Although Zhou Tai'an didn't know what level of strength Taiki Shuttle was at, everyone in Team Rigil was very clear.
Although Taiki Shuttle had not yet debuted in the Twinkle Series, the former trainer of Team Rigil, who had invited her to join, had once made a judgment: "Taiki Shuttle is a Horse Girl who can conquer a European G1."
This retired trainer held a high position in the academy. Since he had said so, everyone believed it—and on the other hand, Taiki Shuttle had also shown ability far exceeding that of her peers.
But this time, to be held off by Oguri Cap in a 600-meter chase, maintaining the small advantage from the late start, was truly a shock to Tojo Hana and the Rigil girls.
He could see this, but Oguri Cap felt it even more deeply.
Because in the following days, Rigil girls would often invite her to hang out in their spare time, and would also actively seek her out for training, which made him quite comfortable. With the first-line team of Central Tracen Academy, some of whom had even won G1s, as sparring partners, although Oguri Cap sometimes suffered, her training efficiency during this period was far superior to when she was at Kasamatsu.
"Even if we don't win the Hokkaido Yushun Championship, after we go back to Kasamatsu this time, Fujimasa March will be even less of a match for Oguri Cap," he thought.
Although he had heard that Kitahara had also taken Fujimasa March to Nagoya for a challenge during the holidays, because there were no effective real-time communication methods, he hadn't inquired about the specific situation.
"I hope she wins too," he secretly wished. "Otherwise, if Oguri Cap has no rivals at all when we get back to Kasamatsu, I'm afraid her fighting spirit will slowly diminish."
In early August, the official Monbetsu Racecourse released the preliminary entry list for this month's main event, the Hokkaido Yushun Championship.
To the surprise of all the onlookers, the "Other Regions Entry" section, which had been empty in previous years, actually had a name this year—
"Oguri Cap (Kasamatsu) Main Win: Wakakoma Sho (OP)/Nagoya"
"The Horse Girls from that Kasamatsu place are average, right?" Many people were aware of this. "Even if she won an open race in Nagoya, she probably won't have an easy time here in Hokkaido."
In local racing, the two strongest regions in all of Japan were generally recognized as—Monbetsu for the debut year, because there were a large number of Graded Races for debuting Horse Girls to challenge, allowing them to quickly accumulate capital.
The universally strongest was the South Kanto region—including Ooi, Funabashi, Urawa, and Kawasaki. Among them, Ooi was the strongest. Horse Girls who had accumulated capital in Monbetsu would transfer to Ooi during their classic season to try to challenge the "South Kanto Triple Crown" consisting of the Haneda Hai, Tokyo Derby, and Japan Dirt Derby, or the "South Kanto Fillies' Triple Crown" consisting of the Urawa Oka Sho, Tokyo Princess Sho, and Kanto Oaks.
For the Horse Girls, trainers, and fans of Monbetsu, if a Horse Girl from South Kanto came to challenge, she would indeed be a formidable opponent.
But Kasamatsu... that place had never produced a strong Horse Girl in its history, so basically, no one paid much attention.
Even the slightly more cautious trainers at Monbetsu Tracen Academy, after finding out that he was a "rookie" who had just started last year, were all relieved.
In his room, after casually flipping through today's newspapers from Hokkaido, he waited for Brand New Shine, who had just finished developing the film.
"Here are the photos I took last month," the chestnut-haired logistics Horse Girl said, handing the messenger bag to the young man.
"Good. You did a great job, Brand New Shine," he said, sorting the photos by date. She was very meticulous. The shooting angle for each location on different dates was the same, and the date was marked on the back of each photo.
He called over Oguri Cap, who had just finished breakfast, preparing to show his analysis to his team members.
"The training facilities at Monbetsu Tracen Academy are about the same as Kasamatsu's. They don't have a slope either," he said, pointing to the photos and complaining. "The dirt track for training is resurfaced once a month. In that respect, they're better than Kasamatsu. I'm afraid when we go back, the condition of our training grounds will be just as familiar."
"Ahaha..." Brand New Shine and Oguri Cap gave an awkward laugh. The training grounds at Kasamatsu Tracen Academy were a frequent topic of complaint among everyone at the academy.
"Let's start by looking at the starting straight," he said, laying out several photos in chronological order. "You can see that most of the hoofprints are on the inside."
"That's normal, right?" Oguri Cap muttered.
"It's not normal," he said, holding up a photo Brand New Shine had taken yesterday. "This one is the clearest. You can see that on the outside, the hoofprints at the starting line are from running, not from starting."
"Now let's look at the first turn," the young man took out a few more photos. "Here, the inside is actually quite clean. It wasn't until a week after it was resurfaced that a few hoofprints appeared."
"Does that mean the Monbetsu Horse Girls also dislike running on the inside when turning?" Oguri Cap's mind was not slow. She immediately understood what he was implying.
"That's right. Although Monbetsu's level is considered top-tier among the local regions, they also have this problem. Of course, it could also be that because no one runs on the inside, the sand there is thicker, making it slower to run on than for the other horses," he said, being precise.
"It's all the same to me," Oguri Cap said. After this period of training with the Rigil girls, her racing sense had improved significantly. Although the thick sand would slow her down, the layout of Monbetsu Racecourse meant that the advantage of running on the inside could offset the effect of the deceleration.
After that, he used the remaining photos to analyze the common habits of the Monbetsu Tracen Academy Horse Girls for Oguri Cap, and from their training routes, he analyzed that most of the talented ones liked to fight for the lead.
"Then," to his surprise, Oguri Cap offered her own opinion on the race strategy for the first time. "If they all choose to go to the front and fight for the lead, should I consider a 'Closer' strategy? Because they will definitely use up a lot of their stamina at the beginning of the race fighting for the lead."
His eyes lit up. Her progress excited him.
"We could, but there are still 30 days until the race. We can't set the race plan in stone just yet," he said with a satisfied smile, but did not directly adopt her plan.
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