Even if she loses the G1, her "Stakes Earnings" are already high enough to get her into almost any Graded race she wants. That is the power of a prodigy raised by an elite trainer.
Of course, Happy Meek doesn't just get a check for 110 million. The breakdown is standard: 70% goes to Tracen Academy, 20% to the Umamusume, and the final 10% to the Trainer.
The Academy's cut seems massive, but they foot the bill for everything: the girls' living expenses, tuition, facility maintenance, gear, and the trainers' base salaries. When you look at it that way, a 20% cut for the girl and 10% for the trainer is actually quite generous.
Happy Meek, a middle-schooler, has already pocketed 9 million yen in cold, hard cash. Kiryuin-san likely received a 4.5 million yen bonus. Even by Tracen's high-salary standards, that is an amount you simply cannot ignore.
It's no wonder most trainers try to manage multiple girls. I won't say money is everything, but money solves a lot of problems. It's only natural for a trainer to want a large roster, maximizing their chances of seeing those bonuses hit their bank account.
I'm no saint either. When Urara won her Maiden race, I received 10% of the purse—a 510,000 yen "performance bonus." Payday at Tracen is the 25th. I had been so busy celebrating her win that I'd completely forgotten about the money, and when I saw my pay stub, my legs nearly gave out.
When she took 5th in her second race, the bonus was a few tens of thousands of yen. 3rd place brought in a little over a hundred thousand. Seeing my take-home pay more than double in a single month... well, let's just say my face was splitting with a grin. I'm pragmatic enough to admit that seeing the tangible results of Urara's hard work in my bank account felt damn good.
But then, the face of Trainer Tojo from Team Rigil flashed in my mind, and I sobered up instantly. Her team sweeps G1 victories like they're picking up groceries. I can't even begin to imagine her bonuses. It's a terrifying thought.
Compared to me, who just barely managed to squeeze out a Maiden win, Tojo is a literal monster. She's training over ten girls simultaneously, and nearly all of them are G1 champions.
She's even managing the legendary "Seven-Crown" Umamusume, Symboli Rudolf. "Monster" doesn't cover it; I'm losing the vocabulary to describe her level of skill. If I'm a Level 1 Slime in the world of training, Tojo is the Final Boss. She could probably blink and I'd vanish into pixels.
Tojo is an outlier, but the "multiple-athlete" model is the industry standard.
The only people who stick to the "one-on-one" approach are people like me—who couldn't recruit anyone else if I tried—or "eccentrics" like Kiryuin-san, who presumably comes from enough family money that she doesn't care. The advantage of having only one girl is that you can pour all your love, time, and obsession into her. I like to think that gives me an edge over the multi-taskers, but then I remember the Final Boss and realize that might just be sour grapes. The woman is genuinely terrifying.
(Maybe one of next year's freshmen will join my team... I've got a win under my belt now, and Urara is only getting stronger. My track record as a trainer is actually starting to exist... wait. Actually, do I even want a second girl? Is just Urara enough?)
I mused over this while typing up my daily report in the trainers' lounge.
This is my second life. Watching Urara give it her all... honestly, I don't feel a burning need for fame or a mountain of gold. Just seeing a girl like her take 1st place and stand in the center of the Winning Live stage is enough to satisfy me. The sight of her up there after the Maiden race was worth more than any bonus.
...Though the bonus certainly doesn't hurt. You can never have too much money, but you can definitely have too little.
And when I say "too little," I don't mean for my own hobbies. I was happy about the bonus, sure, but—
(Half... no, let's put 70% of this into the 'Urara Fund.')
As a rookie trainer without a formal "Team" designation, the budget Tracen allocates me is measly. If I want to give Urara top-tier training, I often have to reach into my own pocket. I needed to pool this money for when it really mattered.
Raising an Umamusume is expensive.
There are clothes, specialized running shoes, and the horseshoes that have to be hammered into them. There are meals outside the cafeteria. When we travel for races, there are transportation and lodging costs. If she gets injured, there are medical bills. And though it's early, if she ever gets strong enough for a G1, I'll need to commission a custom "Racing Silk" outfit.
I squeeze what I can out of the budget, file for expenses when possible, and cover the rest myself. Most of it eventually gets reimbursed, but there are strict caps—like "one pair of shoes per month"—and trainers without a proven track record don't get funding for summer training camps.