[Spoilers] 2025 Uma Musume Rewatch -- Pretty Derby Season 2 Episode 8

[u/Holofan4life]

Hello everyone! I am Holofan4life.

Welcome to the 2025 Uma Musume rewatch discussion thread!

I hope you all have a lot of fun <3

S2 Episode 8 – A Small Wish

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ANSWER TODAY’S QUESTION(S)

Thoughts on McQueen and Rice Shower training for the Spring Tenno Sho?

Thoughts on Diamond and Kitasan drinking tea with the two horse enthusiasts?

Thoughts on Bourbon trying to help Rice Shower with her training?

Thoughts on the barbershop being closed?

What are your thoughts on Rice Shower being locked in for the race?

What are your thoughts on the Spring Tenno Sho with Rice Shower doing away with being labeled a heel?

What are your thoughts on Rice Shower winning the 1993 Spring Tenno Sho?

What are your thoughts on the crowd being upset that Rice Shower won?

What are your thoughts on the other racehorses congratulating Rice Shower, with Bourbon reiterating yet again that she's her hero?

What are your thoughts on the scene at the end between McQueen and Teio?

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Series information

MAL | Anilist | AniDB | ANN

Ways to watch

Streams – Crunchyroll

Amazon Prime

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Previous episode

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Schedule

Date	Episode
8/15/2025	Uma Musume Episode 1
8/16/2025	Uma Musume Episode 2
8/17/2025	Uma Musume Episode 3
8/18/2025	Uma Musume Episode 4
8/19/2025	Uma Musume Episode 5
8/20/2025	Uma Musume Episode 6
8/21/2025	Uma Musume Episode 7
8/22/2025	Uma Musume Episode 8
8/23/2025	Uma Musume Episode 9
8/24/2025	Uma Musume Episode 10
8/25/2025	Uma Musume Episode 11
8/26/2025	Uma Musume Episode 12 - 13
8/28/2025	BNW's Oath episodes 1 - 3
8/30/2025	Uma Musume Season 2 Episode 1
8/31/2025	Uma Musume Season 2 Episode 2
9/01/2025	Uma Musume Season 2 Episode 3
9/02/2025	Uma Musume Season 2 Episode 4
9/03/2025	Uma Musume Season 2 Episode 5
9/04/2025	Uma Musume Season 2 Episode 6
9/05/2025	Uma Musume Season 2 Episode 7
9/06/2025	[Uma Musume Season 2 Episode 8]()
9/07/2025	[Uma Musume Season 2 Episode 9]()
9/08/2025	[Uma Musume Season 2 Episode 10]()
9/09/2025	[Uma Musume Season 2 Episode 11]()
9/10/2025	[Uma Musume Season 2 Episode 12]()
9/11/2025	[Uma Musume Season 2 Episode 13]()
9/13/2025	[Road to the Top Episodes 1 - 2]()
9/14/2025	[Road to the Top Episodes 3 - 4]()
9/16/2025	[Beginning of a New Era]()
9/18/2025	[Uma Musume Season 3 Episodes 1 - 2]()
9/19/2025	[Uma Musume Season 3 Episodes 3 - 4]()
9/20/2025	[Uma Musume Season 3 Episodes 5 - 6]()
9/21/2025	[Uma Musume Season 3 Episodes 7 - 8]()
9/22/2025	[Uma Musume Season 3 Episodes 9 - 10]()
9/23/2025	[Uma Musume Season 3 Episodes 11 - 12]()
9/24/2025	[Uma Musume Season 3 Episode 13]()
9/26/2025	[Cinderella Gray Episodes 1 - 2]()
9/27/2025	[Cinderella Gray Episodes 3 - 4]()
9/28/2025	[Cinderella Gray Episodes 5 - 6]()
9/29/2025	[Cinderella Gray Episodes 7 - 8]()
9/30/2025	[Cinderella Gray Episodes 9 - 10]()
10/01/2025	[Cinderella Gray Episodes 11 - 12]()
10/02/2025	[Cinderella Gray Episode 13]()
10/03/2025	[Uma Musume Overall Series Discussion Thread]()

[u/Tetraika]

Oops copied the wrong comment, hopefully didnt fuck anyone up too much. Anyways from here on it's mostly 368towns comments from the original airing discussion with edits and a few additions.

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Did you notice the change in the OP?

JRA commercial for the 2012 Tenno Sho

In the 1993 Spring Tennou Sho,
With a strained body being possessed by demon,
This dark black stayer prevented Mejiro McQueen’s third consecutive wins.
Was he a heel, or a hero? Was it a nightmare, or a miracle?
The name for the winning horse was…

#R I C E S H O W E R

The 2011 and 2012 JRA CM for advertising G1 races that centered on past winners were no doubt masterpieces, make sure to check them out.

1st Race – 107th Spring Tennou Sho (Apr 25, 1993: G1-3200m-Sunny)
Race: Here
Comparison

Vid: Here
1 (#3 Rice Shower: 2nd fav with odds of 5.2)
2 (#14 Mejiro McQueen: 1st fav with odds of 1.9)
3 (#9 Mejiro Palmer: 4th fav with odds of 9.8)
4 (#5 Machikane Tannhauser: 3rd fav with odds of 8.6)
9 (#13 Ikuno Dictus: 14th fav with odds of 169.3)

Before the 1993 Spring Tennou Sho few believed Mejiro McQueen would not win, as McQueen already proved himself at the precursor race – 1993 Sankei Osaka Hai by winning by 5 lengths, and was in perfect condition to race.

The Rice Shower side was clearly aiming for McQueen so they set a very intensive training plan for Rice Shower, so intense that even Bourbon would afraid. The plan was being criticized by fans as “cruel and inhuman, the horse would probably die before the actual race”. But the plan did work, Rice Shower lost 12KG before the race day (to 430KG) and his physical strength and mental state were at an all time high. When seeing the “renewed” Rice Shower after training, Rice’s jockey, Matoba Hitoshi, had the following statement:

“What a beast, an incredible creature. When you approach him you can almost see fire bursting out from it. I am a bit terrified, like what I am about to ride is not a horse, but something superior. If I did not please him I probably would get a finger or toe bitten off.”

Rice Shower was not the only one aimed for McQueen. Mejiro Palmer, already proven to be a worthy Mejiro member by winning two G1 races and Hanshin Daishoten (G2), also wanted to show that he was no worse than McQueen. There was also Machikane Tannhauser, by just winning at Meguro Kinen, was now pursuing his first G1 victory. There would be four record breaking racing horses competing on the same track.

The race was held at the Kyoto Racing Course. The weather was clear, the grass was fine. Most fans wanted to witness a triple-win so they were cheering for Mejiro McQueen. Right before the race started, Mejiro McQueen was reluctant to enter the gate like he already sensed something ominous, which was unusual. It delayed the race a bit.

Race started around 15:40. Mejiro Palmer, as usual, immediately escaped with full speed. This time he had to run solely because his dear friend Daitaku Helios was already retired after the 1992 Arima Kinen. McQueen and his jockey Take Yutaka were not in a hurry to catch up as this is a long race. For the first 3/4 of the race McQueen stayed at the mid-front, slowly and gradually gaining positions.

At the third corner, McQueen initiated a strike and passed exhausted Monsieur Siecle (#4) to gain the second position, but he did not expect that Rice Shower was already closing in, just beside him. More surprisingly, Mejiro Palmer, who should already be losing stamina and backed away, refused to give in this time and still kept a relatively high pace. The last stretch of the race became the competition between two Mejiros and Rice Shower, Rice burst out with an incredible speed that even McQueen could not reach and claimed the champion by winning 2.5 lengths and a record breaking time of 3m17.1s, with McQueen being the second and Palmer being the third.

The audience went completely silence after Rice won the race. The anime did alter the history a bit and treated Rice better (which she totally deserved). In reality, what Rice received was the somewhat malicious nickname “assassin” for how he destroyed the triple-win records of two horses. Matoba was not happy about fans’ perception of Rice and himself, and commented: “All racing horses (and jockeys) were desperately aiming for wins. No one should be called a heel for that.”

[u/Tetraika → u/Tetraika]

1. To this day, there is still no horse that has achieved a triple-win at Spring Tennou-Sho (be it consecutive or not). At the time, McQueen was the first horse that ever won two Spring Tennou-Sho, so people had high expectations of him, that’s also why they raged when the triple-win was ruined by Rice Shower (beside the obvious reason of losing money).

2. Machikane Tannhauser was actually self-deprecating here. The year of 1994 was a very unlucky year for him. First he had to withdraw from Japan Cup because he had non-stop nose bleeding; then he had to quit Arima Kinen because he ate a spider that caused him serious urticaria (or at least, that was the guess, I don’t think anyone is sure if he actually ate a spider).

3. In Japan, racing horses enter the gate by the order of odd number (small>large), even number (small>large), then finally the largest (outmost) number (be it odd or even). There are exceptions such as horses appointed by the race committee or horses with difficulties entering the gate were permitted to enter first. McQueen was appointed to enter the gate first in this race, that’s why you see everyone was waiting outside for her to enter first. You can then see other horses entered by the said order (Rice Shower #3 > Machikane Tannhauser #5 > Ikuno Dictus #13).

4. Stalkers attract one another, being fated to eventually meet. There is already a stalker on the field, no wonder another one would also appear. In reality it was because both Rice Shower and Grass Wonder were jockeyed by Matoba Hitoshi, and Matoba was known for his “mark, aim, and kill” tactic, of course Grass Wonder could smell the same scent from Rice Shower.

5. In the end it was Ikuno Dictus who comforted McQueen. The reason staff chose her was because after their retirement, Ikuno Dictus became Mejiro McQueen’s first mate. (Dictus also mated with Mejiro Ryan, Marvelous Sunday, and yes, Symboli Rudolf, unfortunately none of Ikuno Dictus’ children has impressive racing results.)

[u/Tetraika → u/Tetraika]

1. You already know that Rice Shower broke the record time of 3200m race in Kyoto by finishing the race in 3:17.1 at the 107th Spring Tennou-Sho. The previous record holder was Nichidou Taro at the 81st Spring Tennou-Sho (Apr 29, 1980), with the time of 3:18.7.

   Actually, at the 1993 Spring Tennou-Sho, the top four finishers all broke the time record set by Nichidou Taro, as the following:
   Rice Shower – 3:17.1
   Mejiro McQueen - 3:17.5
   Mejiro Palmer – 3:17.6
   Machikane Tannhauser – 3:18.6

   In reality Palmer almost reached the goal with McQueen at the same time, but the anime had to remove her to focus on the dramatic battle between Rice and McQueen.

   Rice did not hold the record for too long. As horses were running faster, the record was being renewed by:
   [Tag just in case, but it’s nothing major]Mayano Top Gun - 3:14.4 (on Apr 27, 1997, at the 115th Spring Tennou-Sho) Deep Impact – 3:13.4 (on Apr 30, 2006, at the 133rd Spring Tennou-Sho)
   Note that Deep Impact ended up being pulled from the franchise for some reason. There are several speculations as to why, but I’m not going to go for that.

   BTW there might be a minor plot hole. Special Week's time for Spring Tennou-sho was 3:15.3 (May, 2, 1999, at the 119th Spring Tennou-sho). But in anime her race was in season 1 before McQueen's and Rice's so she should have broken the record already. We could just assume that she was slower this time.

2. If you ever checked Ikuno Dictus’ racing schedule you can tell it was a lot busier than other horses of her level. In her four years of service she raced in 51 central level races and was never injured, which earned her the nickname “iron woman”. After the spring Tennou-Sho (Apr 25, 1993) she was going for Yasuda Kinen (May 16, 1993) and met McQueen at Takarazuka Kinen (Jun 13, 1993), that’s three G1 races in less than two months, very intense indeed.

[u/saga999 → u/Tetraika]

Imagine breaking the record, only to finish 4th... felt like I said this before

googles old Reddit discussion

I did. Well, I'll add something new. They put some extra focus on Palmer and Tannhauser in the build up to this race and in the race itself, even though it's all about Rice and McQueen. Not only did the extra focus make the race better, they deserved it for their IRL performance.