What Is Uma Musume Pretty Derby? Why Yutaka Take and Lemaire Star in Its Ads

Today: Take and Lemaire dance at twilight

Uma Musume Pretty Derby is a Japanese anime and game franchise from Cygames in which racehorses are reimagined as "horse girls" (umamusume) who train, race and sing. On Oct. 26, 2026, Cygames launched a new TV ad for the game starring two of Japan's best-known jockeys, Yutaka Take and Christophe Lemaire.

According to Cygames' press release, the spot is set at dusk and ends with a dance scene. Both jockeys learned the choreography themselves and kept rehearsing it until just before filming. Mantan-Web's English report describes the pair dancing in sync at twilight.

The ad arrived the same day as a new training scenario, 「朋、史解き　―午式駿大祭―」. It is built around a traditional autumn festival in the game's world that takes a special form once every 12 years. (The 午 in the title is the zodiac sign for the horse, and 2026 is a Year of the Horse.) A second ad for the scenario is narrated by voice actress Kotono Mitsuishi, who plays the new character Azuma.

What is Uma Musume Pretty Derby?

The idea is simple, and stranger than it sounds. Famous Japanese Thoroughbreds become teenage girls with horse ears and tails. They attend a training academy in Tokyo and race on courses modeled on real Japan Racing Association (JRA) tracks.

The franchise has several parts:

• Anime. Three TV seasons aired from 2018 to 2023, plus shorts and a film. Season 1 follows Special Week, Season 2 Tokai Teio and Season 3 Kitasan Black.
• The game. It launched in Japan on Feb. 24, 2021. The English version came out worldwide on June 26, 2025, on iOS, Android and PC (Steam).
• Manga. Cinderella Gray, about Oguri Cap, ran in Weekly Young Jump and got its own two-part anime in 2025.

In the game, you pick a horse girl and spend a "career" building her speed, stamina and power. You also manage her mood and skills, then race her through a calendar of famous races. When she wins, she performs a concert on stage. The new festival scenario is one of these training formats.

Uma Musume real horses: who the characters are

Most characters carry the names of real horses, and their stories follow real racing history: rivalries, injuries, comebacks. Personalities often riff on the real animal's reputation. Three good starting points:

Special Week

The anime's first lead is based on a colt who won eight graded races under Take, including the 1998 Japanese Derby and the 1999 Japan Cup. The real Special Week died in April 2018 at age 22, the same month the anime premiered.

Gold Ship

The real Gold Ship was brilliant and famously unpredictable. He would win a Grade 1 and then run a baffling race with no clear explanation. His character is a tall, silver-haired troublemaker who hosts the franchise's official YouTube channel. He now stands at Big Red Farm in Hokkaido, and he became so popular that his farm suspended weekend visits.

Kitasan Black

Owned through the company of enka singer Saburo Kitajima, Kitasan Black won the 2016 Japan Cup by leading all the way. That was Take's record fourth Japan Cup win. He was Japan's Horse of the Year in 2016 and 2017, and he went on to sire Equinox, a horse Lemaire rode to the top of the world rankings in 2023.

Why Yutaka Take and Christophe Lemaire front the ads

The jockeys are the most direct link between the cartoon horses and the real ones. Between them, they won many of the real races the game recreates.

Yutaka Take debuted in 1987 and is Japan's best-known jockey. He was the first rider to reach 4,000 JRA wins (2018), and in July 2026 he reached 5,000 career wins, counting local and overseas races. He won the Triple Crown undefeated with Deep Impact in 2005. He also rode two of the franchise's lead horses, Special Week and Kitasan Black.

Christophe Lemaire is French, born in 1979. He became a full-time JRA jockey in February 2015 and was the first foreigner to top Japan's jockey standings. He is linked to modern champions like Almond Eye and Equinox.

The pairing isn't new. Lemaire made his first-ever TV commercial in an April 2022 Uma Musume ad with Take. Since then the duo has returned in several ads, often timed to a new training scenario. Today's twilight dance is the latest chapter.

How a game sent fans to real racecourses and retired horses

This is the part horse people should care about. Uma Musume has pushed a wave of new, often young fans toward the real animals behind the characters.

• Thanks from the JRA. In an early-2022 interview with the racing weekly Weekly Gallop, then-JRA chairman Masayuki Goto said the game had given people a chance to feel closer to racing in a way the JRA itself hadn't noticed, and that he was truly grateful for it.
• Donations to retirees. Fans have funded retired racehorses. Haru Urara, a mare famous for losing, received about 2,500 kg of donated grass. Fans also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair the farm where Meisho Doto lives.
• Surprise from overseas. In July 2026, Cygames CEO Koichi Watanabe said the company was "honestly shocked" by how much overseas fans donated after the English launch.
• Track ties. Cygames also sponsors races, including the Breeders' Cup Sprint since 2024.

If you want to visit a real horse

The popularity has a cost: retired horses are living animals, not theme-park attractions. Cygames has published visitor guidelines, and some farms have limited or suspended visits.

1. Check the farm's official page or social account for visiting rules before you go. Never just turn up.
2. Stay behind fences and never feed or touch a horse without staff permission. Read our horse safety basics.
3. Donate through official farm or retirement-group channels, not resellers.
4. Respect photo rules. Flash and crowds can upset horses.

A note for parents

Uma Musume is not a kids' game, even though it's colorful and cute. It's free to download, but it's built around gacha: you spend in-game currency, which you can buy with real money, on random draws for characters and support cards.

The Oct. 26 launch, for example, comes with a free 10-pull each day (up to 80 pulls) and limited-time banners running until Nov. 19. That's the kind of time pressure that nudges spending. Critics have called the game's monetization predatory.

If your teen plays:

• Turn on purchase approval or spending limits in the phone's app store settings.
• Talk about how random draws work. The odds are low, and "one more pull" adds up.
• Use the fandom as a bridge to real horses: look up a character's real races together, or book a first riding lesson.

For gentler options, see our guide to horse games for kids. Our parents and teachers page has more.

What to watch next

• The new scenario's run. Its launch gacha banners run until Nov. 19.
• The Japan Cup. Many Uma Musume fans follow it because of Special Week and Kitasan Black. See our Japan Cup 2026 preview for the upcoming race.
• Japanese racing in general. If the game hooked you, our Kikuka Sho 2026 story explains Japan's Triple Crown. Our glossary decodes the racing words.
• Horse-girl culture. Curious why "horse girl" means something different outside Japan? Read what is a horse girl.