145 likesUma Musume: Title Holder Joins the Roster, Fans Honor the Real Horse
Uma Musume: Pretty Derby announced a new playable character at its 7th-anniversary live: Title Holder, based on the real Grade-1-winning racehorse (nickname "Taiho"). The most-liked Japanese reactions reveal something English fans rarely get to hear: the franchise's emotional contract with the real horse-racing world. The single biggest comment wasn't hype — it was an older fan saying his "favorite racehorse lives on" through the game, that "the memory is carried on" and "everyone talks about Title Holder again," with nothing left to say but "thank you." From there the thread turned into the kind of affectionate trivia only Japanese racing fans carry: how Taiho was a surprisingly small foal at the paddock ("only slightly bigger than his tiny sister," who weighed just 20kg at birth versus the usual 50kg), how he happened to be racing at his peak right when Uma Musume itself was peaking — so a whole generation feels personally attached — and the unforgettable "soul of the escape" front-running win at the 2023 Arima Kinen that fans now beg the game to recreate. Mixed in: a roster wishlist (Efforia, Shahryar, Equinox, Do Deuce, his sister Melody Lane) and warm notes about the real jockeys, the Yokoyama family. The real-horse-to-game bond is the whole point here — and the thread keeps quietly circling back to it.