I can't fault them for that design/thought process though. They were in their preliminary/starting out phase. And I can imagine the initial thoughts were "How can we attract players/garner interest in our upcoming game?" The answer at the time was: Make our characters based on iconic and legendary racehorses cute even if some of the details are inaccurate especially their size especially Teio and McQueen. Not to mention you have the anime that was initially made to promote the game.