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On a Pale Horse (Umamusume/Youjo Senki)

Reader mode
I'm sorta surprised there's been little discussion regarding where exactly Umamusume races fall economically in that world. Um, given that Tanya is uh, intrigued(?)-interested in making money for retirement.

Like, are they the FIFA of that world? Do G1 races pull as much money as F1 drivers do?
Are we simply insulated from all that shebang because it's unnecessary?
I mean, don't hold it against me but I don't trust Tanya pov on their supposed renumeration, and while I'd probably agree that G3 or open ranked might not make retirement money, a part of me wants to believe Tanya hasn't actually done her research in this department and has perhaps equated the whole thing to something like Track and Field from her first life where she might even be right to probably dismiss it. (not that I know how much $ Olympians or track and fielders make)

Though, you know where I'm going with this. How much money do you think a G1/G2 racer actually makes per race? How much culture do they dominate? A joke calculation I ripped from 1 reddit user says a single Oguri Cap KFC meal would cost about 5.5mil yen which is like 35k $.
 
DeathFrown said:
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I don't know very much Umamusume lore, but I always imagined top level uma racing to be an extremely popular sport to watch, on par with the World Cup and the Superbowl, with racers who place highly in those races taking home a respectable payday, with plenty of options to leverage their name and likeness for merchandising.
 
They have to rake in a ton of money if Tracen Academy can have an entire PMC on staff to casually shoo out reporters. That's not to mention the after race concerts or feeding the endless stomachs of the Umamusume themselves. It's probably a case of you aren't gonna make much as a unprofessional athlete but once you hit the consistent G1 big leagues you get plushies, advertising, and become a household name.
 
Apparently Uma racing is big enough to be a multi national sport that's closely tied to the culture of the countries.

I know in a couple of Uma stories, like Vodka's for example, the Uma makes plans with you, her trainer, to move to racing internationally.
 
Enough for Oguri Cap to support her own appetite. Can't say how much that is. Although on the opposite end the Trainers get paid in the Japanese equivalent to nickels given some screenshots from Reddit of the Trainers mentioning financial damages. Wouldn't be surprised if they get royalties through merch and the like an the Trainers get an even smaller fraction of that via the Academy whom in turn also probably are where the Umas' royalties money is probably coming from. Especially given Tracen Canonically has a PMC so they're getting big money from somewhere.

Although given how the honsez have impacted Society racing probably has supplanted most other sports in their dominance. Even if we ignore the ponystincts most other sports assume the players can't simply toss the ball accurately into the goal with it literally being a race to reach it. But one of the things from my daily Image Dump int he General Thread literally was a GIF of an Uma jumping the length of a basketball court just to dunk the ball. So even conventional sports end up being a race in another form. Rugby and American Football, given they double as combat sports, are more likely to resist this change but that's more likely to be because they become full combat sports instead given the point is decided by who grabs the ball and manages to launch it first rather then running it to the end zone. Baseball might also have survived given that's built more for Maths via trajectory calculations and swing timing then strength and speed but even then Umas might surpass that in some bullet time. Might end up with new fantasy sports as well. Maybe competitive swimming is a thing. Saying all that makes me think there's two different Olympics, the conventional one with the subdivisions of the two Olympics we Understand and the Uma version probably with their own two subdivisions given even an Uma missing their arms probably would be able to outswim a human.
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But, again, equine lust to Forest Gump means that foot racing is probably the biggestsport given a good chunk of Society is ponies. There's also the problem that normal sports equipment probably wouldn't survive Umas getting serious so one where the participants are the equipment, like foot racing, is one that wouldn't have to worry about needing to stop games to repeatedly replace the things.
 
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DeathFrown said:
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A safe assumption is take the irl prize pool win for each races. The relative price pool is:

'Less popular' G1: 100-120 million yen
G2: 50-60 million yen
G3: 30 million yen
Local: Depends on its level (usually equal to the graded races)

Big ones like the Arima Kinen or Tenno Sho can go far higher, from 200 million to 800 million.

Even with the trainer getting a 20% cut (based on irl jockey and trainer cut combined), its still a lucrative business for Umas, if we are only counting prize pools.

Add merchandising and advertisment deals, and the amount of money an Uma and their trainer can earn become far higher. Its why more materialistic Umas would want to race, its a relatively easy way to get rich (assuming the Uma is good at racing that is).

Cultural wise, Umas are a combination of both idols/artist and athletes. There is probably a global governing body (probably still called IFHA), but its probably not as big as FIFA, mostly because each country probably has its own series of Uma races and their own governing body for managing said series. And considering Uma racer status as celebrities and their natural beauty, its probably a common sight to see Uma fans being a unholy combination of musical artist fans and sport fans.
 
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We know that Uma race courses can handle crowds bigger than any IRL stadium was built for. 150,000 spectators at Oguri Cap Vs. Tamamo Cross. Just going by that, I'd say that comparing it to the World Cup might be an understatement.

We also know that there are regional racing academies that serve the same age bracket as Tracen, they appear to be treated like community colleges, except dedicated solely to racing. Those racers can become locally famous, too. Those are pretty good indications to me that even minor league racers can make enough money to justify a stint in racing even if they don't make a full career out of it.
 
manatherindrell said:
We know that Uma race courses can handle crowds bigger than any IRL stadium was built for. 150,000 spectators at Oguri Cap Vs. Tamamo Cross. Just going by that, I'd say that comparing it to the World Cup might be an understatement.
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That's fairly normal for RL racetrack crowds.
Race tracks can accommodate much larger crowds than stadiums.
 
Just running in a race is enough to live on if you're good with money. Not sure what the "bigger" here means though. Knowing her past life accomplishments though she'll probably land in the top bracket for whatever her specialty ends up being.
WrandmWaffles said:
"I don't think so. Some runners, even really good ones, have quite short careers. And it can be pretty stressful." He smiled. "Besides, I looked up what they pay out for just running in a bigger race, with how careful you are with money you could probably live off that."
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Zweibach said:
Just running in a race is enough to live on if you're good with money. Not sure what the "bigger" here means though. Knowing her past life accomplishments though she'll probably land in the top bracket for whatever her specialty ends up being.
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Tanya is pretty horrifying in general, I'd be disappointed if she wasn't a nightmare to race against
 
Darkwood said:
Her unique ability just being artillery 'training drills'
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Hmmm...I suspect that Tracen, no matter how well-funded it might be, would be reluctant to pay for the 'landscape rehabilitation' that would be needed after one of Tanya's artillery training drills. Doing so more than once is likely to be completely out of the question
 
mauveine said:
Hmmm...I suspect that Tracen, no matter how well-funded it might be, would be reluctant to pay for the 'landscape rehabilitation' that would be needed after one of Tanya's artillery training drills. Doing so more than once is likely to be completely out of the question
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The turf on the racetrack is imported from France for "real French grass!" (Words of the Director. She makes a lot of frivolous purchases). Wouldn't be surprised if the PMC was an unnecessary fund allocation and the Director has been looking for ways to use it and the paparazzi just happened to give her possibly the only time she ever would be able to use it. There's also how the Umas themselves regularly remodel the landscape with their own antics. Although one whose whole thing is doing a week's worth of remodeling in a minute probably would be still too much for them.
 
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Neo3932156 said:
To be fair, Shirogane odd enough on her own that, despite her 2 out 3 life as Japanese, she makes a believable foreigner.
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She's half Polish, and being an uma her looks skew more towards her mother, so she looks more foreign. This is not necessarily enough to immediately mark her as foreign since most umas have some foreign ancestry, but she looks different from most of them as well since there aren't many umas of Polish descent in Japan.

CantFocusOneThing said:
Since Shirogane can't be influenced by fate how would be her opinion of the people that are "fated" to win will she be able to sense it like other umas or would she be a skill like target on sight but
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Shirogane would not even really be cognizant of those 'fated' to win. And it's less that she can't be influenced by fate and more that 'fate' doesn't apply any influence to her, so there won't be any race which triggers a sort of deja vu for her. Her anomalous existence also means that she can potential mess up the expected results of some races, and will be confused by how shocked other people are.

The Unicorn said:
Owning expensive things you can display was a status symbol, but AFAIK, unlike many cultures the ones owning them didn't ride or otherwise use the horses, they just showed them off like they showed off their slaves and houses.
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Umas would likely also make effective laborers, since they can carry heavy loads and have sufficient manual dexterity and intelligence to perform more delicate or complicated tasks. They would need supervision, for the most part, given their general nature, but in the same vein, they were likely higher status slaves if they were slaves, since it would be comparatively difficult to enforce behavior on an uma unless they were broken from birth or something, which would make them more expensive investments, and thus a signal that their owner was higher status.

Dr.Degenerate said:
I imagine it would just be a case of humans offering plenty of incentives, or the umas in question being patriotic, to have them willingly serving in the armed forces.
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Given umamusume inherit irl horse spirits, to some degree, the warhorse umas would likely be more inclined or easier to convince to go to war.

durante said:
Imagine if the wars were settled by Races instead
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That might have actually been one version of an honor duel. In antiquity, is was not uncommon for disputes to be settled by champions fighting in a duel, so it stands to reason a footrace could be one type of this competition for things of lower stakes.

Darkwood said:
I imagine that historically the uma would not so much be war slaves as the ones prosecuting the wars. Since horses aren't really a thing in the setting they would almost certainly take the place of cavalry. And cavalry for most of human history were the nobles or the very rich, who very much did have a say in whether they took part in war.
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durante said:
Considering their nature, uma musume being oppressors sounds so weird to hear. They are more creatures of emotions similar to their irl selves, kind or very temperamental
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I find it unlikely that umas would often prosecute wars, since as a whole they seem disinclined to organize in such a way. However, it seems quite possible that umas were common raiders, given they have a large appetite and don't have a male counterpart despite needing one. Though they are generally fairly easy to bribe.

BlueCladOne said:
Plus, to me, the fact that Tracen is unusual and the director considered kind of crazy means that this might be a modern development.
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Most of the umas don't seem to treat the goddess statues as something of religious significance, though even the foreign ones recognize it, so their cultural significance is widespread but there isn't too much evidence that their intervention is very explicit. This could also be a reflection of the Japanese culture the media stems from.

durante said:
So my conclusion is that while Uma musume are physically stronger than their and our humans, their Humans are just built more sturdy.
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Given that most humans from Eurasia or of Eurasian ancestry are very likely to have some umas in their ancestry, and male children born from umas tend to be stronger than normal, it stands to reason that many humans in that world are quite a bit stronger than irl humans.

The Unicorn said:
Also, keep in mind that Ume lack the two biggest advantages a mounted lancer had in combat over infantry - altitude and a partner to help them.
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The biggest advantage for cavalry is speed, split fatigue and charging mass. Being higher up has some advantages but also comes with some disadvantages, since you can't maneuver as easily on horseback in a static fight. The primary threat of cavalry is the increased speed for maneuvering and the physical and psychological shock of impact during a charge, both of which umas could provide.

Though with the fact that they are human sized and would tire faster than cavalrymen since the uma would have to run and fight, it was probably not really 1 to 1 comparable.

durante said:
We do have information on said Royal horses so I can see that. We have Eclipse who by the inuniverse must have been part of the British Royal Family. Same said with other famous horse breeds.
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It would not surprise me if impressive umas were often married into nobility, or kept as mistresses. There are a lot of factors that would create strong incentives for this.

BlastHardcheese said:
And there we have the possibility explanation as to why Shirogane doesn't have any Polish uma cousins that isn't just the Soviets being Soviets.
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The Soviets were the main reason. Umamusume are biologically unequal with humans, making them inherently kulaks and thus enemies of the revolution. Thus, most countries that underwent a strongly ideological communist regime purged umas, though in Poland's case it was more the greater soviets doing it rather than the Polish communists, since a lot of Polish umas were involved in the Polish military.

DeathFrown said:
How much money do you think a G1/G2 racer actually makes per race?
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Not a ton unless you get on the podium, but irl most races have a sort of signing bonus, which means that a mediocre racer can still make a living by racing consistently, but they'd never make it big.

DeathFrown said:
Heh, thought of your comment when I saw this pic.
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Stay Gold's gotta pay her alimony somehow!
 
Honestly a foot race to determine the result of a conflict is a simpler and ultimately more painless alternative to war. If your nation/region is good enough that they can train up a superior group of racing Umas compared to another group of Umas then usually that side would win and it would be better to just get that resolved without pointless fights and deaths.
 
Tamphithere said:
Umazons?
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Umongols.

Also, lets not forget that until they felt the need to change things for global, Ireland had an Uma Monarchy.

Which implies a very much independent Ireland due to Umas.

...why did they feel the need to get rid of fun "How did that even happen?" world building?
 
2hupedia said:
Being kidnapped by an Umazon and ending up in their reverse harem... there's definitely Umafiction with that plot in-universe, you can't tell me otherwise.
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This. This is what the Japanese and Chinese have convinced themselves how Uma musume work. In regards to fanfiction anyway. There are SOO many fics of Umas kidnapping their love interest and locking them in a basement for snu snu.

One of those fanfics had an in-universe story about how a Uma musume ran away from her human lover, came back with another uma musume and rode the guy until his pelvis was broken and could not be recruited for war.
 
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WrandmWaffles said:
Umas would likely also make effective laborers, since they can carry heavy loads and have sufficient manual dexterity and intelligence to perform more delicate or complicated tasks. They would need supervision, for the most part, given their general nature, but in the same vein, they were likely higher status slaves if they were slaves, since it would be comparatively difficult to enforce behavior on an uma unless they were broken from birth or something, which would make them more expensive investments, and thus a signal that their owner was higher status.
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True.

That might have actually been one version of an honor duel. In antiquity, is was not uncommon for disputes to be settled by champions fighting in a duel, so it stands to reason a footrace could be one type of this competition for things of lower stakes.
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That seems...unlikely. Historically lower stakes duals were still combat, just to "first blood" or even with blunted weapons or other limitations that ensured no one would get seriously hurt.

The biggest advantage for cavalry is speed, split fatigue and charging mass.
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Those are quite useful in many cases, but when facing a group of infantry that doesn't break and run? Charging into them is a quick way to commit suicide.
 
WrandmWaffles said:
However, it seems quite possible that umas were common raiders, given they have a large appetite and don't have a male counterpart despite needing one. Though they are generally fairly easy to bribe.
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I had the idea that in prehistoric times that's literally what uma herds would do. Raid human tribes for food and men. At least until human tribes started forging pacts with uma herds and began integrating.
I imagine its a popular hentai trope.
 
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