of being ahead of Kitasan Black, and had already judged that the greatest drawback was the savage drain on stamina.
So the moment she sensed that sudden surge beside her, she did not hesitate in the slightest. With perfect precision, she cut inward a few steps and let Kitasan Black charge past her without any obstruction at all.
At the same time, Sounds of Earth's pupils contracted.
She had originally been immersed in her own stirring fantasy of "performing together" with Kitasan Black, and she had indeed imagined that Kitasan Black might suddenly explode forward.
She liked this kouhai very much. After Kitasan Black won the Kikuka Sho, she had specifically gone and found recordings of every one of her races.
And when she noticed that the other girl often came to watch her training during the buildup, she had returned the courtesy by going to watch several of hers as well.
What she desired, besides victory in this year-end feast, was to perform a beautiful movement together with an opponent this powerful.
But Kitasan Black's explosive power still made the strings of her heart tremble.
That instant burst hit like a sledgehammer, smashing violently into the carefully constructed score in her mind and making her body quiver uncontrollably.
What she had not expected even more was that Gold Actor would give up the Front Runner position so easily.
Sounds of Earth could run at the front, but even by her own standards, her Front Runner level was absolutely inferior to her Pace Chaser and Late Surger abilities.
And in a race like this, her front-running ability looked even worse.
Among her peers, Gold Actor and Marialite were better at it than she was; among the juniors, Kitasan Black and Lia Fail were too. In fact, those juniors even had slightly more practical experience in it than she did.
This opening-stage move to the front had been a tactic from the beginning—she had been hoping that with so many Front Runners clashing fiercely, she could profit from it and take the most advantageous position for herself.
And yet, Kitasan Black's explosiveness and Gold Actor's retreat made it impossible for her to carry out the plan she had prepared before the race.
The sudden turn of events disrupted her smooth running rhythm, and her stride showed one obvious stumble.
With no room to spare, she had no choice but to switch her footing and slip into the rear diagonal angle formed by the two opponents ahead of her.
Her instincts told her that this was already the best position available for now.
If she wanted to put the rest of her prearranged tactics into practice, the best thing to do was stay here and wait to see how things developed.
So this is the kind of variation it is? Splendid...
It's simply too splendid!
Keep going... keep going!
I can already feel it—this Arima Kinen... will be an even more wondrous performance than I imagined!
The setback did not leave her flustered. If anything, it made her even more thrilled and expectant.
Compared to Gold Actor and Sounds of Earth, Lia Fail and Marialite felt much heavier inside.
Lia Fail's eyes widened, filled with dismay.
The image of Kitasan Black's lightning-fast overtake in the Kikuka Sho played over and over in her mind—and now, the same thing was happening again.
And even more fiercely than before.
Her breathing abruptly turned ragged, and her heart pounded wildly in her chest like a trapped bird fighting desperately to break free.
A moment ago, she had still been hesitating over whether to follow her trainer's instructions. But now she was completely overwhelmed by Kitasan Black's momentum.
Her mind went blank, and her feet unconsciously slowed, as though invisible shackles had wrapped themselves around her.
Marialite was shaken as well.
Just a moment ago, she had been rapidly calculating how to break through the line ahead and find a chance to surge forward.
But Kitasan Black's instantaneous explosion of power, Gold Actor's unhesitating retreat, Sounds of Earth's swift weaving adjustment, Lia Fail's hesitant steps...
Taken together, all of it had formed, by a series of deeply subtle and accidental connections, a wall in front of her, instantly turning all her calculations into foam.
She felt like someone groping forward in the dark who had suddenly been hit by a blinding beam of light, everything before her gone white, all sense of direction lost.
But she did not give up.
Even amid that moment of confusion, determination still shone in her eyes.
She knew better than anyone that in this Arima Kinen, she was never the most dazzling Umamusume in the field.
The Queen Elizabeth II Cup a little over a month ago had been the first G1 victory of her career—and the only one.
The races before that had all been respectable finishes, and there had been good placings among them, including wins and runner-up results, but only two of them had been graded races.
And in one G2 she had finished only fifth; in one G3, only second.
Even in that G1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup, which she had won, she had still gone in as only the sixth favorite.
Compared with all these opponents, who had multiple G1 titles and multiple graded-race wins to their names, she had never stood out at all.
She had only made it here because the fans who had quietly supported her all this time had kept believing in her, and because she had, by a stroke of fortune, managed to qualify for the Arima Kinen as the twelfth favorite.
But even so—and precisely because of that—no matter what stood in her way ahead, she had to give everything she had and find her own road to victory.
Further back, Lovely Day frowned for only an instant.
With a grave look in her eyes, she calmly surveyed the chaos ahead.
Her original judgment had indeed been thrown off by Kitasan Black's extraordinary explosiveness, and by the chain of effects that explosiveness had triggered.
But it was equally obvious that the other opponents ahead had been caught off guard by it as well.
And the entire field would now have to bear the changes that would follow from that surprise.
Which meant that what everyone had to bear, and what everyone had to think through and judge, was fundamentally the same.
Including Kitasan Black, who was now in front—she too had to bear it, and think it through.
A race was not something one person could control. After so many races, Lovely Day understood that perfectly well.
It was like tossing a pebble into a still lake—the entire surface would ripple.
And the pebble itself would also have to face the pressure of those ripples rebounding back.
If that was the case, then the essence of the situation had not changed.
The pace was still being dictated by a Front Runner; the only difference was that the one doing it had changed from Gold Actor to Kitasan Black.
So the thing that truly required attention was still there...
Her mind working furiously, the corner of her eye flicked quietly backward.
All of this had happened in the opening moments of this Arima Kinen.
The stands had long since been sent into a boil by the intensity before their eyes, and the commentator, unable to hold back his excitement, sent his heated voice ringing across the entire racecourse:
"THERE IT IS! KITASAN BLACK MAKES HER BREAK!"
"JUST LIKE IN THE KIKUKA SHO, KITASAN BLACK BURSTS OUT FROM THE FIELD WITH INCREDIBLE FORCE, OVERTAKING GOLD ACTOR TO TAKE FIRST PLACE!"
He was speaking so fast that every word felt like a stone striking the lake, sending wave after wave through the hearts of the spectators:
"KITASAN BLACK IS NOW IN FRONT!"
"AND THE TOP FAVORITE, GOLD SHIP, REMAINS AS ALWAYS IN THE REARMOST END CLOSER POSITION, WHILE THE SECOND FAVORITE, LOVELY DAY, IS POISED AT THE HEAD OF THE PACE CHASER GROUP!"
"THE FIELD IS TANGLED TOGETHER AS THEY RACE AT FULL SPEED INTO THE TURN—AN OPENING THIS FIERCE FROM THE VERY START, THIS... IS THE ARIMA KINEN!"
"WHAT KIND OF CLASH WILL THESE SIXTEEN RUNNERS UNFOLD FROM HERE ON? WE CAN ONLY WATCH AND WAIT!""