Front Runner Black Magic

Front runners are playing a fundamentally different game versus other running styles. Building them isn't too hard, and their careers tend to be easy, but some of the things you need (and don't need) to make a really good front runner are surprising.

This document is advanced material. The target audience intends to win Champions Meet Group A Finals and either wants to use front runners to do it or wants to understand what front runners they need to beat. This is meant for players who are already strong at training: players who can take a target stat line and skill set and turn it into a horse. This document is about the mechanics that determine what those stat lines and skill sets should be.

It is taken as a premise that the reader of this document is familiar with GameTora and uma.moe.

1 Jul Balance Update
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A quick summary of how the 1 Jul balance update affects front runners:

  • Pace chasers and late surgers gained access to much more consistent accel skills. Still not as good as Angling, but good enough that front runners can be considered substantially nerfed.
  • Conserving Power/Fully Charged is in, along with stat uncaps, which means that about 1270 power (base + skills) is now worth a perfectly timed 0.1 accel skill on front runners. The exact mechanics of conserving power aren't yet known, but front runners show a negative correlation between guts stat and probability of activating full charge. As good as spot struggle may be in sprint, a perfect accel is always going to be better, so we are now actively minimizing guts.
  • A solo front no longer loses access to speed-up mode. However, having watched a few dozen replays, it seems that while a solo front is typically about 2 to 4 meters ahead of the best pace at position keep end, the best front in multi-front is typically about 6 to 10 meters ahead. Solo front still overwhelmingly benefits other styles. The main impact of the position keep changes in practice seems to be that pace promotion can happen even if there are front runners in the lobby, which means you can't skimp on gate skills when running solo front as a pace promo blocker.

About Me
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About three weeks after Global launched, my friend told me to get a job, so I sent him a screenshot of me clicking the install button on Umamusume. Since then, I have been an F2P player, with the single exception of the First Anniversary SSR pick ticket. (I haven't even spent the accompanying paid carats.)

I'm committed to running exclusively triple fronts for every Champions' Meet, starting since CM8 Sagittarius Cup (Arima Kinen). When I'm not training for CM, I'm usually making front runner parents, and was at one time the owner of the Seiun Sky with the most white sparks on global. I have a lot of experience training, running, and watching front runners.

I want to share the knowledge I've accrued about front runners, because teaching is my favorite thing. Definitely not just to rationalize running triple fronts for every CM even though it's not actually very good and most of my favorite horses are late surgers.

That said, most of the information in this document is ultimately my interpretations of kuromiAK's Race Mechanics doc. Many of those interpretations are also informed by the exceptionally knowledgeable folks on the GameTora Discord server. I may present some of the information from the race mechanics doc in chart form, but I will generally leave out exact mechanic numbers and conditions; the doc is already the place for that information. Some sections have "Ref ↗" links that will take you to the corresponding section of the mechanics doc.

Race Mechanics
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Very quick gloss of race fundamentals. Races are divided into four phases: early race, mid race, late race, and last spurt phase. They are also divided into twenty-four equal length sections. Early race is sections 1 to 4, mid race is sections 5 to 16, late race is sections 17 to 20, and last spurt phase is sections 21 to 24. Spot Struggle can start between 150m and the end of section 5, and is forced to end at the start of section 9. Position keep ends after section 10.

The numeric value of acceleration depends on the Power stat, dueling, surface aptitude, uphills, race phase, running style. At the start of early race, horses accelerate to the early race base target speed, which varies by race distance and running style but is generally in the vicinity of 20 m/s.

At the start of late race, if they have enough HP remaining for their last spurt, horses accelerate from the mid race base target speed to their spurt speed, which varies by speed stat, distance aptitude, running style, race distance, and guts stat, in decreasing order of effect. "Last spurt" and "last spurt phase" are different and unrelated things; the latter is only used mechanically in the condition for Skill data is loading....

Speed skills add a flat amount of target speed, generally +0.15 m/s for white skills, +0.25 m/s for double circle skills and some inherited uniques, +0.35 m/s for gold skills and most speed uniques, and +0.45 m/s for a handful of speed uniques. Accel skills similarly add a flat amount of acceleration, typically +0.1 or +0.2 m/s² for white skills and inherited uniques, or +0.3 or +0.4 m/s² for gold skills and uniques.

Runaway
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The skill Skill data is loading... converts front runners into the Great Escape running style. However, no player has ever uttered the words "Great Escape" when talking about Umamusume, presumably because Runaway is a much cooler name. ("Great Escape" is a direct translation of Japanese 大逃げ oonige, whereas "Front Runner" is a more liberal localization of 逃げ nige that technically just means "escape.")

Runaways are still front runners for all purposes. The difference is just different numbers for things like base speed and acceleration, stamina to HP conversion, and distance thresholds for running modes. Other mechanics that are specific to front runners also apply to runaways.

Phase Speed
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Race base speed is multiplied by the speed strategy–phase coefficient for each horse. As the name suggests, SSPC is different per running style and per race phase. It's the thing that makes runaways take off in early race, and the thing that makes pace chaser promotion scary in late race (for those not using any of the correct running style).

Front runners, and even moreso runaways, have particularly punishing SSPC for late race. This makes sense; if they weren't forced to be substantially slower than the late surgers they're thirty meters ahead of at late race start, then they would be guaranteed to win every time.

The late race speed difference means that, in a competitive setting, the speed stat (and, correspondingly, distance aptitude) aren't what make front runners win most of the time. Capped speed with distance S is ideal, but being a hundred speed short with distance A will likely lose only a couple races within the difference throughout a CM event.

Win Conditions
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Generally more important than speed itself (for all running styles) is landing an acceleration skill at the beginning of late race. The strength of front runners is having the most consistent options for doing so.

  • Skill data is loading..., sometimes called Rod, is currently the second best skill in the game. Its condition is to be in first place on any late race corner, which is the case immediately at the start of late race on all medium tracks, all but one mile, and some sprints.
  • On long distance tracks, Skill data is loading... takes that role instead. The front two horses get it, and it has half the acceleration value.
  • On those sprints where Angling is dead, the front-specific option is Skill data is loading... (VPP, or Pasta). Multi-front builds also have access to Skill data is loading... (HCreek). It takes both of them to equal Angling, so such sprints may be better served gambling on Skill data is loading..., Skill data is loading..., and possibly Skill data is loading... instead. Front runners are especially strong on sprints for other reasons anyway.

Skill data is loading... is the best skill in the game. Unfortunately, for the most part, it's bad on front runners; generally not a win condition. Activating NSM requires not being in first, which means whoever was used Angling and is pulling away from you before you accumulate the blocked time to activate it. That said, on VC tracks specifically, NSM or its white version Skill data is loading... can be an option for multi-front builds, since the two frontmost horses get VC and final corner lane movement hasn't happened.

Positioning Mechanics
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The theme among front runner win conditions is requiring being in or very close to first place when late race starts. So, lesser running styles aside, beating other fronts is a matter of manipulating skills and race mechanics to win in early and mid race.

Speed-Up and Overtake Modes
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During the first 41.67% of the race, position keep is busy arranging each running style into their respective packs. During position keep, all horses have access to running modes that influence how they run.

The running modes for front runners are speed-up (+4% target speed for first among that front type) and overtake (+5% for not-first). Entering these modes requires meeting certain conditions relating to positioning. They also require passing a wit check, with the same chance for both modes.

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Pace Down Mode
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The running modes for all other running styles are pace-up, which is similar to speed-up, and paced-down, which activates whenever a horse gets what their style defines as too close to first place.

Watch a UC late surger with 1200+ power and wit in a daily legend race. As long as they don't get blocked, they should slide forward throughout the early race. Then, around when they reach the pace chaser pack, they'll suddenly start moonwalking back to the rest of the late surgers, often near the back of the group. That's PDM.

On styles with PDM, early race and sometimes mid race speed skills are effectively converted from distance gain into HP conservation. The thing that really makes front runners strong is that they don't have to worry about that – they aren't subject to PDM at all. Their mid race speed skills always gain distance.

Spot Struggle
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For each of runaways and non-runaways, there is at most one spot struggle per race. Runaways will not spot struggle with non-runaways, nor vice-versa. When a spot struggle triggers, all front runnners of that type within range participate; I've had a horse join while in 6th a couple times.

Spot struggle provides a target speed bonus that scales with the guts stat. If it isn't cut short, which will approximately never happen outside of sprint, its duration also scales with the guts stat. Unlike skills, its duration does not scale with race distance.

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Spot struggle also greatly increases HP consumption. For normal front runners, the rate is slightly less than Rushed. For runaways, it's more than double Rushed. (This is the reason people say you can't get enough stamina for runaways on Global.) Actually getting Rushed during spot struggle dramatically increases HP consumption, much more than just adding them together; red-light green-light pretty much guarantees that horse won't full spurt.

In medium+ races, the extra HP consumption is a serious consideration; front runners need more stamina and recoveries than other styles. At 1600m and shorter, the fact that Spot Struggle doesn't scale with race distance means that it can be worth multiple gold speed skills in total distance gained. See the mechanical speed calculator for precise analysis.

However, while the details aren't yet known, it appears that spot struggle reduces conserved power, which means that front runners who spot struggle are less likely to full charge, and the probability falls as the spot struggle duration rises.

Conserve Power & Fully Charged
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New in the 1 Jul balance patch is the conserve power mechanic. Horses with base power plus power passive skills greater than 1200 effectively gain access to a free perfectly-timed accel skill, Fully Charged. The effectiveness of full charge varies with running style and distance, but it is greatest for front runners at all distances.

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2000m

The exact mechanics of conserving power are unclear at this time. What has been confirmed is that rushed and spot struggle both reduce the chance for it to fire. Since spot struggle duration scales with guts, it appears that taking high guts to benefit from the strength of spot struggle has become likely to deprive you of an even stronger mechanic.

Lane Combo
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While under the influence of a skill that increases lane movement speed (shoe icon skills), and while actively changing lanes (i.e. moving sideways), horses gain a (forward) target speed boost that scales with power. This was a change Global received with the Unity Cup scenario.

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Front runners have access to the skill Skill data is loading..., which forces a horse who uses it to move outward to a specific distance from the rail. DD almost always activates while the horse is still accelerating to early race speed, so it does not convert much of the move lane speed modifier into distance (although still on the order of a gold speed skill worth of gain on most medium races).

We get advantage from move lane speed modifier by following DD with Skill data is loading... or Skill data is loading.... DD created an opportunity for those return skills to convert into huge forward speed. This setup is called lane combo.

Lane combo is best on tracks where early race ends before or at most very early into the first corner. PP and Ignited WIT can activate at the very end of early race. If there's a corner there, and your horse is still on the outside from DD, you are now physically running a longer distance than those on the inside. That can more than undo the gain from the lane combo itself.

For similar reasons, DD without PP or Ignited WIT is likely to be a net negative on some tracks, especially Nakayama 2500, Kyoto 3000, and Chukyo 1800 dirt. In sprints, it gives no benefit because it can't outlast early race accel. Otherwise, DD can be an efficient pickup as a short burst of high speed to gain position.

The gold versions of lane combo skills – Skill data is loading..., Skill data is loading..., Skill data is loading... – are excellent to take on parents, but they generally make lane combo itself less effective. They have stronger lane change movement boosts, which does not affect the forward speed boost and is likely to make it last a shorter time, since the horse will return to the rail more quickly.

For the same reasons, Ignited WIT is a bit stronger than PP, because it has a smaller effect value and also a longer base duration. The tradeoff is that it is a 200 SP base cost skill, versus 120 base cost for PP. Using both skills is viable: it increases consistency at the cost of lowering the maximum gain.

The mechanical speed calculator has an approximation of lane combo's benefit. A more precise lane combo simulator exists at 危険回避シミュ. See my guide for English instructions on how to use it.

Uphills
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Running uphill carries a penalty to target speed. This penalty scales negatively with the power stat; that is, higher power means faster uphill running. It scales positively with slope angle. There is also a flat reduction in base acceleration for running uphill, which does not change with stats nor slope angle.

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Note that surface aptitude does not affect uphill speed, nor power generally. It only affects acceleration.

The practical impact is that steep early- and mid-race hills filter out front runners with low power. All else equal, a Seiun Sky with 1200 power gains an average of about 0.9 lengths over a VBourbon with 800 power on the Arima Kinen mid-race hills.

Downhills
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Running downhill allows horses to enter downhill accel mode. Contrary to its name, downhill accel mode does not affect acceleration at all; it gives horses a target speed boost that scales with the slope angle, plus lowered HP consumption via a flat multiplier.

Entering downhill accel mode requires passing a wit check. The success rate scales linearly with wit. Style aptitude does affect the chance to pass the check. Its duration is random with a geometric distribution; it does not scale with stats.

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Similar to uphills disproportionately rewarding front runners with higher power, downhills tend to reward high wit. However, the random elements of downhill accel mode mean that lower wit horses may still keep up on downhills, depending on luck. Conversely, the HP savings on long downhills can be enough to drop a recovery skill or two on some tracks.

Section Speed
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Each section, each horse gets a random modifier to target speed. The modifier's range is determined by the wit stat. (Curiously, the calculation uses both wit as modified by style proficiency and green skills as well as base wit.)

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2000m

Section speed is generally very small. For a 1200 wit style S front runner at 2000m, it's an actual speed range of 19.97 to 20.10 m/s.

It isn't negligible, though, since it applies during the portion of the race where front runners are trying to become frontest runners. All else equal, including the effects of running modes, such a horse blocked in front by a 1000 wit front A horse will pass in 15.4 seconds on average at mid race speeds.

No-Overtake Zone
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The no-overtake zone is the 200m portion of the race prior to the first corner. For unclear reasons, while in the no-overtake zone, horses cannot enter overtake lane mode, which is what allows them to move away from the rail. (Overtake lane mode is different from overtake mode, which is a front runner position keep running mode.)

Inside the no-overtake zone, if a horse is blocked in front, the only action available to her is to slow down. Speed skills are generally wasted when they fire in the no-overtake zone, unless the horse is either in the lead or still on the outside from DD or gate position.

For the most part, there's nothing you can do about the no-overtake zone. The exception to this is with Smart Falcon, who has a speed unique that can fire on any mid race straight. On Tokyo 1600 (both turf and dirt), the first corner is far enough into mid race that Skill data is loading... is likely to fire before entering the no-overtake zone, helping to propel her into a lead that other front runners can't challenge until the corner begins – which is especially strong because it's harder to pass on corners, and on those tracks, that corner lasts all the way into late race.

Skills
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Since competitive horses in the MANT+ era tend to have similar stat lines, skills are especially important.

Speed skills are especially valuable for front runners, because they assist in overtakes and defense. Some skills are worth special mention.

  • On miles, Skill data is loading... is the strongest speed skill in the game, because it is both a full strength speed skill (i.e. +0.15 target speed for base 3s) and a full strength speed debuff. It plays both offense and defense simultaneously. Every front runner should have it on every mile. Speed Eater technically has a gold version, Skill data is loading..., but Cygames apparently recognized that it must not ever be allowed to exist, because there's still no source of it on JP.
  • Skill data is loading... is a full strength speed skill that is triggered by other skills, so it excels at stacking – triggering THH with another speed skill is very likely to secure a pass.
  • Skill data is loading... is only a half strength speed skill (base 1.8s), but it fires upon overtake, which helps to turn that into a complete pass.
  • Skill data is loading... and Skill data is loading... are mechanically similar full-strength speed skills with cooldowns, so they can fire multiple times per race. Slipstream requires not being in first, and it's always wasted if it triggers during the no-overtake zone, so it's marginally weaker. Both want multi-front builds.

Gate Skills
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Gate skills are Skill data is loading... (GW), Skill data is loading..., and Skill data is loading... (Conc), as well as all green skills including Skill data is loading... (but excluding Skill data is loading...). These skills activate the moment the race starts. Other running styles can largely ignore them, but for front runners, they are critical.

GW is an absolutely mandatory skill for all front runners. Even runaway blockers should have it, otherwise they will be passed by the normal fronts they're trying to block. It requires three other gate skills, which should be applicable greens to avoid overreliance on wit checks – for reference, the chart below shows wit check pass chances of one of one, one of two, or two of two skills.

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GW must be combined with Skill data is loading... if you want any chance of being first out of early race. The gold version of EL, Skill data is loading..., is highly accessible as the skill from the Mihono Bourbon Wit event SSR. In practice, I've found it adds fewer lengths over the white, and hence less positioning ability, than a mid race gold speed skill. It is still absolutely good, and Bourbon Wit is a very usable card (treat her as a speed card that gives extra energy on wit), but I don't consider it mandatory anymore.

Conc is less critical. It's worth taking on horses who have it, but it isn't worth using support card slots just to get it. On the other hand, its white version, Skill data is loading..., is bad; its only real use is as a backup gate skill for GW when you don't have enough greens available.

Spurt Skills
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Because they are post-Angling, skills that activate in the final spurt are typically less interesting to front runners. Notable exceptions are Skill data is loading..., Skill data is loading... and, on Tokyo turf, Skill data is loading... These are good inherits for those who don't have easy access to Skill data is loading... and Skill data is loading....

Skill data is loading... is another spurt skill that may come up sometimes and is interesting to think about. It's a 0.25 speed skill that requires being in at best second place to activate. Is it worth it to take?

In a typical race, exactly one horse triggered Angling. All other front runners are far behind that horse by the time Pulse can trigger. It's very unlikely they will have enough speed to catch up. So, if a horse has passed the front runner who used Angling, they are almost certainly a different running style.

The spurt speed calculator analyzes this situation. A 1200 speed front runner with a 0.25 speed skill active has speed equivalent to an 1187 speed pace chaser. In other words, as long as that pace chaser is built the way Global players tend to build, Pulse does not allow the front runner to pass back. So, if you happen to inherit it off a grandparent, it is not worth taking.

Other Horses' Skills
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There are two categories of other horses' skills to think about.

The first is stamina debuffs: Skill data is loading..., Skill data is loading..., Skill data is loading.... My conclusion is that Global doesn't understand how to build debuffers, so front runners can mostly ignore these – assume one will hit you, but not three.

Eyes especially has the potential to be threatening, since it's roughly unconditional. However, it hits others in vision, which is essentially always a range of 20m, or 8 lengths. Debuffers are typically built with very little stamina and power, so Eyes is almost never going to reach front runners, especially the front who got Angling.

The other category of skills to think about is other horses' uniques. Skill data is loading..., Skill data is loading..., and a number of others need tight positioning, requiring something like 2-4 or 3-4 in CM. The number of front runners in the match can dictate whether it's ever possible for those uniques to activate. This is the fundamental idea behind triple front builds.

Skill Timing
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Thought experiment.

Picture two cars driving on a straight freeway, both at exactly 59 mph because I am American, adjacent lanes, keeping exactly side by side.

The one on the right then drives 1 mph faster for three seconds, creating a slight gap between them before returning to the previous speed. They now maintain this new gap.

There is a 65 mph speed limit sign. As each of the cars pass it, they accelerate at identical rates from 59 to 69 mph over a duration of exactly 10.2 seconds. Since the car on the right is slightly ahead from the speed skill it used, it reaches the speed limit sign first, so it starts accelerating first.

Until the left car reaches the sign, the right car is building a speed advantage. Having a higher speed during the accel period, it continually increases the gap it had, until both of them have reached the new target speed.

Now the left car drives 1 mph faster for three seconds. It closes the gap between them by the same distance that the right car's speed skill had done prior to the speed limit change. However, since the right car also added a distance advantage over the accel period, it remains slightly ahead of the left car.

This thought experiment shows that speed skills are actually more valuable before late race than during it. Thus, front runners not having to worry about PDM is even more of an advantage. Everything they want to do for Angling positioning is already the best possible thing to do!

CM Teams
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Obviously, CM is run in teams of three. While spamming the highest stats you can manage is a valid strategy that will get wins, building a team holistically will lead to higher win rates.

N.B. This section has only partially been updated for the 1 Jul balance patch, which means that some of the advice especially relating to runaways and spot struggle is out of date. A full update here probably won't come until after CM17 Virgo Cup.

Zero Front
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While this is a front runner guide, it's still valuable to think about the effects that zero front races have on other styles; which is to say, pace promotion.

Whichever pace chaser (or late surger if there are also no paces, or end closer if it's all ends) happens to get in front of the pack by the first few dozen meters or so becomes the pace setter for the race. She runs as if she were a front runner with no position keep modes, but she retains the pace chaser coefficients for target speed and acceleration. For this reason, pace chasers tend to see their highest win rates in zero front races.

If you feel a given CM will have a low population of front runners, you can build specifically for pace promo. Burgh on the GameTora Discord server ran extensive tests and found that Skill data is loading... and Skill data is loading... were the only skills to produce a statistically significant difference in pace promotion ability. More precisely, achieving pace promo is decided by start delay, any target speed skill activating, and section speed for the first section (i.e. wit stat), in decreasing order of importance. (Notably, contrary to common advice, Skill data is loading... and Skill data is loading... are not effective for pace promo.)

On the other hand, if you want to run an end closer or late surger as your ace, but front runners may be rare and Christmas Oguri Cap a pace chaser is meta for the race, preventing pace promotion could be a reason to run a solo front build instead.

Solo Front
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Because solo fronts essentially don't have access to their running modes, they are unlikely to build enough of a lead over paces to win, even with Angling. (This changed a bit with the 1 Jul balance patch, as solo fronts now get an extra-long speed-up range, but it doesn't appear that they're maintaining much of a gap over paces in practice.)

In particularly front-dominated metas, this is manageable, since you'll have opponent fronts to run against. When any other style is viable, which is always now that Skill data is loading... is buffed, you'll have matches where your team's front runner is solo. The best choice for how to design a solo front depends on the rest of your team composition, because ultimately the choice you are faced with is whether to use a runaway blocker.

The ideal runaway blocker has capped power, capped wit, and surface S, along with full gate and lane combos where applicable, to build as much of an early race lead as possible. Her speed stat doesn't particularly matter, because her job is to block, not to win.

Because runaways get so far ahead during the first half of the race, they essentially disable pace-down mode for everyone. That especially benefits pace chasers, who tend to lose access to pace-up mode with slower pacesetters, and it disfavors late surgers and end closers who normally don't keep up with their pace zones either way but now have to fight better paces.

So, if you want to run a composition like one front and two end, it might serve you to choose against building a runaway blocker. This kind of composition probably should build the front runner for the purpose of winning against other front runners, and simply accept that solo front matches will be up to the other two instead. That leaves little room for a dedicated support like a debuffer.

Double Front
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Doubling up on front runners is a build that intends to win with them. Which is to say, they should both be built to win mid race and proc Angling.

There is still a difference between dual ace double front and double front with an ace and a backup. The ideal stat lines and skill lists will be the same between the two styles, but character choice will be different. In particular, dual ace wants both to have strong speed uniques – VBourbon or SMaru.

With an ace and a backup, the ace is the one with the speed unique, and the other is a horse who gambles on winning mid race and turns that into a first place finish. Seiun Sky is the strongest such option; as an own unique rather than inherited, Angling gives so much perfectly timed acceleration that speed inherits give her more lengths than other accel skills.

Since your two front runners are both meant to be winners, making your third horse a support type is likely to give the best overall win rate. This usually means a speed debuffer of whatever type is appropriate for the track. Adding another gambler is also effective.

Long Double Front
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At long distances, double front has different implications. Skill data is loading... is the front runner win condition, and the front two horses both get it. With late race being before the final corner and hence extra move lane not having started, you can take advantage of Skill data is loading... to turn the second place front runner into the winner.

Building for second place to bunny with NN does not mean manipulating stats and skills to force one of the front runners into second. Both fronts need to be strong enough to be adjacent at late race start, and you have to beat other people's front runners, too. (Especially since VC and Skill data is loading... are currently the only consistent accels for long distance; front runners are common generally here.) So, double front for long is ultimately about the same as double front for other distances, just with different goals when choosing the legacy.

If you're feeling adventurous, runaway is another consideration for double (and triple) front on long distances. Your ace (hopefully) still gets VC, but the runaway paces up the race. As mentioned in the solo front section, this especially punishes end closers, who tend to be popular on long tracks because of Skill data is loading.... It also keeps your ace in overtake mode, which is better than speed-up mode, for position keep.

I haven't tried a long runaway, but I probably will next time it comes up, especially since I pulled for Palmer. My worry is that it will trade off fronts' consistency for meta hate, when I'd rather just be stronger.

Triple Front
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Triple front is pretty similar to running double front; the difference is that your support is also using the correct running style. That said, you don't really want a front debuffer; different types of support are better.

One type of support that all front runners do automatically is helping to kill position-based pace chaser skills. Such skills have conditions that translate into needing to be in 3rd or 4th, or sometimes 2nd through 4th, to activate. When you're bringing three front runners, if anyone else brings a single other one, they're going to occupy 2-4 naturally. If there happen to be three others between front and pace, then even late/end win cons like Skill data is loading... and Skill data is loading... are dead.

The fact that triple front tries to occupy positions 3-4 lets you do some very interesting team comps where you run pace chasers as front runners. E.g., I ran Taiki Shuttle as front in CM10 on dirt and Curren Chan as front in the CM9 sprint. This is not terribly consistent because they're readily equipped to get into first just as easily as third, but then they just get Angling instead and follow the normal front runner game plan. If you see people talking about a given pace chaser being especially strong for a CM, consider running them as a front runner in a triple front build instead.

A more mechanical type of support is to build for spot struggle and have her pull your less gutsy fronts forward into mid race. GW + TTL is especially important for this type of horse, and otherwise equivalent early race to your other fronts – everyone has lane combo if it's applicable, for example. Front S is also a major benefit, because it makes spot struggle last 10% longer.

An SS support doesn't strictly need as much in the way of mid race skills, since her main job is to give the others overtake mode and then be passed. It's nonetheless a good idea to take those skills for less risk if your other fronts have a poor showing. In addition to the normal front win cons, it's potentially strong to take unconditional gambles like Skill data is loading..., Skill data is loading..., and Skill data is loading....

Now that conserving power is a game mechanic, SS supports have the problem that spot struggle risks taking away full charge, which means losing a strong accel. This can be alleviated to some degree by managing Dodging Danger to keep your ace out of the spot struggle – either the ace has lane combo and the other two don't, or the ace doesn't have it and the other two do.

Rabbit
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A front runner build that I have seen but not attempted is the rabbit: a runaway with a strong early race but insufficient HP to spurt stays in front of one or two other front runners who have Skill data is loading...

I saw a team using a rabbit in CM13 round 2 day 2; that team had an overall eleven wins at the time. Maybe their horses just weren't strong enough. I'm not sure. My opinion is that this build gives up the consistency of front runners to pursue a game plan that is hardly stronger when it does work.

About two weeks ahead of CM15, Hakuraku's replay data is showing teams using a rabbit build, or even double runaways, with high win rates. I've watched a few dozen of those races and have found that the runaways are not functionally doing anything specific to runaways: they're being built without Skill data is loading... and Skill data is loading..., so the normal fronts (typically UG1 or better) pass them during early race.

If this build ever had an era, it was during the first pass of Unity Cup, when NSM was essentially free and there was no VC. We have reworked UC for one CM before Our Grand Concert releases, but it's a sprint CM that overwhelmingly favors pace chasers. I don't think it's viable now.

Career
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Most front runners enjoy easy careers thanks to strong kits and little chance to be blocked.

Currently, this chapter is about MANT (a.k.a. Trackblazer). Current data for CM16 following the URA and UC reworks suggests that MANT horses win approximately just as much as UC horses relative to their respective populations, despite the lower stat caps. So, I am going to leave this section largely untouched until the next scenario releases.

Support Cards
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In MANT, it's relatively easy to get front-specific skills from rivals, so the support cards that are best for front runners have changed a bit.

  • Ines Fujin gives Skill data is loading..., Skill data is loading..., and Skill data is loading.... Her guts SSR is the Kitasan Black of guts cards, with 15% training effectiveness and 80 specialty priority. She also has a relatively new wit SR that is decently strong even at LB0, though still objectively beaten by Marv SR until MLB.
  • Marvelous Sunday, both power SSR and wit SR versions, give Skill data is loading... and Skill data is loading... as hints. The SSR has 15% race bonus, while the SR has 10% race bonus and gives +3 hints. The numbers on both are otherwise disappointing, but those elements alone are enough to justify using them.
  • Cards that give generic or distance-specific gold speed skills, especially mid race ones, are very valuable to front runners. Since Skill data is loading... is strong, Kitasan Black is still around despite only 5% race bonus. El Condor Pasa gives Skill data is loading....
  • For parent runs, Smart Falcon SSR is mandatory. She gives guaranteed Skill data is loading... in her chain, and her gold skill is Skill data is loading..., which you want for building a lane combo legacy. On ace runs, she is acceptable if you own her at MLB, but you'd rather get her skills from inheritance and use the card slot for a strong speed skill.
  • Seiun Sky SSR is another good parent card for parents. Her chain starts with Skill data is loading... and ends with Skill data is loading... (albeit agemasen). She also carries a Skill data is loading... hint. Unfortunately, between being a stamina card and not being Super Creek, she isn't viable for ace runs.
  • Other parenting cards include Kawakami Princess speed and Hishi Akebono guts, for gold versions of lane combo skills.

A future sight advisory: Maruzensky's speed SSR is coming in early July. At this point, you should probably be saving all your carats for her. She is an extremely strong stat stick and gives Skill data is loading..., the gold version of Skill data is loading....

Taking Skills
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Contrary to advice I sometimes see, you can, in fact, take skills during career without Fast Learner. When you take skills mid-run without Fast Learner, and you happen to get it later, you effectively lose 10% of the SP you spent to that point. However, you also prune hints: taking the first level of a skill removes it from the pools for support card hint bubbles, MANT rivals, UC bursts, and everything else except events that grant specific hints. Each front-specific skill you own improves your chance of getting skills you don't have hints for.

Skill data is loading... is a snap take skill. The only time to sit on EL is when you happen to get the first +1 hint the turn before inspiration. (Even then, I'd probably still take it, since there's still a race to run.) Early Lead is one of the strongest skills in terms of lengths gained, it applies to all tracks and conditions, and it saves late starts, which are your only source of losses on most races after junior year. Moreover, it has a base cost of only 120 SP; even if you do get Fast Learner after taking it, your opportunity cost was 12 SP. If you prune EL and a hint lands on Skill data is loading... or Skill data is loading... instead, you gave up that potential 12 SP to save 18. It's incredibly good to take early.

On parent runs, or exactly one of your three CM horses, Skill data is loading... is another snap take. Base cost of 60 SP for +40 speed, which can secure a lot of races, especially early in career. Be extremely careful not to take it on multiple horses on a team. Save and quit from the career if you need to check. It's technically better to have it on two horses than zero, but it's tremendously better than that to have it on one.

Skill data is loading... is a strong consideration as a mid-career take. Inheritance events are more likely to activate green sparks than white sparks, so the risk of missing out on SP by taking it early is higher. However, Angling is an almost automatic win condition for career (outside of 3Ks and Niigata 1600). Taking Angling early can save a lot of clocks, and it can rescue runs that don't get what is normally the minimum speed to win races before summer.

I've had debate about this one, but I feel that Skill data is loading... is a skill you will pretty much always want at least the first level of. Wit is a strong stat for front runners, and Savvy is a guaranteed Groundwork trigger. It's also the second cheapest front-specific skill, after Dodging Danger. On parent runs, it could arguably be worth sitting on it until the +2 or +3 hint, because taking the second level gives a slightly boosted chance to generate the spark, and hints save twice as much SP on the double circle.

Skill data is loading... and Skill data is loading... are strong and cheap. If you've taken Early Lead and Angling, they probably won't change the outcomes of any races, but it's still reasonable to take the first level to prune. As a corollary, outside parent runs, you should have a specific distance in mind, so your distance straights/corners should usually be even quicker takes.

Niigata Junior Stakes
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Niigata Junior Stakes is the first non-sprint graded race in career, which means it's very likely to be one you run in MANT. It's also an oddly anti-front race. Late race starts a good bit past the final corner, which means front runners don't have any skills that can secure a win. (Unless you're inheriting Pasta? But VPP isn't really a good take mid-career.)

An interesting consequence of the shape of Niigata 1600 is that duels can start before late race. If you're doing a guts build, having that happen will give quite a good chunk of accel and speed for the entire spurt, which is usually enough to get the win. Duels are also pretty likely, because career races have more runners—as long as you're not a solo front.

If you do commit to the race and find yourself as the only front runner, consider switching to pace. Moreso than other races, you are unlikely to win this race as a solo front. Even one or two other fronts will be rough.

As a corollary, you also cannot win this race with B mile. A miraculous start can get to 350 speed for this race; a B mile runner with 350 speed is equivalent to an A mile runner with only 207 speed in career. See the spurt calculator. (This race is why I made it.)

JBC Sprint
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An even more anti-front track is Ooi 1200 Dirt. This one is actively malicious. Visually, it looks like late race starts on a corner, but the portion before the stretch is a special neither corner nor straight property. That means Angling won't activate, and VPP is delayed (though still within the accel period).

Fortunately, JBC Sprint is after summer, which means you should be able to stat diff your opponents. If you are planning to win this race, e.g. for the +30 stat epithet for doing it twice, you may want to prioritize a bit of extra speed training, or take Front Straights/Corners. Don't be too surprised if you lose a clock or five to a Taiki Shuttle rival.

Kikuka Sho & Tenno Sho (Spring)
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The main concern with 3K races is always stamina. Front runners are punished on long distances because they convert stamina to HP less efficiently than other styles, and because Spot Struggle drains an extra chunk.

A stat line like x/400/x/500/600 should be enough for a guts/wit build to win Kikuka Sho against most rivals, possibly at the expense of a clock or two. TSS seems to need something more like x/700/x/700/700 if you don't have any recoveries; I haven't tested much without them, because I don't like throwing away my runs.

Skill data is loading... is the only front-specific recovery skill you can get from MANT rivals. It also is a guaranteed option in Bourbon Wit's first chain event. That makes it pretty often available for the 3Ks. However, if you end up overstam at the end of the run, buying Moxie can be as much as -162 SP, which is certainly not a trivial amount.

An alternative option to buying a recovery is to switch to Late Surger for those races. I've won Kikuka Sho with circa 300 stamina this way.

All that said, the stamina requirement is instantly much higher if the rival is Super Creek, Matikanetannhäuser, Mejiro McQueen, or Rice Shower. As rivals, those four will have very strong HP-oriented builds: on TSS, 650 stamina and at least one gold recovery, in addition to the recovery unique in Creek's and Mambo's cases. You will burn clocks rolling for them to fail wit checks unless you also have a gold.

One last consideration for front runners on 3K races: Angling is a dead skill. If you're borderline on stamina, you'll have a hard time if you're on Long C.

Kitasan Black
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Kitasan Black doesn't get the easy careers that other front runners do. For one thing, if you're training Kitasan, you probably don't have Sei as a parent since their uniques don't mesh (except on Nakayama 2500). Kitasan's own unique is also very weak outside of long races and unable to even activate on some miles, notably Niigata 1600. And for early races, notably Niigata 1600, you likely won't even have the opportunity to get Front Straights/Corners, especially since you don't need Bourbon Wit.

Kitasan benefits a lot from running as a Pace Chaser early on, just for the higher effective speed. Rivals are best defeated with your intended style, but in career, winning is more important than front running.

Front Runners
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  • Valentine's Mihono Bourbon (VBourbon or Chocobon) is the easiest font runner to train because she has Skill data is loading... built in, whereas most others have to get it from either inheritance or cards that aren't terribly strong. She is also the strongest front runner, because Skill data is loading... is full strength, mid race, extremely forgiving in activation, and even has a heal. And she has Skill data is loading... and Skill data is loading... built in, both strong distance-agnostic front runner skills with awkward sources otherwise. And she's a great parent for all the same reasons that her unique is strong (except that the heal becomes irrelevant).
  • Summer Maruzensky (SMaru or KFC) is just shy of VBourbon in strength with her unique, Skill data is loading.... It uses a heal to trigger instead of having a heal built in, but that means it sometimes has carryover potential. Using VBourbon as a parent for SMaru works as a trigger, too, which is especially good for shorter distances that don't want to spend SP on pure recoveries.
  • Seiun Sky is the source of Skill data is loading... and therefore the best horse for front runner parenting in the game, forever. As a runner, she is outshone by the former two and others who will come later, but she is an excellent choice for a second front runner in a team comp.
  • Kitasan Black is the definitive front runner of long distance, both as a parent and as a competitor. Skill data is loading... is the gold version of Skill data is loading..., which is extremely strong to have built in (especially noting that hints on Long Straights take 27 SP off the price of Blast).
  • Silence Suzuka and Mejiro Palmer are currently the only runaways in the game. Both of them have uniques that are inconsistent normally but very consistent as runaways: Skill data is loading... and Skill data is loading.... Outside of Team Trials, runaways aren't very useful in the MANT era. (My Suzuka runaway remains my #1 top scorer in TT, though. Runaway and Conc are both busted for points.)

Aside from these, there are some less obvious front runners, which is to say horses who function well even after fixing aptitudes.

Christmas Oguri Cap
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As is perhaps expected, Christmas Oguri Cap (COC) is very strong as a front runner on specific tracks. The front-specific heal is Skill data is loading..., which activates at the very start of the first uphill. When that first uphill is at the start of late race, as in the case of Tokyo 1600 Dirt, COC is online as a front runner.

I've been told COC is very hard to train as a front runner. Something about aptitudes. I don't have any variety of Oguri, but how hard could it be?

Another rare manifestation of Front COC is as a third place horse in a triple front build where Skill data is loading... is strong. I convinced Werseter, the Umadump guy, to try this for CM12 after he accidentally made an 8★ front Tachyon parent. He reported a 7% win rate for her. (But a much higher win rate overall – after all, he was using triple front.)

Taiki Shuttle & Curren Chan
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When building triple fronts, you will naturally have a horse in third. This presents an opportunity to use a horse who is normally a pace chaser, with a strong unique that requires position 3 or behind, as a type of gambler.

Taiki Shuttle and original Curren Chan are notable for having C and B front, respectively, which is quite reasonable to fix. Most other paces that could otherwise be called good are not so fortunate, or the things that make them good won't function as fronts e.g. due to requiring other nearby horses on the final straight.

Legacies
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Now that MANT lets well-equipped players make SS horses at will, there are two broad approaches to building veterans for inheritance. The first is to take the cards that lead to SS, because that gives white sparks (only) a dramatically higher chance to be 2★ or 3★. The other option is to take cards for their skills regardless of their stats, enabling choices like Seiun Sky stamina and Silence Suzuka gacha SSR even at LB0, with the goal being to maximize the number of sparks in the short term by taking all the relevant gold skills possible.

As a general strategy for choosing veterans to keep as parents, it's worth considering that the only quality of legacies that tends to improve naturally over time is white spark count. Star levels are always random (and depend on the qualities of the veteran herself), but each instance of a given white spark across a horse's legacy improves the chance to generate the same spark, if eligible. See Hakuraku's analysis for details.

Important Sparks
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Front runners are uniquely capable of making good use of wit sparks, since wit governs early- and mid-race speed, which is unusually important for them. Power sparks are typically still best, and stamina sparks can help to forgo a stamina card or two for 2400m+ builds. Fronts have a disproportionate representation of horses with high speed talent, which makes speed sparks a bit less valuable.

Pink sparks are more interesting, because – at least until other styles finish catching up on accels – they're less reliant on distance S to win. Building a high affinity legacy tree requires keeping some mile and long sparks on hand. Front sparks are better than other style sparks, especially if you do triple front CM builds using fixed pace chasers.

Front runners are more reliant than other styles on getting certain skills from inspiration:

  • Building a full Skill data is loading... legacy is the first step to front runner training. Fronts without it are non-competitive even as supports. The cards that give it aren't great for ace builds. There is no gold version of it yet, so getting it from inheritance is truly ideal.
  • Skill data is loading... similarly doesn't come from good cards (since Sweep Tosho has fallen off). As a piece of lane combo, it isn't applicable to every race, but it's very strong when it is. The white skill is better than the gold skill, so it is another ideal inherit.
  • Skill data is loading... is the stronger lane combo piece. The only sources of it are inheritance and Unity Cup; which is to say, the source of it is inheritance. When searching databases for borrows, looking for Ignited WIT is a shortcut for listing good front runner legacies, since it's only valuable to fronts.
  • Almost all green skills are valuable to inherit at one point or another as GW triggers. Skill data is loading... and Skill data is loading... are particularly good; one of the two is always the best green available for a race. Skill data is loading... is a bit less strong, and slightly superseded by the existence of Narita Top Road, but it applies to the majority of CM races. Season greens are great, but a bit narrow; distance greens are good. Weather greens are acceptable, but while guts is better on front runners than other styles, it isn't good. Skill data is loading... is good if you like to do triple front builds, because it activates when there are four of the runner's style in CM. Skill data is loading... is slightly less valuable as an inherit, since it can come from rivals.
  • All generic speed skills that aren't strictly late race are good inherits. Skill data is loading... is the best one by ratio of strength to difficulty to acquire; if you aren't forced to borrow Smart Falcon, you can get the gold version of this from Nakayama Festa Wit. Skill data is loading..., Skill data is loading..., Skill data is loading..., and Skill data is loading... are also strong, but available as hints or chain skills from some usable-to-good cards.
  • Getting front-runner-specific skills from inheritance has become especially important now that reworked UC doesn't give skills according to aptitudes. This is a significant reason for MANT to remain the parenting scenario, arguably even more so than the higher affinity potential.

Parents
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The primary consideration for choosing parents is the quality of the inherited uniques. Front runners win with consistent inherited acceleration skills more than anyone else.

Generally speaking, the horses that are good front runners are good front runner parents as well. However, since everyone has zero base affinity with themselves, it's a good idea to mix in some other horses that are highly compatible with the main competitors, particularly to be grandparents.

  • Seiun Sky, Kitasan Black, and El Condor Pasa (original) are the top tier parents, with the exact choice depending on the race.
  • VBourbon is a good second inherit on tracks that don't require something else, for the same reasons that VBourbon herself is a top ace.
  • Ines Fujin has a strong inherited unique for Tokyo turf (specifically; but all distances except 1400m), and she has excellent compatibility with Mihono Bourbon and Smart Falcon, along with good compatibility with other front runners broadly.
  • Mayano Top Gun doesn't have an actual front runner variant (until Halloween Mayano in 2028 or so), but she acts like a front runner for affinity. In particular, Maya and Kitasan is among the highest base compatibility pairs currently in the game. (They were #1 prior to the 1 Jul balance patch, but now that spot goes to Tamamo Cross and Inari One.)
  • TM Opera O is technically a pace chaser parent, but she still has good compatibility with most front runners, and her unique is strong for them.

My CM Teams
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CM16 – Leo Cup (Sprinters Stakes)
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The 1 Jul balance patch redefined everything for everyone, and front runners are suddenly actually quite bad. I guess the stakes are lower for my triple front mandate.

An additional interesting detail is that this track has no straights before late race. That means straight velos are much less important.

I had some amazing luck with support card pulls and got both Maruzensky and Nakayama Festa to MLB in 400. Are these runs what it feels like to not be F2P?

  1. Suzuka gets to be a runaway again!
  2. Chocobon's Sprint C is easy to fix!
  3. Taiki Shuttle has a very-nearly-perfect 3-4 unique, which will be great with her as a front runner. Given her lack of relevant built-in skills, I'm building her in MANT.

This CM is interesting as the first opportunity to use multiple runaways and not have them be vaporized by spot struggle. However, after getting a high roll with an S Sprint Palmer, I found that using two runaways was actually pretty bad. Even with 1300 power, Skill data is loading..., and Skill data is loading..., runaways spend over two thirds of early race accelerating, so they lose the majority of their strongest race phase. Normal front runners can hardly compete with the newly buffed Skill data is loading... in late race, which means runaways who never got the lead they're known for have virtually no chance. Suzuka can still fight because Skill data is loading... is also strong, but Palmer doesn't make the cut.

CM15 – Cancer Cup (Takarazuka Kinen)
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Kitasan's unique ends about a sixth of a second before late race starts, which means massive carryover potential (although being just a 0.25 skill is sad). I see on Hakuraku that runaways are unusually prevalent, and as much as I think it's a bad build, I kind of want to try rabbiting this time.

  1. Suzuka. I'll try building her as a runaway with TTL, GW, Conc, lane combo, and no other skills except debuffs, and see whether I can make two aces that can consistently pass in mid race. If that doesn't work out, I'll do a spot struggle support instead.
  2. Kitasan Black. She won't get to run often, so I'm going to run her while I have the opportunity. She's pretty difficult to build a deck for, though. No Professor, and only one of Tunes and Escape Artist, since I have neither Pasta nor Helios SSR. (The latter is proving non-functional anyway. Five runs with agemasen every time.)
  3. Chocobon. Part of me wants to do Seiun Sky here, but if Kitasan has carryover potential on her unique, then so does Bourbon if she whiffs on the first half corners. Since Kitasan won't have as good of a mid race, I really need a proper front runner ace, and that's what Chocobon does best.

Win rates are a bit messy because I experimented with a few different comps and Throne reworks. After 80:

  • VBourbon: 28-15-17-20
  • Kitasan: 12-14-11-38 (of 75)
  • Suzuka: 8-5-7-60 = 8-4-6-37 + 0-1-1-23 (replaced after 25; I ended up not using a runaway either time)
  • Seiun Sky: 0-0-2-3 (of 5)

Lost finals to two COCs, one getting Pump and the other NSM, while Chocobon blew velos during accel.

CM14 – Gemini Cup (Yasuda Kinen, NHK Mile Cup, Victoria Mile)
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The ultimate lane combo map, and also the ultimate no-overtake zone map, and also the ultimate dueling map. Dueling is so good that everyone needs guts builds, not just front runners. Kinda hoping that message doesn't get out, because duels generally benefit other styles more than fronts. We get VPP instead, though, which gives similar accel to 1000 guts dueling.

  1. Suzuka! 1109/563/935/1140/1200 A/A/A. I might revisit this if I have time, but just this took four days of grinding, and Suzuka likes guts builds.
  2. Wouldn't you just know it, VBourbon appears as an ace again. Not especially happy with it, but 1048/728/1113/1190/866 A/A/A. Imagine if 200 of that stam had been anything else...
  3. Since I know that I don't have the cards for a guts build on Seiun Sky, I'm going to try it on Smart Falcon instead and see how good this no-overtake thing really is. 1200/662/1094/902/932 S/A/S with lane combo.

Win rates after 40: Falco 47.5%, Bourbon 27.5%, Suzuka 5%. While this is my best round 1 by a substantial margin, I'm pretty sure I'm going to get torn up in round 2; my stats aren't good enough to beat correctly built end closers.

Win rates after 80: Falco 36.25%, Bourbon 22.5%, Suzuka 6.25%. Not as bad as I expected; most round 2 entries finished with three wins. I'll take it.

Unfortunately lost to a bad mid race and a Taishin getting a perfect Radiant. At least it was only one this time. Second place.

CM13 – Taurus Cup (Tokyo Derby)
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Maruzensky's unique, Skill data is loading..., is live for approximately everyone. Filling the ranks with front runners should be a strong means to delay it for later positions, especially COC.

Ended up running the same composition as in CM12, for the same reasons. This time, I knew better than to waste runs on guts builds for Sei and VBourbon.

  1. VBourbon is the primary ace. It's a bit worrying to need to pass wit checks on both Angling and Red Shift, but eh, I'm sure it'll be fine. 1200/727/1103/619/1088 S/A/A with lane combo.
  2. Sei is the gambler. I forced a wacky build with my LB2 Top Road and got the highest roll conceivable, with double rainbows or better on every turn of senior summer, fast learner, and approximately every desirable skill hint. 1200/955/1200/540/1020 A/A/S with lane combo. First UG that wasn't just letting Taiki Shuttle guts build happen.
  3. Suzuka is a spot struggle support. Got 1200/814/731/1034/1200 A/A/A quickly; I could have kept trying for higher, but I didn't. The low power is fine anyway, since the uphills are after position keep ends.

Win rates after 40: I didn't actually record it anywhere, but I had a 3/3/3/5 day 1 and got five-win streaks on both VBourbon and Sei, so pretty good. I want to say it was something like VBourbon 35%, Sei 25%, Suzuka 15%.

Win rates after 80: Sei 30%, VBourbon 25%, Suzuka 7.5%. Very confusing 3/5/1/1 1/1/4/4 records in round 2.

Finals saw two COCs both get perfect ults and Radiant during accel. You can always simply lose to better luck.

CM12 – Aries Cup (Satsuki Sho)
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One of COC's best tracks, because U=ma2 is at worst only slightly less good than 777 as a trigger. If there is any other front runner, triple front pushes pace COC out of range for U=ma2, making her at best as reliable as the usual.

  1. Seiun Sky's Angling is a 0.4 accel that lasts for the entire accel period, better than COC's 0.3 that's only up for 2/3 of it. I want her to be my ace in front, so capped wit, high power, strong spot struggles, huge mid-race skills. Didn't get a guts build to come together after three weeks of attempts, so switched to a standard speed/power/wit build and got a high roll on the first try. 1181/786/1185/474/1185 A/A/S.
  2. VBourbon is a horse that exists. She can beat other people's front runners, so great as a backup. Ideally she lets Sei in front, but it's better to let this happen naturally off the lack of TTL than to force low stats. Second attempt got charming and fast learner for free, medium S, and manageable stats. Skill hints were a bit sparse, but not worth rolling more. 1164/662/1010/599/1167 A/S/A.
  3. Silence Suzuka is my favorite front runner, so I will run her. Her primary task is to be in third or fourth so COC can't be, so I don't need amazing stats. To maximize her effectiveness, there are two possible plans: I could make her a debuffer, which needs 1200 power and wit but no other stats matter, or I could experiment with something wacky like NSM into duels. The latter sounds more fun, even if it is obviously bad. First attempt didn't get aptitudes but did get Lone Wolf to disable it for everyone else and surprisingly decent stats, which is good enough for me; her job isn't to win anyway. 1200/623/1042/910/1165 A/A/A.

Win rates after 40: VBourbon 35%, Sei 17.5%, Suzuka 15%. Not quite executing the plan, but I'll take the wins.

Win rates after 80: VBourbon 30%, Sei 22.5%, Suzuka 12.5%. I believe this is my best round 2 performance ever. I lose more to other fronts than to COC. "Most dominant racing horse for a year" continues to get trounced by the wacky triple front build.

CM11 – Pisces Cup (Hanshin 3200 Heavy Rain)
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N.B. This CM was before I started writing this document, so henceforth, there is much less info.

Late race starts on the back stretch, which means the end closers are out to play.

  1. Kitasan Black is a snap take. Her unique is the only reliable accel outside of Straightaway Spurt, and it's quite a lot better. 1200/1200/816/777/742 A/S/A.
  2. VBourbon's unique has a built-in recovery, which makes her the perfect choice as the survivor if stamina debuffers show up. 1200/902/1022/704/816 A/S/A.
  3. Silence Suzuka is coming. 1200/1145/653/608/1000 A/A/A.

I floundered on parenting and ended up with not enough time to make runners. Suzuka had more wit than Kitasan could handle, so I rarely got Kitasan uniques.

Win rates after 80: VBourbon 31.25%, Kitasan 21.25%, Suzuka 2.5%.

Extremely unlucky finals gave me third place for the first time ever.

CM10 – Aquarius Cup (February Stakes)
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Everyone is terrified of Taiki Shuttle, who has a 3-4 ult. Triple fronts would like to have a word. It's a dirt track, but every horse can run dirt if you're brave enough.

  1. Smart Falcon is the obvious choice, being the only actual dirt front runner to exist. Her unique isn't terribly strong for this track, but her gold skills are – Trending makes it extremely difficult for others to overtake her. 1200/467/920/410/930 A/S/A.
  2. Silence Suzuka in runaway mode will make positioning much easier. I don't have to think about Unrestrained on my other horses because they won't be able to get in position for it anyway. Other Suzukas will be rare because she has G dirt and people don't realize distance aptitude hardly matters for runaways. 1200/674/820/470/774 B/A/A.
  3. Taiki Shuttle is a front runner now. She has B dirt and C front at base. Very easy to fix. Falco's mid-race is probably stronger than Taiki's between her unique and Trending, so Taiki should often be in position for her ult in this build. 1200/447/825/423/1195 A/A/A.

This is probably the strongest gameplan I've been able to use, but I failed to execute it properly. In particular, this was the CM that taught me through experience how important mid race speed skills are for front runners. Final win rate was a bit over 50%. Insane luck with Unrestrained at the same time as Angling made Suzuka the champion of the Aquarius Cup.

CM9 – Capricorn Cup (Takamatsunomiya Kinen)
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A race with no Angling, and also with the largest proportion of downhill in any race. If you build wit, you literally cannot finish a career without enough stamina for a full spurt.

As a sprint, this is also where spot struggle shines. Time for Unity Cup guts builds.

I forgot that Skill data is loading... requires being in first place, so I thought it would be reasonable to base my team around gambling on it. That turned out not to be a great decision.

  1. Silence Suzuka has Unrestrained built in, and she's my favorite front runner. Welcome to the team. 1013/289/790/1177/1008 A/A/S. Absolutely nailed the target stat line. We didn't even know yet that spot struggle scales with front aptitude, but I got that, too.
  2. Smart Falcon has an accel ult that can fire on the 1m portion of mid race stretch before the start of late race. This requires her not getting into second place before the corner, and then overtaking during it. Fixing the aptitudes is a bit tough with the parents I have, but it's doable. 1155/373/930/388/1072 A/S/S. I could do better on the stat line and the skills, but I'm never going to see those aptitudes again.
  3. Everyone is afraid of Curren Chan's pace chaser nonsense, so I'll use her as a front runner instead. 1055/390/858/1098/780 S/A/A.

The plan worked exactly as I hoped, but what the plan lacked was Skill data is loading.... While I was suppressing it on other teams' front runners with my outstanding mid race, they were also gambling on Skill data is loading... and Skill data is loading..., and I didn't have enough accel to beat them. I found a mention in my chat history that, as of round 2 day 1, I had a 78% top two rate with a 32% win rate. Lessons learned. Still managed to get 2nd in the finals, and also my first ever group A round 2 sweep.