Umamusume: Pretty Derby, the Japanese mobile game in which you raise anime horse-girls, has brought Japan’s most unsuccessful racehorse a second boom in popularity following its western launch on Steam — with her positive, never-give-up attitude inspiring a whole new set of fans overseas.
Cygames’ Umamusume: Pretty Derby franchise centers around a cast of anime girls with horse ears and tails. Each one is based on a real racehorse, with the personalities, designs and stats of each character reflecting their IRL counterparts. With the 2021 free-to-play mobile game finally getting its English-language debut this June on Steam, more international fans have been discovering the charms of Umamusume’s characters.
Pink-haired Haru Urara seems to have struck a particular chord with some players. To say she has a bubbly, positive, can-do attitude would be an understatement. Even though she often loses races, she is good friends with the other horse-girls and often buys them souvenirs. Like Umamusume’s other characters, plucky Haru Urara is based on the real life horse of the same name, who is now 29-years-old and enjoying her retirement at Matha Farm in Japan’s Chiba Prefecture.
Everyone loves an underdog, or an underhorse in this case. Haru Urara raced from 1998 to 2004, however she didn’t win a single one of her 113 races. Although she made it to second and third place a handful of times, she spent most of her career literally lagging behind (source: JBIS Search). So much so that she became famous for losing, becoming a kind of national symbol of perseverance in the face of adversity.
In 2004, Junichiro Koizumi, the Japanese prime minister at the time, even praised her in his official email magazine, saying: “I believe that Haru Urara's attitude of not giving up despite being beaten race after race is one that is clearly an inspiration for us all.” In her last years of racing a “Haru Boom” was underway (source: CBS News), with fans travelling across the country to watch her lose races and buying up Haru Urara merch. Even the betting slips with her name on were being used as charms to ward against traffic accidents (the word “ataranai” or “didn’t win” stamped on losing betting slips is a homonym for not being hit, by a car for example). In 2018, Haru Urara became a local celebrity again when she was featured on Chiba police’s traffic safety posters, getting paid 600kg worth of carrots (source: Sankei News).
Fast forward to July 2025, and users posting real life Haru Urara content on X noticed a sudden uptick of likes and follows, likely the Umamusume effect in action. X user animal_love_kaz, a self-confessed fan of retired racehorses who frequently posts photos and updates noted that their Haru Urara birthday post suddenly got thousands more likes overnight, with their overseas account gaining 400 new followers. In a July 3 post, below, featuring a photo of the horse with a flower on her head that has since racked up 2.6 million views, animal_love_kaz wrote: "I don’t know if this will reach my overseas bros and sisters but Haru Urara is very well, in fact, she’s probably healthier and more energetic than me!"
なぜかウララさんの今年の誕生日の時のティアラのが昨日からまた更に1万くらいイイネが増えてて通知止まらんし海外アカで昨日から400人くらいフォロワー増えてるじゃん
海外ニキネキ達に伝わるかわからないけど、ハルウララさんはとても元気で過ごしてるし、むしろ私より健康で元気なくらいだよ😆👍 pic.twitter.com/E9MKbUaPRj— もつご (@animal_love_kaz) July 3, 2025
Umamusume’s Haru Urara has even been co-opted into the “Why don’t you ever give up?” “Because she never did!” meme, which is now floating around a social media comment thread near you (here it is on Reddit). It seems that Haru Urara has become a symbol of not giving up in the face of adversity for a whole new group of fans.
In-game Haru Urara naturally doesn’t have the best stats compared to other characters. However players can take on the challenge of trying to make her a winner in the game, or at the very least, just enjoy her infectious positive attitude in the Story Mode cutscenes.
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Haru Urara is also a reminder that if your career isn't working out right now, you may find success in another field (pun intended) later on. Although Haru Urara was not successful as a racehorse, she is now gaining popularity on social media, and living out her retirement years with her friend Pepper the goat. Matha Farms even has official merch featuring her, from T-shirts to cushion covers and phone straps. Some fans visit her, but with the surge in popularity of these real life racehorses, Umamusume developer Cygames recently shared guidelines on how to respectfully meet your horsey idols in real life.
The mobile game Umamusume: Pretty Derby is available now in English via Steam, Google Play, and the Apple App store. All three seasons of the anime are currently on Crunchyroll.
Photo by Sports Nippon/Getty Images.
Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.
