It was early November, about half a month since Urara's hard-fought victory in the Maiden Race.
By November, the mornings and evenings began to carry a sharp chill, creating a stark contrast with the lingering warmth of the day. While it was far more comfortable than the sweltering heat of midsummer, it was a season where I had to be extra vigilant. One cold could set Urara's training back weeks.
Even with her first win under her belt, it wasn't as if she could immediately charge into the upper-tier classes.
I wanted to get her onto the track as often as possible, but the reality of racing is that you can't run if there isn't a race to run in. In the Maiden class, there were opportunities roughly every two weeks. However, once you move into the Open class and beyond, the schedule becomes fixed—specific dates for specific venues, varying slightly year by year.
Most races were held on weekends, but the restrictions were a minefield. Some were Junior-only, others were restricted to Classic or Senior years. Then there were the "Earnings Gates"—you couldn't even enter certain high-profile races unless your career stakes were above a certain threshold. Some races were so popular that entry was decided by a literal lottery, and others, the most prestigious of all, required you to be voted in by the fans.
From that perspective, Urara faced a steeper climb than most. Her specialty was strictly dirt, and so far, she had only competed in short-distance sprints.
If we stuck only to dirt sprints, the number of "Graded" (graded stakes) races she could potentially enter before retirement was depressingly low. There was only one G1—the JBC Sprint. G2s? Zero. GIII races were a bit more common, but even then, there were only three: the Negishi, the Procyon, and the Capella Stakes.
The number of Open and Pre-Open races beneath the Graded level jumped to over twenty, but if our luck was poor, we could be bumped by the lottery every time. It was a nightmare scenario: aiming for a Graded race but failing to win the lottery for an Open race, leaving us without the earnings needed to qualify for the big leagues.
To give Urara more options, I decided to shift her training focus. I needed to eye the "Mile" distance (1,600m).
If she could handle the Mile, three more G1s came into view: the February Stakes, the JBC Ladies' Classic, and the Champions Cup. While G2s remained scarce—only the Tokai Stakes—the number of available GIII races would jump by seven.
Including the lower tiers, the number of races Urara could run would nearly triple. With a schedule that crowded, we could pick and choose our battles. Even if a lottery went against us, we'd have plenty of alternatives to fall back on and grind out the necessary earnings.
However, the distinction between "Total Purse" and "Stakes Earnings" was a real headache.
Urara had run four times: her debut and three Maiden attempts. She had earned money from her 5th-place finish in the second race, her 3rd-place in the third, and of course, her win. This included the "Primary Purse" for the top five finishers and various "Special Entry Allowances."
Together, these were her Total Purse. But the entry requirements for high-level races were based on Stakes Earnings.
For context, winning a Debut race nets a 6 million yen purse, and a Maiden win gets you 5.1 million. However, for the purposes of qualifying for higher classes, both only count as 4 million in "Stakes Earnings."
Furthermore, while the Primary Purse is distributed among the top five (100% for 1st, 40% for 2nd, and so on), "Stakes Earnings" are usually only credited if you take 1st place—or if you manage to snag 2nd in a G1.
To get into the big Graded races, you have to rack up 1st-place finishes in Open or Pre-Open races to inflate those "Stakes Earnings."
Take Happy Meek, for example—the Umamusume trained by Kiryuin-san. She won her Debut, then won the Saffron Sho (a Pre-Open), and then took 1st in the Artemis Stakes in late October. That's three wins, which gave her the credentials to enter the G1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies in early December.
The Artemis Stakes is a GIII, usually out of reach for rookies, but since entry was restricted to the Junior class, Happy Meek was able to run. She reportedly won it by a commanding three lengths.
As a side note, the winner's purse for the Artemis Stakes is a cool 29 million yen. Add the 10 million from the Saffron Sho and the 6 million from her Debut, and Happy Meek has already raked in over 450 million yen in just three races.
If she wins the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies, that's another 65 million. Her total career earnings would rocket to 110 million yen.