Horse girl gacha gamers are so obsessed with pink racer Haru Urara that the farm that owns the real-life horse she's based on, who never won a single race, had to respond

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Umamusume: Pretty Derby is pro-loser

Umamusume: Pretty Derby horse girls racing
(Image credit: Cygames)

In this world, there are those who think of themselves as winners, there are undoubtedly losers, and then there's the milk chocolate mare Haru Urara, who's failed every real-life competition she's been in, but is currently enjoying a second wind as an anime horse girl in the gacha game Umamusume: Pretty Derby.

The character she inspired, a cherry blossom-pink student with an indefatigable spirit and the same name, has now become so popular, the farm in Japan that's tending to the actual Haru Urara acknowledged it in a recent Twitter post.

A photo of Haru Urara wearing a dignified plastic tiara on her birthday in February became, it seemed, at the time, inexplicably popular. The picture – in which the 29-year-old Bay politely knocks her charcoal knees together like a prim ballerina – now sits at 25,000 likes and over 2 million views.

After realizing what was happening, in a July 2 post (translated with DeepL), one of Haru Urara's caretakers at Matha Farm shares happily that the horse's birthday post received "another 10,000 likes since yesterday." Alongside another photo of Haru Urara – in this one, she's hanging out with a hibiscus flower daintily decorating her giant head – the caretaker assuages fans that "Ms. Haru Urara is doing very well. In fact, she is even healthier and more energetic than I am!" It also seems they've added the explicit disclaimer in their bio that they don't play Umamusume.

In 2004, the Los Angeles Times reported that the famously untalented horse Haru Urara "was out doing what she does best [...], losing her 106th consecutive race." But here we are, over 20 years later, and an Umamusume player who once visited the mare in her retirement agrees that "she's still living a happy and healthy life."

"She ran so many races, and now she's finally able to enjoy some peaceful time," the fan continues. Being a beautiful disaster is not easy.

Steam faces a stampede: horse girl game Umamusume: Pretty Derby is "actual cinema," and a massive hit on PC with 5,000 overwhelmingly positive reviews after a week.

Ashley Bardhan
Ashley Bardhan
Senior Writer

Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She's been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she's written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she's not covering gaming news, she's usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.

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