Chapter 167: The Battle Started Long Ago
As the commentator's voice gradually leveled out, the pack on the track sped through the right-hand turn of the course and began entering the backstretch.
Compared to the opening phase, the field stretched out significantly along the straight.
Seiun Sky exited the turn first.
Barely half a second later, Special Week in second place shot out of the curve right behind her.
Almost two full seconds after that, Mejiro Bright—who had been last ever since the start—finally "slowly" completed the turn.
Just like the start, the dozen-plus sprinting figures showed almost rehearsed coordination; there wasn't a single notable clash as they rounded the bend.
This didn't just calm the commentator's tone— even the roar of the grandstands seemed to drop a degree or two.
"No head-on clashes at all? Looks like…"
Leaning on the railing in front of her, Almond Eye sounded far less fired up than before.
"Maybe the Senpai are planning to settle the race in the final turn or the home stretch…?"
Beside her, Kitasan Black and Duramente watched the field intently, and both nodded in agreement at Almond Eye's words.
But as she nodded, Kitasan Black suddenly felt something odd and subconsciously frowned.
"The final turn or home stretch…? That doesn't feel like Week-senpai or Grass-senpai's style…"
Surprised by her own impression, she tried recalling their past training races, searching for what exactly felt wrong.
"Your feeling is right."
Still watching the race, Makoto suddenly spoke:
"It's not that there's no head-on clash—it's that the battle started long ago."
"No— the battle hasn't stopped since the moment they left the gate!"
He raised his voice in the last sentence.
Three startled gazes snapped toward him, and before the three racehorse girls could ask anything, the commentator's voice suddenly leapt in volume.
"The field passes the 600-meter marker!"
"Split time… 34.4 seconds!"
Compared to the previously calm tone, this announcement was jarring and sharp.
The grandstands roared for a moment, then immediately erupted into gasps and murmurs—an atmosphere filled with surprise and confusion.
"Thirty-four point four…?"
Almond Eye instinctively felt this number must mean something important. Hearing someone nearby exclaim "So fast!" she widened her eyes, thinking furiously as she muttered without realizing:
"Is that… really fast?"
"Yes! Very fast!"
"Extremely fast."
Kitasan Black and Duramente both nodded at the same time, answering instantly, and Makoto echoed the same sentiment.
"For the opening phase, it's extremely fast."
Carried by the very speed of the race itself, his speaking pace also quickened.
"Last year's Autumn Tenno Sho final three furlongs were 33.7 seconds."
"The year before that, 34.6."
"Three years ago, 33.1."
"In other words, the average speed over the last three years for the final stage is about 17.7 meters per second!"
"And they've already hit 17.4 meters per second in just the first 600 meters…"
"As expected—you're trying to pull the same trick again, aren't you, Seiun Sky…?"
The same trick…?
The same question appeared simultaneously in the minds of the three Umamusume beside him—even Kitasan Black and Duramente, who could feel the pace instinctively, were no exception.
Before they could ask, the commentator continued right after the earlier exclamation:
"It's a very familiar strategy! Seiun Sky seems to be attempting to recreate the tactic she used in the Kikuka Sho! But will her rivals allow the same strategy to succeed again? It's a tactic she's already used once!"
With that reminder, a wave of realization swept through the stands.
Kitasan Black slapped her forehead and exclaimed:
"I remember now! Trainer told me about Seiun-senpai's 'Pace Deception'!"
Then, confused, she added—
"But if senpai really intends to use that tactic… wouldn't the commentator basically be warning the other senpai? And… the others would already know about that tactic, right…?"
"That's exactly why I said the clash started long ago."
Makoto spoke plainly:
"I did tell you about 'pace deception,' but don't forget—that race was the 3,000-meter Kikuka Sho."
"This race, however, is a 2,000-meter one similar to the Autumn Tenno Sho."
"Seiun Sky must have considered all of that."
"And more importantly…"
He pointed toward the green-blue figure slightly behind in the formation.
"She used that tactic against Special Week before."
"Unless she doesn't want to win, there's no way she'd just reuse the exact same trick so simply."
"And besides—why do you think Special Week is sticking so close to her?"
"It's because she's been trying to figure out Seiun Sky's intentions since the moment they left the gate!"
There was still much more Makoto wanted to remind Kitasan Black of.
Not long after the start, he had already noticed Seiun Sky's pacing.
100 meters, 200 meters, 300 meters…
Even without marker posts, he could rely on experience and intuition to tell that this Umamusume's pace was steadily increasing.
For many trainers—especially newcomers—pace was an important competitive factor, yet ironically also one of the easiest to overlook among the key variables.
Compared to pace, which usually changed slowly and lacked spectacle, things like reaction time from the gate, cornering speed, or the final stretch's closing kick were far more visceral, far more exciting, and thus far more likely to draw attention.
But Makoto had experienced his share of extreme-speed competitions and understood pace better than most.
In any speed-based sport, peak velocity mattered deeply.
But racers, at the end of the day, were flesh and blood. Their stamina was limited.
Under that reality, the combination of pacing and stamina distribution was one of the true standards by which skill was measured.
Seiun Sky and her trainer had demonstrated a textbook example of this in their Kikuka Sho victory.
They abandoned the previous slow front running tactic and burst out of the gate, taking a significant early lead.
They blasted through the first 1,000 meters at high speed, forcing their opponents to follow and preventing them from conserving energy.
Then, in the middle section, the pace suddenly slowed—kept precisely on the edge of stalling out—tricking rivals into thinking Seiun Sky was running out of stamina.
Finally, in the last 1,000+ meters, she unleashed all the stamina secretly preserved, accelerating to a pace even faster than the opening 1,000 meters, and crossed the finish line with a crushing five-length lead.
This was the "pace deception" Makoto had once explained to Kitasan Black.
The tactic sounded simple when put into words.
The real difficulty was determining exactly how slow the mid-race pace needed to be—slow enough to conserve stamina, but fast enough to deceive every opponent.
There were many theoretical obstacles.
Analyzing past performances, preparing through specialized training, reading the track conditions and rivals, performing well on the day… Gathering all these conditions was extremely difficult.
Most telling of all—since Seiun Sky, no Umamusume had ever successfully replicated this tactic in a Kikuka Sho and won.
At first, noticing Seiun Sky's unusually fast pace, Makoto had reacted just like Kitasan Black and the commentator—instinctively assuming she was trying to repeat her trick.
But Special Week's behavior immediately changed his mind.
Two and a half lengths.
Special Week had kept exactly that distance from start to now.
With that tight degree of pressure, Seiun Sky could never pull off the same tactic—not unless, as he said earlier, she didn't care about winning.
And since she clearly did want to win, then she must have something else prepared.
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