Before the Tanpa Cup, the race attracting the most attention was, unconsciously, the JG1 Nakayama Daishogai. As the most prestigious jump race in Japan, it still drew a huge number of fans.
At Hanshin Racecourse, during the break between races, most of the audience had their heads down, watching the JRA livestream of the Nakayama Daishogai instead. The parade ring area, by comparison, felt rather subdued.
"So even compared to a G3, a JG1 still gets this much attention, huh," Dyna murmured beneath the paddock platform. She raised a hand to shield her eyes from the still-glaring sunlight, glanced at the horse girl standing in the fifteenth spot ahead of her, then lowered her gaze to the clearly curved 16 pinned to her own chest.
Honestly, she had never felt so cursed by the draw in her life. She had started from the outermost gate in both her debut race and the Marcel Boussac, and now that she was back in Japan for a G3, it had happened again.
And because Dyna had already risen to the rank of a G1-winning horse girl among her peers, the race rules required her to wear additional weighted horseshoes to keep things fair for the other newcomers.
Overall, it only felt a little heavier. Dyna judged that it would not have much of an impact on this race.
This was also the first time she had walked onto the paddock stage as the overwhelming favorite. Even though she still had her red training jacket on, she had not flung it away like some flashy star. After all, if she tossed it here, she would just have to pick it up herself later.
All Dyna needed to do was raise a hand in acknowledgment.
"Miss Boss Lady, you have to win! Create the legend of the first horse girl in history to win an overseas G1 as a juvenile and then come back to Japan to take the Triple Crown!"
"Miss Dyna Light, I love you— guh!"
"Dyna-chan without glasses is seriously gorgeous—! I love you too!"
That last one seemed to get beaten up by the surrounding fans the moment it left their mouth, but the cheers were passionate all the same. Dyna could not really make out the words, but it was enough to know they were cheering for her.
A warmth she had never felt before flooded through her whole body. It felt so pleasant that she gave herself a little shake, much like Oguri Cap used to do after entering the gate.
Two longtime horse girl fans had deliberately given up watching the Nakayama Daishogai live in order to come to Hanshin and witness this unusually significant flat race. The moment they saw Dyna shake herself, both men's eyes lit up.
"Did you see that? That's the reaction of a strong horse girl. The last time I saw that kind of motion was when Oguri Cap was entering the gate."
"Exactly. And for it to happen in the paddock instead of at the gate this time? That means Boss Lady is incredibly sensitive to cheers, and highly receptive to other people's emotions. Maybe when the brutal struggle begins in the final stretch, the fans' support might create an unexpected miracle."
"Hah? You really think something like that can happen? In the middle of a race, all a horse girl hears is hoofbeats and wind. There's no way she can actually make out the nonsense in the stands. That's just wishful thinking."
"Then let's wait and see. Time will prove everything."
The two regulars bickered as usual, then immediately made up again and turned their attention to the legs of each horse girl heading toward the course. It was then that they noticed something startling: Dyna Light's thighs and calves had changed enormously compared to her debut.
Because horse girls with left-ear accessories wore bloomers-style racewear, the audience could see much more of their thighs than they could on girls with right-ear accessories. Dyna's thighs were far more developed than they had been just a few months earlier, and the two seasoned fans briefly doubted their own eyes.
They had seen plenty of horse girls who developed quickly during the new-filly stage, but most of them declined by the end of their Classic year. Dyna's current physical development might have worried a knowledgeable fan under ordinary circumstances, but they chose to interpret it instead as the result of relentless training, rather than early peaking.
Following the interactive walkway, Dyna brought up the rear of the line, waving constantly to the fans on either side. Only after stepping onto the course did she finally breathe a little easier. The training of the past few months had all been for this: to make a name for herself on Japan's high-speed turf. The Tanpa Cup was the stepping stone that would carry Dyna toward domestic G1 competition.
For most running styles, the far outside gate in stall sixteen would have been a major disadvantage. But for a closer like her, it was not nearly as much of a problem.
In the neighboring fifteenth gate stood Triumphal Ballet. Despite having crossed paths before, the two did not exchange the usual pre-race trash talk. Instead, they greeted each other like civilized rivals.
"Dyna. I didn't expect we'd really end up racing each other in a race like this."
"Because I want to know how I perform over 2000 meters, I decided to enter even knowing I'd be carrying extra weight. I'll still give it everything I've got! You should do your best too, Miss Ballet."
Dyna smiled faintly, the knuckles of one finger resting against the tip of her upper lip.
As for the other dozen-plus runners, she knew none of them well. There was no need to waste words.
To put it cruelly, aside from Triumphal Ballet, they were all just supporting cast standing beside a G1-winning horse girl. Unless they managed to win a G1 themselves in the future, even multiple graded victories might still leave their names buried and forgotten.
The gate apparatus had been set at the 2000-meter mark on the inside course, waiting for the horse girls to load in.
The Nakayama Daishogai had not ended smoothly, either. Two horse girls had failed to finish, and the top favorite had ended up dead last.
The winner, instead, had been the youngest horse girl in the field, Ishibashi Tsurugi. Before today, her record had stood at twenty-two starts for only two wins, and in grading terms she had only just managed to step into open-class level. Yet she had produced a stunning upset as the tenth favorite.
Perhaps racing fans were just neurotic by nature. After watching the Nakayama Daishogai, some had already begun worrying that the Tanpa Cup might see something similar happen—that Dyna had spent all her potential in France and would never rise again.
Because she had shown gate trouble both in her debut and in the Marcel Boussac, Dyna was assigned to load first. She pressed her hands together and offered a little prayer in her heart, then opened her eyes and walked toward the stalls.
And, exactly as expected, she hesitated at the entrance again.
"Do you need help?" one of the attendants asked from behind her. Since there was still time, they could still let the horse girl try to overcome it on her own.
"N-no… I'm fine. I can do it. Thank you."
Dyna reached behind herself, grabbed the base of her tail, and literally pulled herself forward. Only then did her body manage to take two reluctant steps. The moment she entered, she heard the gate clank shut behind her.
At least that counted as progress. This time she had gotten in without someone physically shoving her.
The other horse girls outside gradually loaded in as well. Triumphal Ballet entered last, taking the neighboring stall beside her.
The two exchanged a final glance. The last thing Ballet said before the start was:
"I'll also give everything I have. I'll beat you with the greatest conviction I can muster."
Dyna said nothing in reply. In the slightly confined space of the gate, she no longer had the mental room to answer.
"All runners are now loaded for the most unusual G3 race of the year—the Tanpa Cup!"
Her heart pounded like a war drum, just as it had in her debut race. But this time, Dyna focused with all her might on the gate.
The instant the metal barriers sprang open, the horse girls burst out as one.
The difference in reaction time across the field did not even reach a full second.
Dyna calmed herself. Whenever she invoked the borrowed power, the card would gradually begin to fade away. Starting from the far outside, she angled inward after the break. Since everyone else was scrambling for position up front, it did not take her much effort at all to secure a favorable spot along the inner tail of the field.
But from Triumphal Ballet's perspective, the strange feeling she had sensed before only intensified. Out of the corner of her eye, outside the actual field itself, she could have sworn she saw red hair exactly like her own.
Impossible. There was only one redhead in the Tanpa Cup, and that was Ballet herself.
She froze for a moment, but quickly forced her attention back to the race. Right now she had to execute her strategy. This time, unlike before, she was not going to run as a closer. Instead, she had chosen to take a risk and seize a forward-running position from the outside gate.
That was the plan her trainer had set beforehand. Since Dyna Light was coming from the rear, trying to compete with her on identical terms was pointless. Better to use Ballet's finishing speed from a forward position, exploiting the distance advantage that style could provide in order to dull Dyna's closing kick.
Ballet herself could keep her head clear.
The rest of the field, however, suffered for it.
They saw two red figures.
One was moving forward. The other remained behind.
There was only supposed to be one Triumphal Ballet in this race. So why were they seeing two red apples?
And if there were two, then which one was the real Ballet?
A number of the less composed newcomers began to waver. And the horse girls originally intending to challenge for the forward pack decided, seeing a brazen "apple" trying to force its way into that territory, that they would show this intruder the full pressure of the ultimate frontline duel.
The 2000-meter course began with a slope that climbed two meters within the first hundred meters after the break. In the very phase where position-fighting was fiercest, they had to contend with that climb as well. Once positions settled there, they were unlikely to change much before the fourth turn.
Triumphal Ballet captured fourth place. She had assumed she could maintain that position until the final bend.
She realized very quickly that something was wrong.
The leader directly ahead of her held the pace and line firmly, sealing off Ballet's route to advance. The opening on her flank was instantly occupied from behind, closing her in completely.
She had handed her rivals the perfect chance to trap her in a box.
The problem was, these were inexperienced juvenile horse girls. They did not really understand the finer points of marking and how dangerous it could become for themselves as well. They had just heard their trainers talk about it, saw the perfect opportunity, and thought—why not try it?
And so Ballet was pitifully boxed in by a ring of horse girls surrounding her.
What none of them understood was that to mark someone effectively, you first needed to ensure you yourself could still escape the structure you created.
From the rear, Dyna saw the entire process by which Triumphal Ballet ended up trapped in a luxury suite. But Dyna had no intention of hugging the rail the whole way. For a closer, breaking through from the inside was extremely difficult. She chose the safest option.
A sweeping charge around the outside.
After the second bend came a flat straight stretch, and that was Dyna's opportunity to move up from the tail.
The other horse girl with the same idea was the second favorite, Noda Waltz.
"The internal battle in the field is already intense! Triumphal Ballet appears to be heavily constrained inside that pocket! Meanwhile, the horses at the rear are beginning to move—Dyna Light and Noda Waltz are advancing side by side, both choosing the outer lanes!"
Strictly speaking, Noda Waltz's choice of line was not wrong.
Her mistake was trying to engage Dyna Light in a positional duel.
Dyna's stamina was not something she could exhaust so easily.
And so the audience at Hanshin witnessed a scene so shocking their hearts seemed ready to burst—
Dyna Light took the second bend six-wide.
Watching from outside, Wada nearly fainted into Opera O's arms.
He had never taught Dyna anything this reckless.
If Noda Waltz wanted to fight for the position, she should just have yielded and gone around later! Why on earth was Dyna doing something this insane?!
Going six-wide around the second turn was rare even in a G1!
Noda Waltz had not expected Dyna to do it either. She thought she could hold the better lane and squeeze Dyna's route shut. She had not imagined her opponent would take things to such an extreme.
At that moment, Noda Waltz herself probably wanted to cry. Big sister, this is just a G3—did you really need to risk your life like this?!
At the 1000-meter mark, the halfway time was 60.3 seconds.
Only now was Dyna beginning to feel the slightest trace of fatigue, which proved that her actual aptitude over 2000 meters was not bad at all. By this point, Dyna Light had already reached the middle of the field.
Her stride frequency was a little slower than the others'.
But the length of her stride dwarfed theirs.
A lower stride rate and a larger stride meant she conserved more energy for the finishing burst in the stretch.
The rhythm of the entire field had become bizarrely distorted under the interference caused by the "two apples." Yet in a strange reversal, that very chaos prevented a truly messy battle for position from breaking out. By the third and fourth turns, the runners had entered the decisive phase where they needed to choose their lines. A wrong choice there meant getting trapped behind others who had already fanned outward.
Since Dyna Light had committed to a sweeping outside charge, she stayed on the outside.
At the fourth turn, she unleashed the power that seemed to come naturally to her, like a shaft of warm sunlight cutting through the field, bearing down on the leader who had been desperately trying to sustain her front-running effort.
"Dyna Light's finishing kick is as sharp and fearsome as ever! Her wide outside assault shows not the slightest trace of fatigue—she's passing them one after another! Noda Waltz is also chasing, but it's proving difficult!"
Only now did Triumphal Ballet fully understand where that eerie red apparition had been coming from.
It was Dyna Light.
Ballet still had the strength to fight her—but because the box around her never opened, she simply could not find a way out in the final straight.
The runners who had marked Ballet were, in the end, marked by their own trap as well.
"The group pocket has been completely influenced by the front-runner, and it still hasn't opened! Most of the field has been affected—the final straight has turned into utter chaos!"
In the final 200 meters at Hanshin, with another climb of two meters still ahead, Dyna Light poured in every last reserve she had saved.
At that exact moment, Triumphal Ballet's card completely dissolved, breaking into motes of light and flowing into Dyna's body.
A fierce heat unlike anything before erupted through her, driving her speed still higher.
This time, Triumphal Ballet could see it clearly—the horse girl flying at the front looked exactly like herself.
Except she was dressed in a red, black, and white ballet costume.
Fervent Resolve:
If the runner overtakes others from mid-race onward, then upon entering the final straight, speed increases for a short time. If the runner is using a closing tactic and completes three or more overtakes from mid-race onward, then this changes to a massive short-term speed increase.
The wish condensed into the card, forged through sharing the same race, had finally reached its point of release. It fully fused into Dyna and became part of her strength.
With that light added in, Fervent Resolve burst forth with even greater force.
Dyna Light became like a true bolt of lightning, surging across the Hanshin finish line in dazzling, exultant glory.
"Dyna Light wins her first 2000-meter race—by two lengths!"
Noda Waltz finished second.
Triumphal Ballet, trapped by the marking battle, fell out of the placings.
Dyna slowed at last, her chest heaving with sharp breaths.
She turned to look toward the grandstand.
The roar of the crowd now seemed…
No less overwhelming than a G1.
Join here to read ahead.
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