If there was anything important besides the Arima Kinen, it was probably Special Week's race.
Special Week also planned to participate in the Hopeful Stakes like her. Winning wasn't important; the key was to experience the atmosphere of a G1 race in advance and to get a feel for the Nakayama Racecourse track in preparation for the Satsuki Sho. The real goal was still the Kisaragi Sho in February next year. Although it was a G3 race, winning it would accumulate enough popularity and prize money to advance to the Triple Crown.
Of course, it would be even better if she could win the Hopeful Stakes. If she could win, she could directly advance to the Triple Crown, but the difficulty was very high.
It was mainly Ling's fault. Most Trainers, when raising Uma Musume, would usually participate in a few low-level major races after their debut to safely secure a ticket to the Triple Crown. However, the appearance of Ling, this G1 hunter, directly caused a strong bandwagon effect.
Nevertheless, the Hopeful Stakes was ultimately a G1 race. If an Uma Musume didn't perform well in her debut race, she couldn't participate. And if, due to a poor debut performance, she was forced to participate in other races to gain popularity and prize money for this race, she would have less training time than other Uma Musume participating in it, making it still very difficult to win.
This was also why Trainer Okino decided to take a gamble because of Special Week's outstanding performance in her debut race, and it seemed to be becoming a tradition for Spica.
Indeed, everyone at Spica had sufficient talent and therefore possessed absolute confidence and ability to participate in this race, though Haru Urara still needed to adjust her condition.
Haru Urara's old injury had long healed, and she had now begun training to adjust her aptitudes.
Although Ling was certain that with proper training, Haru Urara would perform exceptionally well on dirt tracks, her dream was still to run on grass. Naturally, Ling would respect her wishes.
Haru Urara's grass aptitude had already risen to D. With a bit more training, she should be able to officially run on grass tracks.
But for now, training Special Week was the priority.
The 2000-meter grass track at Nakayama Racecourse, right inner course, was identical to the Satsuki Sho's setup, so adapting to it in advance was necessary.
However, the terrain of Nakayama Racecourse was even more outrageous.
It started with a long uphill climb, then after the first turn and into the second, there was a very long downhill section. Following that, after the fourth turn and entering the final straight, there was a steep uphill climb. Therefore, running here required conserving enough stamina before the final stage, otherwise, one could easily lose speed on the steep slope of the final straight. This final straight would also greatly widen the distance between Uma Musume who had conserved their stamina well and those who hadn't.
However, Special Week and other Uma Musume participating in the race might not have enough stamina at this stage to cope with these slopes, so training in slope techniques was very necessary, especially uphill.
Ling truly dared not teach downhill techniques casually, especially her own techniques.
After all, at that time, she had almost replaced her bones several times over.
"Higher frequency, maintain that posture, it's a bit off!" Ling followed behind Special Week, observing her stride and posture, and offering reminders at appropriate times.
Special Week was also very obedient, or rather, always had been, especially when it came to training-related matters. She had never disappointed anyone.
It was just that recently, she always wanted to do extra training, which made everyone a bit helpless.
Perhaps it was Special Week's unique way of dealing with stress?
Speaking of which, Special Week's classmates generally had their own ideas. At least, only Special Week chose to participate in this year's Hopeful Stakes.
But one thing was certain: her classmates chose more training, while Special Week chose experience. Who was stronger or weaker would only be clear when they truly faced each other in a race.
Ling had also met Special Week's classmates and saw quite a lot through their stats.
They were all good rivals. This generation should be the one with the most top talents since Tracen was built.
Seiun Sky, Grass Wonder, El Condor Pasa, Special Week. At this stage, it was certain that if they could debut in batches, they all had the ability to challenge Triple Crown-level races.
However, precisely because of this, Special Week, who learned all this from Ling, trained even harder, so hard that she could only eat four bowls of rice.
"Alright, Little Special, stop now. Any more training will be a guts training. Most of your current stamina should be used for endurance and speed training. Take a break and recover your stamina," Ling calculated that Special Week's stamina was almost depleted, so she stopped her training.
"Eh? I think I can last a bit longer…"
"Objection overruled." Ling took Special Week's hand and led her to the side to rest.
The other team members were also training under Trainer Okino's guidance, but no one said anything.
Today, Special Week had also eaten a little less and arrived early to start training. Her training volume was already much higher than everyone else's.
Recently, Trainer Okino and Ling had been discussing how to help Special Week relax. The conclusion they reached was that taking Special Week back to her Hometown might be better.
At least Special Week's foster mother understood her well, and Special Week also liked her very much.
However, this would have to wait until the weekend. For now, appropriately adjusting Special Week's training was the most important thing.
Seeing Special Week sit down, Ling habitually took out a few carrots and handed them over, and Special Week instinctively took them and crunched on them.
"Huh?" Special Week suddenly realized something was off.
"What's wrong?"
"No… nothing…"
What was going on? Why did she feel completely under Z-chan's control?
But looking at Ling's smiling face, she felt like there was nothing wrong.
"Ara ara~" Oguri Cap, watching the scene from afar, couldn't help but cup her chin with one hand, a look of satisfaction on her face.
"Hey, what are you planning now?" Tamamo Cross next to her felt a chill down her spine and quickly turned to look at Oguri Cap.
"Well, Senior, don't be so scared~" Inari One, seeing Tamamo Cross's sensitive reaction, also mocked her.
"Hmph, then next time I'll just push you out," Tamamo Cross retorted instantly.
"Pushing out" naturally referred to the act of providing Oguri Cap with an Uma Musume to unleash her maternal instincts on, which was usually handled by Ling and Tamamo Cross. However, Oguri Cap couldn't refuse the equally petite Inari One.
"Eh, um… let's not! I'm very sorry!" Inari One had also experienced the terror of Oguri Cap in that state and quickly apologized.
As for why Inari One was here… naturally, it was because things at home were mostly resolved, so she returned to the academy and was also pulled over by Ling to be an assistant coach.
And as for why Oguri Cap looked so relieved… well, it was probably the feeling of seeing her own child grow up, right?
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