"Ow—!"
A shrill cry rang out from the stable. The assistant stumbled out of the stall, clutching his shoulder as he staggered past the rail.
"Oh? Dyna bit you again?" Iwamoto chuckled. He had just finished dealing with another horse on the grounds and had barely returned when he saw the assistant emerge from Light Dyna's stall in utter disarray.
Rubbing the torn fabric at his shoulder, the assistant held up the plastic bucket in his hand and gave a helpless laugh. "Seriously, this little filly won't let anyone touch her except Mr. Iwamoto, Mr. Takezono, and Mr. Wada."
All he had wanted to do was brush her mane while she was eating. But the moment the metal currycomb touched her neck, the little mare whipped around and bit him.
Not only had she torn his clothes, she had also sprayed him with hay from the feed trough. The assistant was on the verge of tears.
"Just pet her more and she'll get used to you," Iwamoto said, patting him on the shoulder. Then, under the assistant's near-fainting gaze, he stepped right into the stall and saw Light Dyna pawing irritably at the bedding in the corner.
"Well now, good girl."
He walked right up behind her and casually smacked her on the rump.
If anyone else had tried that, Light Dyna would have kicked them into the next county. Broken ribs would have been the minimum; an ICU stay was more likely.
But because it was Iwamoto, Dyna merely snorted, turned around, and rubbed against him, smearing wood shavings and hay all over his clothes.
"…That's incredible," the assistant muttered, shaking his head. "She really does know who counts as an outsider. Mr. Takezono has absurd luck."
After all, Light Dyna was specifically under Iwamoto's care. Other assistants only dared go into her stall on the rare days she seemed in a good mood, and even then only to clean it.
Actually, scratch that. Even when she was in a bad mood, they still had to go in. It was their job.
That was why every time they entered her stall, they put on the communal protective vest first. By now, the shoulder of that thing had been patched over a dozen times.
Inside the stall, Iwamoto gently patted Dyna's neck. Ever since her debut, Takezono had shown no sign of deciding her next race, which honestly surprised him. Back in Opera O's day, it had always felt like Takezono wanted to run her hard and often, like he'd keep sending her out until she broke.
Maybe this time, he thought Dyna had been badly rattled by that debut encounter with Kenichi Ikezoe and Gold Ship.
Light Dyna needed time to recover. The post-race veterinary checks had found nothing wrong, true, but perhaps it was better to let her mature gradually in the barn and through training.
And over these last two months, her progress had been more than enough to pleasantly surprise him.
Normally, once a racehorse entered the stables, their weight would dip under training and then fluctuate around that lower level. Light Dyna, on the other hand, kept gaining weight even while in training. That was excellent news.
When she had first come into the stable, Iwamoto had thought the filly was far too slight. Even against other fillies, she would have been at a disadvantage. But once her mixed-sex debut race had been decided, it turned out her fighting spirit was astonishingly strong, which had eased his worries somewhat.
Today was Light Dyna's solo turf breeze. An assistant would come over shortly to fit her with a saddle, but as for getting her out to the training center, that would have to wait until Ryuuji Wada arrived.
Because apart from Wada, Light Dyna would not allow a second person onto her back.
That, more than anything, gave Iwamoto a headache.
It was impolite to think about, but anyone in the racing world had to consider the worst-case scenario. What if one day Wada fell and got hurt badly enough to need a substitute rider? What would they do then?
Surely it wouldn't turn into a situation where they found one jockey, she threw him off, then found another, and she threw him off too?
If that happened, then for however long Wada was recovering, Light Dyna's race schedule would be dead in the water.
"You're a headache, you know that?" Iwamoto rubbed the bridge of her nose a few times. Dyna snorted and turned her head away, choosing not to bother with him anymore.
"Heh, what a temper."
Iwamoto did not stay in the stall any longer. After a bit of petting, he left.
When the assistant came in to saddle her, something unusual happened. She didn't bite him. Instead, she stood there quietly, not even lifting her head.
Curious, the assistant reached out and touched her cheek. No reaction.
"Huh? Did she change personalities in the last half hour?"
Dyna heard him muttering. Her ears pricked forward and she shook her head.
But ears forward meant she was in a very good mood. When he took up her reins, he barely needed to tug at all—Light Dyna followed him obediently out of the stall. Even her gait lacked the usual contrary stiffness.
"If only you were always this well-behaved. That'd make our lives so much easier." He muttered under his breath, petting the side of her face again and again, hoping to build some goodwill while she was in this rare cooperative mood. If he could at least get to the point where she stopped biting people, that would already count as a victory.
Thump.
The assistant suddenly felt a shove from behind and nearly pitched forward. When he turned around, he saw Dyna shaking her head. She had rammed him with it.
"I really don't know what to do with you… what a little brat."
Most two-year-old fillies were lively, stubborn little girls. Usually things improved by the time they turned three.
As for whether that would apply to Light Dyna… he reserved judgment.
At present, the only people Dyna truly behaved for were Iwamoto, Takezono, and Wada.
"Thanks for your hard work. She didn't bite you?"
"No, she was pretty calm while I put the saddle on her. But then I muttered a couple things on the way over, and she nearly knocked me over with a headbutt. This little lady has a hell of a temper."
The assistant handed Dyna's reins over to the training staff, then immediately dodged another attempted headbutt from her.
"See? She understands what we're saying."
"Well, of course she can tell when you're badmouthing her," the other man laughed.
After the handover, Dyna was led to the entrance of the training track. Wada arrived a little late due to traffic, and after taking the time to change, he and Dyna ended up entering the course a bit later than the others.
"Sorry I'm late."
Crop in hand, Wada jogged over and, apologizing as he did so, stepped into the stirrup and swung himself smoothly into the saddle.
The moment Dyna felt the familiar weight settle on her back, her ears twitched.
He felt a little heavier than usual. Dyna thought it might just be her imagination, but Wada really did seem heavier today.
"I'll leave her to you, then, Wada-san."
"And thank you for your help."
Wada patted Dyna's neck and signaled her forward. But instead of breaking into motion, she only ambled across the turf. She was moving, technically, but it looked more like a leisurely stroll.
Wada laughed helplessly from the saddle. Even now, that lingering issue from her debut still hadn't gone away.
So he lightly tapped her shoulder with the crop.
This was a shoulder tap. In overseas racing it didn't count against the whip-use total, but it still served as a reminder that it was time to enter finishing mode. In foreign jurisdictions whip regulations were strict—some limited riders to no more than five strikes, and some even forbade whip use before the final two hundred meters. But all of that referred to striking the hindquarters. Shoulder taps and waving the whip near the eye-line were not counted the same way.
In an actual race, a shoulder tap would usually be followed by waving the crop near the horse's eye to keep their competitive instinct fired up. But in training, all Wada needed was to tell this rather slow-to-switch-on filly that it was time to run.
"Dyna, Dyna, let's go."
Perhaps the shoulder tap really had worked. Receiving the signal, Dyna gradually shifted from walking to a light canter. Wada switched on the devices mounted to his helmet and settled into riding position.
From the observation stand, Iwamoto followed them through his binoculars. When they reached the six-hundred-meter pole, he started timing. Seeing how much quicker Dyna was now responding to Wada's cues to accelerate, he and the assistants could not help but feel a surge of satisfaction.
As long as all the work they had put in was becoming visible progress, that was enough to make them happy.
On Dyna's back, Wada only used the crop twice on her hindquarters. After that he mostly used pressure at her neck, pushing there instead. Over this long stretch of training together, Wada had discovered that Dyna reacted less to whip use than she did to pressure on the neck.
"Mr. Iwamoto, Wada seems awfully conservative with the whip on her, doesn't he?" the assistant asked. In a typical timed work over the final three furlongs, a rider might use all five permitted strikes. This time Wada had only used two.
"Because every horse is different," Iwamoto said. "Looks like Dyna's sensitive point is her neck. Some horses are very sensitive to the whip. Others are dull to it. Neck sensitivity is good. It means she can respond flexibly to a rider's communication, since most of that happens through the neck and reins."
He continued watching the chestnut filly.
"It looks like we still haven't drawn all of Light Dyna's potential out of her. She's not the sort of horse who'll make her mark through training alone. Her abilities need to be awakened in actual races."
Light Dyna learned quickly. From stride mechanics to pace, she could absorb instruction and remember it with startling speed. That learning speed alone had been what allowed them to get her ready in time for her debut clash with Gold Ship.
"But Mr. Takezono still hasn't confirmed her next race, right? Should we choose one for him?"
"No. Let him decide. I'll mention it to him, though. If he's serious about having her challenge the colts on the classic path, then he needs to be willing to go down roads other people wouldn't dare take."
That was how Iwamoto saw it.
In all those years, only Vodka had managed to win the Japanese Derby as a filly in a mixed-sex classic. If Light Dyna wanted to beat the colts in the Satsuki Sho too, then she would need a much more unconventional route.
Why, then, had Takezono seemingly lost the nerve he used to have when laying out Opera O's campaign? Watching Light Dyna flash past with that hard glint in her eye, Iwamoto could not make sense of it.
"She's in great shape," Wada said after dismounting, still patting Dyna's neck. "Her response speed was much better this time. I barely had to nudge her before she understood she was supposed to maintain top speed."
Dyna's lips were flecked with foam after the hard six-hundred-meter solo work, and she shook her head.
"If she runs into Gold Ship again, I can honestly say she'll beat him this time. There won't be a repeat of the debut."
Iwamoto was just as pleased. After instructing the assistants on the rest of Dyna's post-work routine, he left together with Wada.
Of course, this was the Ritto Training Center.
And one of the horses training here was called…
Gold Ship.
Light Dyna and Gold Ship finished their works at almost the same time and were led to the wash area by different handlers.
Because in past years there had never been any serious trouble between two-year-old colts and fillies, the facilities for that age group were all shared.
But Gold Ship and Light Dyna were a different story.
Gold Ship had just had a bucket of cold water dumped over him when he suddenly caught a scent from the next bay. A very familiar scent. He had smelled it months ago. A filly. And not just any filly—the one whose smell had been so distinctive when they'd gotten close before.
On Dyna's side, the assistant had only just fastened her bit when an excited neigh erupted from the other side, accompanied by frantic hoof-stomping and the violent rattling of chains.
"Hey, hey, what's going on over there?!"
The assistant could see Dyna had been startled too. She had not overreacted yet, but her snorts had become much louder.
"Sorry! He suddenly got agitated! I'm really sorry!"
Gold Ship's handler quickly apologized, hurried through rinsing him off, and dragged him away at once. But Gold Ship fought his lead rope the whole way, and what was going on under his belly was not exactly subtle either. He might as well have had a stick hanging down.
The two handlers looked at each other. Then they looked at the horses beside them.
And both of them understood immediately.
"Gold Ship really isn't very bright, huh…" Dyna's handler muttered as he poured another bucket of water over her and patted her neck. "You have to beat him on the track, okay? If a horse that spends all his time thinking about mating with you keeps losing to you in races, then maybe you won't have to see him anymore."
Dyna: O皿O
She had no idea what the assistant was talking about.
But she still disliked that annoying chestnut horse next door, especially his smell. It was awful.
Compared to that, even the scent of the two-legged creature beside her was much nicer.
So she nudged the assistant with her nose, let him finish washing her in peace, and then returned to her stall to enjoy her feed.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 139)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter171)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter100)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter184)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 168
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 156
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 105
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 185
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 160
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 150
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 76
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 97
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 116
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 75
Uma Musume: I Want All 93
I Can Copy Unique Skills 79
Summoning an Evil God, but the 55
Supernatural Multiverse 75
My Harem Is Indescribable 68
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 70
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 66
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 69
Still playing traditional Honk 49
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 53
What Should I Do After Switchi 42
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 50
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 38
Transmigrated as Sukuna 35
Checking In in Demon Slayer 40
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 55
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