Getting into gambling has been made easier and easier over time, but the problem is, can an older form of gambling keep up? In the United States, horse racing has been happening since the 1600’s, but now with the ability to go online and legally wager on other sports, horse racing has seen a decline. Think about it; the younger audience no longer has interest in Seabiscuit’s legacy or whoever is racing at Belmont. The younger generation cares about the parlays of Giannis over under 25.5 points or if Ohtani hit a homerun. That is a major problem for horse racing, but a mobile game and anime have changed that.
The game Umamusume: Pretty Derby has captivated a younger audience. “Uma” is the Japanese word for “horse.” “Musume” is the Japanese word for “girl.” Thus, “Umamusume” means “horse girl” in English. Umamusume is made of things younger generations have an interest in: anime, video games and anime horse girls. Umamusume also has captivated social media with memes and videos about the characters in the game and anime. The main point of the game is to make a younger audience care about older racehorses. Many of the characters are based on retired horses such as Gold Ship or Haru Urara. By making a younger audience interested in these horses, it draws them to the tracks or at least has them paying more attention to the different races. Watching the anime, you get to see these “Umas” act in amusing ways. It’s a running bit that many of the Umas share a close personality with their real-life counterparts, such as Gold Ship having an unpredictable and stubborn personality.
Since the trainers, owners and jockeys of the real life horses have to give permission to Cygames — the developer of Umamusume: Pretty Derby — to use their horses in game, they see the potential of gaining revenue for the sport which, in turn, allows for more horses to be bought and trained. The game itself has the player take on the role of trainer, where you have to train your Uma to compete in races. This is also beneficial to horse racing because many of the races your Uma competes in are inspired by real-life races that are held professionally. Different Umas compete in races allowing the player to see the conditions they are held under, from the Queen Elizabeth II Cup held on turf to the JBC Sprint held on dirt. The game allows the player to begin noticing the name of the race along with the month it is held, leading to attention being drawn to these events and to more money for organizers and owners.
Umamusume has seen an uptick in popularity on social media platforms from people making jokes about Gold Ship not training to people mourning Grass Wonder and Haru Urara in the early fall of 2025. Fans of the series have also contributed to funding the Japanese farms and ranches the horses are retired at to support them. Umamusume fans have also started to support horse-themed sports teams like the Denver Broncos or SMU. Pictures such as Gold Ship in a Broncos jersey have become a center point under posts about the Broncos. Cosplayers have also been spotted at these events dressed up as the Umas and at the tracks, cheering on the real-life horses. Overall, Umamusume clearly has a presence on social media and that leads to more people downloading and playing the game. As of right now, Umamusume is serving its purpose of getting people back into horse racing by using anime horse girls and video games, leading people back to this older form of gambling, making it more mainstream.
In the words of Gold Ship, it’s about presentation. This article was written in memory of the racehorse Haru Urara, known as “The Shining Star of Losers Everywhere”. She might have been 0-113, but she will always be number one in our hearts.