Emilia Rittenbach Illustration

Or rather, infamous. Ol'haru has the record of the largest streak of consecutive losses in the sport, ending with a career of 113 losses to 0 wins. Despite that, she was absolutely beloved by everyone in Japan, and had a pretty significant fan club. At her trainer's words, she was capable but simply enjoyed running with other horses too much, and wouldn't break out of the pack to seize a win.

This is reflected in her personality: She's a jovial, easily distracted klutz that simply races because she finds it fun. In a game where "why am I in this sport ?" Is a core question that moves every character forward, she sticks out like a sore thumb. It is even represented in gameplay, with her special skill giving her a stamina boost when she's surrounded by other umas mid-race.

Uma musume is basically a roguelite. Every character's career mode has a certain number of goals to reach before the final scenario race. You fail or succeed, then you can use your veteran uma as an "inspiration" for further runs, inheriting part of her stats and skills. Those goals are usually "Reach X amount of fans" or "Place 1st in this race". One of Urara's goals is to run in the Arima Kiren, one of the most prestigious races in Japan. Emphasis on "Run", no need to reach the top 5 or anything. Why you ask ?

Because Urara joined this event because a lot of her classmates also did, and wants to run with them too. Everyone, MC included, notes how unsuitable Haru is for this. Every girl has different affinities for ground type (firm turf or loose dirt) and race lengths (fast sprints vs mile long medium vs longer ones). The Arima Kiren is a Long Turf Race, and Haru is abysmally bad at both, preferring sprints and dirt. Moreover, due to most of the previous races being sprints, you are encouraged to build her to increase her speed and neglect stamina. It's essentially putting a 100m sprinter run a marathon. No matter how good your stats are, you're gonna beef it.

But it has a storytelling reason. After the race, there is a somber cutscene where she admits she had fun, but also she can't help but feel sad and ugly cries at you. Maybe there's more to racing than "having fun". A competitive spirit awakens in her and she vows to take future races more seriously.

haunting the narrative