After a brief recovery training session in the morning, Zhou Tai'an urged Oguri Cap and Brand New Shine to go to lunch.
But after Oguri Cap left, Brand New Shine lingered, shuffling her feet.
"Is something wrong?" Zhou Tai'an asked, feigning ignorance.
"Trainer, you can probably guess, can't you?" Brand New Shine dropped the act, stopping and turning to ask. "You must have guessed, right?"
"I'm guessing, Brand New Shine, that you want to ask me about the logistics position," the young man smiled. "Because when I was talking to Oguri Cap about the prize money split, you seemed very interested."
"Well..." Brand New Shine scratched her head. "I'm aware of my own talent. It's going to be hard for me to make a mark in the Twinkle Series."
She paused, looking at Zhou Tai'an seriously. "Trainer, please be honest with me. If I strictly follow your training plan, what's the most I can achieve?"
"..." Zhou Tai'an fell silent, glancing at Brand New Shine's basic stats. Apart from her Dirt Aptitude, which barely touched a B, all her other racing stats were C or lower.
He hesitated for a long time, carefully choosing his words. "If both you and I give it our all, I can get you multiple wins at Kasamatsu, and maybe even win one or two local Graded Races."
The prize money for a local Graded Race at Kasamatsu was, at most, 5 million yen.
"Then there's no need to hesitate." Brand New Shine held out her hand. "Trainer, are you willing to let me be the team's logistics Horse Girl?"
"I am, of course, willing," Zhou Tai'an said, but he didn't shake her hand. "But I hope, Brand New Shine, that you will at least run one local race at Kasamatsu. Experience the feeling of the racetrack. Otherwise, your career as a Horse Girl will feel incomplete."
"I'll listen to you, Trainer." Brand New Shine was agreeable. "Even though I'm not planning to be a racing Horse Girl anymore, I'll continue to train seriously until my debut."
"Good. I will treat you with the same attitude I treat Oguri Cap," Zhou Tai'an said with a raised eyebrow, making a promise.
After watching Brand New Shine leave, Zhou Tai'an quietly sighed in relief.
In fact, after he had seen Brand New Shine's stats, he had already been thinking about how to handle this chestnut-haired Horse Girl who had been brought in by Oguri Cap.
At first, Zhou Tai'an had thought about finding her alternate-world counterpart in his dream, to see if he could use dream rewards to boost her abilities. That had failed.
Later, when Zhou Tai'an was gathering the family information for his two Horse Girls, he discovered that Brand New Shine's family owned a sporting goods store. That's when he got the idea of having her work in logistics.
But Zhou Tai'an couldn't be the one to bring it up. After all, he wasn't that close with Brand New Shine yet and was afraid his suggestion would make her overthink things.
"As a trainer, you must be concerned about the psychological state of your Horse Girls." Zhou Tai'an had learned this in school.
He had also witnessed in America the suffering of trainers who didn't take this seriously.
"Although, in terms of physical strength, I'm not really afraid of most Horse Girls," Zhou Tai'an mused, flexing his wrist as he recalled the "tragic scene" he had witnessed.
Now that Brand New Shine had proactively offered to take on the logistics role, it had saved Zhou Tai'an a lot of trouble.
"Although as a logistics Horse Girl, she won't be able to stand on stage and enjoy the cheers like the racing Horse Girls, I won't let Brand New Shine just stay behind the scenes," he thought. He had already come up with ten, no, nine different ways to utilize Brand New Shine.
…
After a simple lunch, Zhou Tai'an met his two Horse Girls at the academy gate.
"Good afternoon, Trainer! Although the teacher didn't know what you were taking us to do, she specifically told us to be careful," Brand New Shine said, waving the leave-of-absence slip in her hand.
"It's not like I'm taking you anywhere dangerous," Zhou Tai'an retorted, turning around. "Follow me."
Oguri Cap and Brand New Shine obediently followed him.
Zhou Tai'an led them to the academy's parking lot, walked up to a first-generation Alto, and opened the back door. "Get in. We're heading out."
"Trainer, where are we going?" Oguri Cap finally couldn't help but ask.
As he got into the driver's seat, Zhou Tai'an replied without looking back, "To Nagoya Racecourse. The SP1-level local Graded Race, the Tokai Oka Sho, is being held today. I'm taking you two to watch."
"Huh!? We're not training, we're watching a race?" Brand New Shine was very confused. "What kind of training is this!?"
"As Horse Girls, have you ever watched a race live at the track?" Zhou Tai'an asked casually as he started the car.
The two Horse Girls in the back were stumped.
"You haven't, right?" Zhou Tai'an was not surprised. "That's why I'm taking you to watch one live. To experience the atmosphere of a Graded Race day at Nagoya."
"Experience the atmosphere?" Oguri Cap tilted her head.
"You need to realize that you'll be standing on an even bigger stage in the future," Zhou Tai'an said as he drove out of the academy. "Especially you, Oguri Cap. If you want to achieve your dream, we will definitely go to Central."
"Over at Central, even on a day with no Graded Races, the atmosphere at the racecourse is more intense and shocking than Nagoya today. If it's a Graded Race, or even a G1..." Zhou Tai'an paused, recalling the Takarazuka Kinen he had watched with the "Emperor" at Central. "If your spirit isn't strong enough, you might even be shaken by the crowd's cheers, which will affect your performance."
"That sounds terrifying..." Brand New Shine muttered.
"Is it really that intense?" Oguri Cap's voice held a trace of hesitation.
Hearing Oguri Cap's reaction, Zhou Tai'an was certain that his idea of taking them to watch a race was the right one.
Nagoya Racecourse was built over thirty years ago. Naturally, like most other local racecourses, it only had a dirt track. The track's circumference was 1,100 meters, its width 23 meters, and the final straight was only 194 meters, the shortest of all racecourses in Japan.
And although the Graded Race being held at Nagoya Racecourse today was called the "Tokai Oka Sho," similar to the "Oka Sho" (Japanese 1000 Guineas) at Central, the first leg of the fillies' Triple Crown, the entry conditions were completely different.
This Tokai Oka Sho only accepted "older" Horse Girls who had finished their classic season, and the race condition was 2000 meters on dirt.
After buying tickets, Zhou Tai'an led Oguri Cap and Brand New Shine to the spectator stands closest to the track.
"There are still more than two hours until the Tokai Oka Sho," he said, turning to the two Horse Girls. "You two can carefully observe the skill level of the Horse Girls in the next few races."
At this, Zhou Tai'an's gaze shifted to Oguri Cap. "Especially you, Oguri Cap. As long as you win one local race at Kasamatsu, I will bring you here to compete. So you must pay close attention to the Horse Girls on the track."
"Will they be my future opponents?" Oguri Cap asked.
Zhou Tai'an shook his head. "No, but your opponents will be at a similar level. And you must beat them once, or even multiple times, before I can take you to Hokkaido to challenge the elite of your generation from all across the country's local tracks."
Hearing her trainer's reply, Oguri Cap bit her lip, looked up at him, and said with a determined tone, "I understand. I will keep winning, so I can stand on a bigger stage!"
Brand New Shine chimed in from the side, "I'll cheer for Oguri, too!"
"Mm." Oguri Cap, not thinking much of it, just turned and nodded at her teammate.
After two C-group races, during the parade for the next, higher-level B-group race, Oguri Cap suddenly spoke to Zhou Tai'an. "I feel that after your training, Trainer, I would have a chance to win both of the last two races."
"Is that so?" Zhou Tai'an didn't show any reaction, his tone flat. "This next race is a higher level than the previous two. Keep watching, Oguri Cap."
Half an hour later, Oguri Cap gave the same answer.
"The next race is today's main event at Nagoya, the Tokai Oka Sho," Zhou Tai'an said after a moment of silence. "Like the Tokai Derby, it's SP1 level. You can equate their level to next year's Tokai Derby."
In truth, this comparison wasn't accurate, but Zhou Tai'an believed it was easier for Oguri Cap to understand at this stage.
"Does that mean... if I can become stronger than them, I can win the Tokai Derby next year?" Oguri Cap blinked, asking curiously. In fact, she really wanted to know what level she needed to reach to achieve her and her trainer's dreams.
"The Tokai Derby is not our goal," Zhou Tai'an didn't answer directly. "If possible, I hope we'll be challenging Central's Graded Races next year, or even G1s."
"But you have to take it one step at a time, and eat one bite at a time, right?" he shrugged.
"I can eat it all in one bite," Oguri Cap mumbled.
Brand New Shine and Zhou Tai'an both lost their composure. The chestnut-haired Horse Girl burst out laughing, while the young man struggled to hold in his laughter, his body shaking.
"The 27th Tokai Oka Sho is about to begin," the racecourse announcer's voice echoed. At the same time, the large screen in the center of the track showed the real-time status of the participating Horse Girls.
"Oguri Cap, you need to pay attention to this. When you really step onto the stage of a Graded Race, don't do anything strange right before the race. The cameras will be on you, and your every move will be projected onto that big screen," Zhou Tai'an said, seeing this, quickly reminding his gray-coated Horse Girl.
"Oh, okay, I got it," Oguri Cap replied distractedly, her eyes fixed on the big screen.
"She'll remember, right?" Zhou Tai'an felt a slight unease, but the pre-race parade for the Tokai Oka Sho was over, and the Horse Girls were preparing to enter the gates. He focused his attention on the starting line.
"The pre-race favorite is Wide Seiko. She's on a six-race winning streak here at Nagoya, carrying incredible momentum," Zhou Tai'an explained the race details as the Horse Girls entered the gates one by one. "Her favorite strategy is 'Forward' (stalking), but she can also lead. So for her, the most important thing in this race is to get a good forward position, or take the lead and control the pace."
He noticed Oguri Cap and Brand New Shine looked a bit lost, and frowned. "I'll explain these things to you before your races in the future. What your main rivals will do to win, what you need to do to win... Once you reach a certain level of competition, formulating a strategy beforehand is crucial."
Oguri Cap immediately responded, "I will listen carefully to what you say, Trainer."
"This is so much easier than dealing with those prima donnas back on the West Coast," Zhou Tai'an grumbled inwardly—though that was also partly because he was just an intern trainer back then.
…
The race unfolded exactly as Zhou Tai'an had predicted. Wide Seiko grabbed the lead and firmly controlled the pace for the entire race, running away with the Tokai Oka Sho.
"Wide Seiko crosses the line! A seven-race winning streak! After Haiseiko at Ooi, are we at Nagoya about to welcome our own Haiseiko?!" The on-site commentator was extremely excited.
Zhou Tai'an's lips curled. Although Wide Seiko's performance was commendable, in his eyes, this level was not yet worthy of being compared to Haiseiko.
"That one won the Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas) after transferring to Central. This one has only just won the Tokai Oka Sho and hasn't even challenged Central yet."
While Zhou Tai'an was evaluating Wide Seiko, Oguri Cap's gaze was not on the winning Horse Girl.
She had turned around, facing the stands, which looked much larger than those at Kasamatsu Racecourse.
At this moment, a thunderous roar erupted from the stands. All the spectators who had come to watch were cheering for Wide Seiko.
"Wide Seiko! Wide Seiko!"
"The strongest Horse Girl in Tokai!"
"This... is a Graded Race?" Oguri Cap whispered. Having lived in the countryside of Hokkaido all her life, today was the first time she had witnessed such a scene in person.
Wide Seiko, being interviewed on the track, was also infected by the atmosphere.
She took the microphone from the reporter interviewing her and shouted to the cheering crowd in the stands.
"I'm going to Central!"
"I will make a name for our Tokai region!"
"I will definitely keep winning at Central!"
Oguri Cap turned her head, her gaze fixed on Wide Seiko.
"Does every Horse Girl... after conquering the local series... go to Central?" For the first time, she felt a flicker of curiosity about the existence of "Central."