Kitahara felt that what Maruzensky said made sense. When he heard that joke, he really did seriously think about whether touching a horse girl's calf might actually be some kind of necessary professional requirement.
After all, that's how it's portrayed in anime—maybe this kind of behavior really does have some practical significance.
However, after the joke passed, Maruzensky quickly shifted her attention back to race footage.
Influenced by Kitahara, she also felt that watching races on the way to Kasamatsu or during other boring moments was actually a pretty good choice.
That gave Kitahara a strong sense of having found a kindred spirit, and he immediately recommended a lot of races, even directly sharing the videos he had saved on his phone and tablet.
As a trainer, the amount of race footage he had stored could be described as massive. But when it came to personal recommendations, he still favored the various countries' or regions' "Triple Crown" series.
For example: Japan's Satsuki Sho, Japan Derby, and Kikuka Sho; America's Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes; Hong Kong's Chairman's Trophy, Hong Kong Gold Cup, and Hong Kong Champions & Chater Cup, and so on. He had complete recordings of past editions of all these races.
Especially since Maruzensky was of British origin, he specifically recommended footage of the British Triple Crown—the 2000 Guineas, the Epsom Derby, and the St. Leger Stakes. Maruzensky gladly accepted.
Then, on the next day, when the whole team borrowed the resort manor's bus to head for Kasamatsu, Oguri Cap and the others were chatting excitedly in the front seats about the upcoming hot spring trip.
Kitahara and Maruzensky, meanwhile, were curled up in the back seats, watching the videos they had downloaded earlier.
"You should be very familiar with the races from this year, right?"
As they watched, Kitahara suddenly smiled and said, "Nijinsky's Triple Crown."
"For horse girls, the British Triple Crown schedule doesn't really pose a stamina problem," he continued. "After all, running three races in five consecutive weeks—only the U.S. has such an outrageous arrangement."
"But the 2000 Guineas is 1600 meters, the Epsom Derby is 2400 meters, and the St. Leger is 2800 meters."
"That's basically demanding that a horse girl have absolute dominance in mile, middle-distance, and long-distance races all at once if she wants to win the British Triple Crown."
"Honestly, if you just look at the results, as long as your constitution is strong enough, winning the three U.S. Triple Crown races in five weeks straight might actually be easier."
"After all, the Kentucky, Preakness, and Belmont are all middle-distance races."
"But the British Triple Crown races are all at different distances, so the difficulty is even higher."
"And looking at the outcome—over so many years of British Triple Crown history, there hasn't been a Triple Crown horse girl in the past decade or more. The most recent one was Nijinsky."
"If you trace back even further, you'd have to go back decades to Bahram."
Because the system demands extremely broad distance adaptability—requiring competence from 1600 meters all the way to 2800 meters—the British Triple Crown is simply too hard to achieve.
Distance adaptability is the most difficult ability to improve. If it's just a single attribute like stamina or speed, you can enhance it through large amounts of targeted training.
But distance adaptability is an all-round, comprehensive quality. Sprint, mile, middle-distance, and long-distance races all place different demands on a horse girl's abilities, training level, talent, and even physique.
Often, a horse girl can only perform at a top level within a certain distance range; once she exceeds that range, winning becomes much more uncertain.
Japan has many typical examples of this.
For instance, Silence Suzuka—her original horse's adaptability range actually wasn't very wide. It's generally believed that she performed best at distances between 2000 and 2200 meters. Especially with her front-running escape style, only at those distances could her advantages be fully realized.
A very obvious example is the Mainichi Okan. In that race's final showdown, both visually and according to post-race data, El Condor Pasa's final three furlongs were faster.
If the race distance had been 100 meters longer, the result might have changed.
A similar case is Oguri Cap's 1989 Japan Cup. She finished with the same time as the winner of that race, Horlicks, and her finishing kick was even a bit stronger.
However, in terms of race strategy, because she had faced foreign competitors so rarely, even though she had experience from a previous Japan Cup, Oguri Cap still habitually made a wide outside overtake.
That meant she actually ran a bit farther than her opponent.
And the fundamental reason was that Oguri Cap's strongest distance was around 1600 meters—the mile—not a middle distance like 2400 meters.
Expanding further, examples like the top sprinter Sakura Bakushin O and the top long-distance runner Rice Shower show the same pattern. At their best distances, they were extremely powerful, but in races outside those ranges, their performances could only be described as hard to watch.
Against this backdrop, the British Triple Crown—which requires adaptability across mile, middle-distance, and long-distance races—is truly extraordinarily difficult to achieve.
In fact, in Kitahara's memory, not only had there been no British Triple Crown horse girls in recent decades—there continued to be none for decades afterward as well.
As for why he specifically brought up Nijinsky's British Triple Crown, the reason was simple: in another world, that original horse was actually Maruzensky's father.
Of course, in this world of horse girls, the former was a senpai within the latter's family.
After all, the actual age difference between the two horse girls was only seven years—no matter how you looked at it, they couldn't possibly be in a "parent–child" relationship. Calling them sisters fit this world much better.
"Oh, oh, Old-ski? Of course I've seen her Triple Crown."
That casual remark made Kitahara's expression turn strange, but Maruzensky didn't notice at all.
"When I was little, my family wanted me to develop toward competitive walking, so the first races I watched were Old-ski's Triple Crown."
"But back then I didn't really have those kinds of ambitions yet. I just watched casually and thought, wow, she's amazing."
"Later, when I studied it more carefully—how should I put it—Old-ski's talent is way stronger than mine. If she weren't already past her peak age now, I definitely couldn't outrun her."
"If she still had her level from back then… huh? Kitahara, why are you making that face?"
She finally noticed Kitahara's odd expression.
"Uh… I just feel like calling her 'Old-ski' sounds kind of weird…"
Kitahara was at a loss for words.
After all, "Old-ski," or rather "veteran driver," was a nickname that game players and horse racing fans usually used to refer to Maruzensky.
Not only because her name contained "ski," but also because in the franchise, many horse girls were her "descendants."
In terms of original horses, Maruzensky was the father of Sakura Chiyono O, the grandfather of Special Week, Rice Shower, and Winning Ticket.
Even Super Creek and Yaeno Muteki were Maruzensky's nephews.
In short, nicknames like "veteran driver" or "grandpa" weren't baseless when applied to Maruzensky.
Knowing this background from another world, hearing the "original veteran driver" Maruzensky call another horse girl "Old-ski" made Kitahara feel utterly speechless.
"What's weird about it? That's what everyone in the family calls her."
Maruzensky herself didn't think there was any problem at all, and instead explained naturally.
"Because my name also has 'ski' in it, when the family calls the two of us, they distinguish us to avoid confusion."
"Usually they call her 'Old-ski' or 'Veteran-ski.' As for me, I'm 'Little-ski' or 'Little-driver.'"
The nickname "Little-ski" instantly made Kitahara find the horse girl in front of him adorable, but he still felt a bit puzzled.
"…Do British families also like playing with puns like this? I thought only Rudolf Symboli's family had that hobby."
He couldn't help but complain.
"Liking dad jokes and puns is just Rudolf's personal hobby," Maruzensky said with a smile. "Her family isn't like that at all. Isn't Sirius Symboli the same—she doesn't have that kind of hobby either?"
After explaining with a laugh, Maruzensky continued:
"And my family's case isn't really a pun either—it's mainly because of Ferrari's sponsorship over the years."
"You know Enzo Ferrari, right? The founder of the Ferrari sports car company. He and his family are quite fond of horse girl racing."
[Ferrari mentioned, Next years is their year I have heard since 2008]
"And there's a little detail in the racing world: every year, the color scheme of the newest Ferrari car matches the winning outfit color of that year's representative European horse."
"Old-ski's dominance back then was unquestionable, so that year's Ferrari racing color was her winning outfit's color."
"In recent years, to commemorate that, Ferrari even released a model called Verde Medio Nijinsky. The color scheme is modified from the original, but overall it hasn't changed much."
[Not a model but a special color]
When it came to sports cars, Maruzensky suddenly began listing details fluently.
"I think that car is really stylish. The color is a rare greenish-cyan, because the model name basically means 'Nijinsky's green.'"
"It has a double-layer green metallic paint. The exterior components use Grigio Silverstone Opaco, while the interior uses Count Prestige leather. The center of the seats and the door handles have a woven pattern similar to BV, and the wooden parts are teak."
"It's basically a perfect embodiment of the essence of Tailor Made!"
Her eyes sparkled with admiration, then she turned a bit regretful.
"It's just that compared to green, I still prefer red."
"And that car was given to Old-ski. Buying one separately would be pretty expensive."
"I don't really plan on changing cars for now, so if I get the chance to borrow it and go for a drive to satisfy myself, that'll be enough."
Since Kitahara had never had much interest in material things, he was completely clueless about luxury items like sports cars, and he didn't really understand that whole part at all.
But he did at least understand one thing: the horse girls of the "Ski family" all seemed to be very enthusiastic about sports cars.
It felt like Nijinsky, who must have retired long ago by now, probably also enjoyed racing and speeding in her daily life. Who knows how much of her prize money had been eaten up by fines for violating British traffic laws.
While Kitahara and Maruzensky chatted away in the back, the bus unknowingly arrived in Kasamatsu.
The vehicle didn't stop at the familiar two-story residential apartment building that Kitahara or Oguri Cap knew. Instead, it pulled up in front of a cluster of high-rise buildings that looked very upscale.
Kasamatsu, located in Gifu Prefecture, was actually developing quite well. It was part of one of Japan's three major metropolitan areas—the Nagoya metropolitan area.
The region was famous for its forging industry, with products sold all over Japan, and its population numbered in the millions. It could be considered quite prosperous.
However, Kasamatsu itself still had a lot of room for development. The population was sparse, and its pillar industries were primary ones like agriculture, fisheries, and forestry.
Making a living from farming, fishing, and forestry was enough to get by, but becoming particularly wealthy was difficult—both officially and privately.
Take the Kasamatsu Racecourse as an example. It was where Oguri Cap made her debut, and both Kitahara and Oguri Cap, as well as Belno Light, were very familiar with it.
So familiar that they even remembered details like a pair of cat paw prints left in the concrete at the entrance.
Those cat paw prints had been left when the racecourse was built fifty years ago—which meant the entire racecourse hadn't been renovated in fifty years.
Something like that would be absolutely impossible at racecourses in places like Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, or Nagoya.
Central-level racecourses were inspected every year, with issues identified and fixed annually. Any area that needed even slight improvement would immediately receive manpower and resources—something small local areas simply couldn't compare to.
From this, one could see Kasamatsu's level of development and economic situation.
Against this backdrop, high-rise buildings were rare in Kasamatsu, with only a few key development zones having them.
Like the area in front of them now—dozens-of-meters-tall buildings, people in suits going in and out, and luxury vehicles coming and going at the entrances.
This not only clashed with the past impressions that Kitahara and the other Kasamatsu natives had of the place, but more importantly, it was completely unlike the familiar home of Oguri Cap.
"That's strange. Why did the bus stop here?"
Having trained in Kasamatsu before, Tamamo Cross and the others had visited Oguri Cap's home, so she immediately sensed something was off.
"I mean, did we get something wrong? Where's the driver? Did he drive to the wrong place? Komiyama, what's going on?"
After voicing her confusion, and seeing that Oguri Cap, Belno Light, and even SUper Creek were all equally puzzled, Tamamo Cross couldn't help but turn to look at her trainer.
"Uh… I don't really know either. The itinerary was arranged by my senpai… Oh, right—where is my senpai?"
Komiyama hurriedly looked around for Kitahara.
"Oh, it's like this."
Kitahara had already asked the driver and had learned the situation in advance from White Narubi, but in a moment of oversight, he had forgotten to explain it to everyone before boarding the bus.
"Oguri Cap has moved. Of course, both Oguri Cap and Oguri Roman were busy training before, so neither of them really paid much attention to it."
"Huh? Moved?"
Oguri Cap froze, then scratched her head and showed a looks of sudden realization.
"Oh, right. Mom did seem to mention on the phone once that we were moving or something."
"That's also why she came back from Tokyo."
"But…"
She scratched her head again.
"I didn't really ask about the details…"
Hearing this, Kitahara smiled helplessly and was about to explain, when Oguri Roman—who had been curiously examining the building—stepped in.
"It's normal that Big Sis didn't ask too carefully—she's usually focused on training."
After offering a comforting smile, Oguri Roman gradually showed an expression of admiration.
"It's because Big Sis has become stronger and more famous that Mom White Narubi wanted to move."
"…What does that have to do with moving…?"
Oguri Cap looked confused.
"It's simple. If you become stronger and more famous, a lot of fans will want to come see you."
Oguri Roman nodded matter-of-factly and smiled.
"Not just to see Big Sis—they'll want to see Mom White Narubi too."
"Back when we were still in Tokyo, Mom heard that there were often strangers visiting the old apartment building. They were probably fans."
"Then Mom thought about it—Big Sis would still come back to Kasamatsu from time to time, like now, to rest or relax."
"If too many strangers came around and affected Big Sis's life or her races, that wouldn't be good."
"So Mom discussed it with Aunt Komi, and used the money Big Sis sent back to buy a new place here."
"The security here is excellent. That way, when Big Sis comes back, she won't have to worry about being disturbed."
(End of Chapter)