Unconsciously, Kazuo had been sitting in the library until nine o'clock, but he was completely oblivious, lost in his own world, constantly writing something back and forth in his notebook.
"Hmm... it should be like this, right?"
Kazuo was still muttering to himself, and if one looked closely at what he had written, it was a dense list of data.
Some names of players were also written on it, with a stack of numbers marked behind them.
Fine Motion: 5-3-2-2-2 Preceding/Escaping
Tamamo Cross: 1-1-1 Escaping
Eishin Flash: 8-6-6-4-3 Chasing
Super Creek: 9-8-5 (Late Start)
Victory Ticket: 1-1-2 Escaping
Chén Guāng Pipa: 2-1-2-3 Escaping
Inahoichi: 6-5-3-1 Chasing
..."This makes it clear at a glance..."
Kazuo painstakingly recorded all the earlier races by rank, relying on his memory.
As a former top student in high school, his memory was truly exceptional.
He had just found a race analysis report written by a former Trainer, and Kazuo simply copied it to create his own.
These numbers represent the player's rank at various stages of the race. Listing them out makes it obvious to see the running style and strategy adopted by the player during the race.
Running styles are divided into preceding, chasing, and escaping. If categorized by position during the race, they are escaping, preceding, chasing, and pursuing.
Escaping is a leading running style, located at the front of the pack, typically the top three leaders. The advantage of this running style is the ability to prioritize suitable tracks and avoid entanglement with others. However, this running style heavily tests the player's mental fortitude and stamina. After all, the Escaping is the leader and the target of everyone's pursuit, a situation that requires extreme self-confidence.
The most ideal segmented ranking for this type of Uma Musume is the classic 1-1-1.
This is known as maintaining the advantage from start to finish.
Tamamo Cross used this running style in the simulated race. Although Kazuo felt she was acting somewhat impulsively, he still planned to discuss this matter in more depth.
Preceding is the presence in the middle-front of the pack. They observe the situation after the Escaping Uma Musume. On one hand, the leading Escaping Uma Musume will endure more wind resistance and physical exertion, while the advantage of Preceding lies in having more adaptable methods, whether it's an outside overtake or an inside surprise attack, there is room for choice.
This running style aims to maintain a position in the front, closely following the leaders to maintain an advantage until the end, without conserving much stamina from start to finish, and maintaining a high ranking.
Unlike Escaping Uma Musume, who immediately leave other horses far behind and run at full speed without reserving any stamina, Preceding Uma Musume, although also at the front, still retain some stamina, ensuring they can maintain their speed later on.
Although Fine Motion appeared to be using an escaping running style at the time, analyzing it against the rankings shows that it was actually a Preceding running style. The segmented rankings were: 5-3-2-2.
The Chasing running style is more suitable for middle to long distances, and this running style requires extremely high demands on the player's power.
The position of a Chasing Uma Musume is in the middle-to-rear of the pack, which means they need to utilize their sprint speed to overtake in the final segment. The reason for the high demand for power is that the front of the pack can easily form a blockade. If they cannot break through, then the Chasing Uma Musume's tactic is considered a failure.
Eishin Flash adopted this running style at the time, but for some reason, Kazuo always felt that she still had energy left. In a situation where a Chasing Uma Musume needs to fully burst in the final segment, there was a feeling of intentionally holding back... As for Pursuing Uma Musume, although this is very similar to Chasing, there are many differences.
Chasing Uma Musume will start to accelerate in the final segment, or rather, in the last turn. As for Pursuing Uma Musume, who have been at the bottom of the front section of the race, they will usually start to accelerate in the second to last segment. Considering the possibility of track congestion, Pursuing Uma Musume also need to perform a wide outside overtake when necessary. In terms of difficulty, Pursuing Uma Musume is actually the most challenging, but correspondingly, the most thrilling ultimate comeback is the wild running style of Pursuing Uma Musume, full of visual impact. The most classic Pursuing Uma Musume curve is—16-1.
The running styles of Uma Musume are nothing more than these four. A very few can only be described as variations and extensions of these running styles, but—
Kazuo couldn't help but frown when he looked at another name on the paper.
Narita Taishin... her curve—3-9-7-10.
It can be entirely attributed to insufficient strength and an unorganized running style... From the data alone, Daijin doesn't even have the qualifications to contend for the top spot... But—
Kazuo thought of her expression at that time, and everything he saw that night.
Although he couldn't say why, a vague feeling similar to 'it shouldn't be like this' lingered in his heart.
Leaning back in the chair in the reading room, he softly murmured, "What exactly went wrong, Daijin?"
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