The unique hook to the anime horse girls of Umamusume: Pretty Derby is that the characters are each based on actual famous race horses. With the sports sim’s surging popularity in North America, this may be seeing an interest among new fans to visit the real horses themselves. With that in mind, the game’s developer Cygames has published guidelines for people wishing to visit stables.
Umamusume: Pretty Derby has already been a hit in Japan since the original mobile release in 2021, spawning manga, anime, and even a stage adaptation. But since its global release last month, strong word of mouth, including streams from mainstream creators like Northernlion and Vinesauce, has helped catapult it to widespread attention, where earlier this week it hit its all-time-peak of just over 50,000 concurrent players on Steam.
That seems to have also prompted more enquiries from fans who want to actually visit the real-life race horses the titular Umamusume are based on, as a BlueSky user has noted that appointments to visit Haru Urara, a race horse beloved for her long losing streak, has already been booked out for the month. Their post also included a screenshot from a Twitter user urging fans to “please be respectful and follow the rules”.
