Umamusume Pretty Derbyis taking the weeaboo world by storm, and I’ve been swept up in the hype like thousands of others. There’s nothing better than befriending a horse anime girl on my second screen as I help them achieve their dreams of reaching the Japanese Derby.
On the surface, it’s yet another gacha game in which you spend currency to pull a selection of cute characters with different tiers of rarity. The more money you spend or time you put in, the more likely you’re going to pull your favourite characters. But I love them all, having a blast uncovering their distinct personalities and motivations for chasing a racing career.
But one girl stands out among all the others: Haru Urara.
Who Is Haru Urara?
Umamusume is almost like a history lesson if the teachers were a bunch of anime girls that are named after famous racehorses from across history. Each one not only shares a name with a famous animal, but great care has been taken to ensure their appearance and overall personality and also take inspiration from these equestrian legends.
It’s utterly bizarre, but strangely endearing when you realise how much effort has gone into this weird and wonderful concept. Out of them all, though, Haru Urara appears to be the most popular. In the real world, this 29-year-old Japanese racehorse has never won an event, but it never stopped her owners in Mitsuishi, Hokkaido from allowing her to compete. Following a 1998 debut, Urara would race in a couple of races per month for the next four years and – as you might have already guessed – couldn’t reach the podium in any of them.
You can find her full career statshere, alongside her breeding farm and a handful of other statistics like total career earnings. But in the grand scheme of things, these numbers don’t matter.
Haru Urara’s losses were so consistent and prolific that she began to attract media attention, being labelled as ‘the shining star of losers everywhere’ before becoming a household name in Japan. You couldn’t help but admire someone who, despite losing at every turn, never ever stopped running in pursuit of victory, either to please her owners or garner some sort of satisfaction.
During the peak of her popularity and during one of her final races on July 15, 2025, over 13,000 spectators attended the Kochi Racecourse in Shikoku to watch her lose. They knew failure was inevitable, but that didn’t stop thousands of people from cheering her on.You can find Haru Urara enjoying her later life on Matha Farm in Onjuku, Chibanowadays, where she has become asocial media starof sorts withher own line of merchandise. Fans have even begun to take pilgrimages to meet her, cementing just how much of a cultural icon she has become.
How Is Haru Urara Presented In Umamusume Pretty Derby?
Haru Urara has been a part of the Umamusume universe since its inception, and she’s just as charming. The universe depicts her as a pink-haired, air-headed girl who is filled with so much sickeningly sweet optimism you’ll need to brush your teeth after chatting with her. It’s easy to get hold of her too, with her appearing as a relatively common pull due to her pretty dismal stats compared to some other athletes.
But this didn’t deter me, and I took Haru Urara into a career mode to chase her dreams. Our first training session has her running off the track and out of sight, and hours later I find that she’s been playing tag with a fish in the local river. She looks so chuffed that I can’t tell them off, and besides, she still got plenty of exercise and experience out of it. So, we soldier on to prepare for our first professional race, in which I want to defy expectations and snag a first-place medal. It’s a long shot, but if Haru Urara couldn’t win in reality, she can here.
Haru Urara would retire completely from racing in 2006. Did you know that her name also translates to ‘Glorious Spring’ or ‘Gentle Spring’ in English? Everything about her is cute.
Against all odds, we burst out of the starting gates on race day and finished in second place. It isn’t the peerless victory I was hoping for, but even against other amateur athletes, it gives us something more ambitious to shoot for. Despite her ditzy nature and carefree attitude, I still think Haru Urara has what it takes to be the queen of Umamusume. To see a cultural icon translated into a video game and experience the same global reception all over again is heartwarming, not to mention I’m discovering the real horse’s story for the very first time.
Players of the recently released mobile game have started viewing Haru Urara with similar love and admiration. Her dialogue and actions during the story mode and her many scenes aren’t exactly that of a determined winner, but her attitude is impossible not to support. You aren’t picking her to come first in every single race, but to follow her story and try your very best to help her shine. In the past week alone, I’ve seen fanart popping up and streamers showcasing entire campaigns in which they start from the bottom and rise to new heights.
If you’re ever near Matha Farm in Japan and fancy visiting Hara Urara for yourself, here is theofficial websitewhich houses a bunch of additional information. At the old age of 29, it’s likely she is relaxing in her stable and enjoying plenty of delicious food. I just hope she’s well aware that, despite never winning a race, we’ve been cheering for her this entire time.
