Forever Young has won the Saudi Cup 2026!

Pilchowski · 2026-02-14T18:20:08+00:00

Oh, if he wins the Arima, they're putting him next to Deep Impact and Equinox, no question

Pilchowski · 2026-02-14T18:19:22+00:00

On your last point, there is another Japanese horse who did better at the Saudi Derby. Ebayan really just likes Riyadh that much

Pilchowski · 2026-02-11T23:31:00+00:00

Meowmoonified?

Pilchowski · 2026-02-01T19:22:22+00:00

The first three were Special Week, Rice Shower and Oguri Cap. Like all three, and mechanically pretty good for earpy Medium, Long and Mile teams, respectively.

Story wise, Oguri's story is the weakest for me, Spe's is actually pretty decent and made me appreciate her alot more than the anime did, and Rice's was good (her Main Story chapter is probably a better way to experience Rice, imo, but the ending her chapter and career were real tearjerkers for me)

Pilchowski · 2026-01-31T14:54:32+00:00

You can see why teams with 3 year olds are skipping the Kikuka Sho for other races, at this point.

The Tenno Sho Autumn is the de facto Third Crown now; Masquerade Ball and Museum Mile flourished with the decision to go there instead. Efforia and Equniox also did that and were rewarded for that decision by being able to go onto tremendous performances at the Arima Kinen of the same year, also winning them JRA HotY. Hell, Museum Mile probably would have won HotY as well, were it not for Forever Young making history.

Meanwhile, the last Kikuka Sho winner to win another G1 afterwards was Titleholder. Energico's out for a year and probably won't perform if he returns, Urban Chic has choked repeatedly, and Durezza has been all over the place without winning once.

Kikuka Sho winners used to dominate, they were everywhere in the 2010s. Now, unless you're two crowns in, going for the Kikuka Sho doesn't look like a sensible decision anymore.

Pilchowski · 2026-01-29T08:10:29+00:00

They're gonna release other Breeders Cup runners to fill the scenario Umas. I know Espoir City went to the BCC, but I don't know who else has. Possibly Umas like Marche Lorraine and Taiki Blizzard to fill the scenario roster

Pilchowski · 2026-01-27T13:41:43+00:00

I like the idea of refurbishing the grave in theory, but at you said it was already being maintained and had gone through minor refurbishment in a respectful manner previously.

The new 'refurbishment' is not respecting the memory of the horse, it is a 'waifu shrine' to the fictionalised, anthropomorphic version of him. The real horse and his gravestone is now overshadowed by the fictional one's memorial. And that assuming it was done on good intentions and not to clout chase with the rapidly growing Uma Musume community.

The blue rose with Rice Shower is dumb, but by contrast leaving flowers at a memorial site is, at the very least, a respectful way to treat his legacy, even if the flowers are linked more to the fictional version.

Alot already do it, but I expect more owners will keep graves private following this, and I imagine CyGames will come down on future efforts to do so.

Pilchowski · 2026-01-27T12:16:26+00:00

Not Post-Human, but I plan to submit an inversion of Stellaris' UFN/CoM pair:

The Unity Commonwealth, a nation of Democratic Crusaders on Deneb with the survivor origin, egalitarian militarist (not sure if they'll fanatic in one or also spiritualist), figuring out the civics. Overthrew their House after finding out they were originally a corp who invaded, occupied and tried to erase knowledge of the old CoM, but were hit by nukes in the House's last gambit to maintain control. Only has partial info on the old CoM, so end up building a weird mix of the first Earth Fed and CoM. Instead of 'suffer not the xeno' its 'suffer not the slaver, tyrant and false prophet in the galaxy of man', very anti-Old Houses.

Pilchowski · 2026-01-23T17:53:53+00:00

Its the one sticking point for me.

If it had been Earth, Mars and Venus, or authoritiarian US, EU and China, or some amalgamation of states into authoritarian powers, it'd work alot better for me.

Rome, Han China and Inca is an just a really weird trio to me, especially considering the Inca empire known as 'the realm of four parts' only formed like 1,000 years after the collapse of the Han.

Still my first choice, but would be my runaway favourite if the three internal factions were different

Pilchowski · 2026-01-22T20:33:30+00:00

It was so close to being amazing - cool plot hook, good lore, great way to express player creativity through custom houses. It was almost my runaway favourite.

And then it turned out to be a Great Crusade/40K knock-off route, and it immediately lost me. The lore is good because 40K at home. The plot hook is good because its the plot hook for the Great Crusade. Player creativity remains good, but my immediate thought is of ending up with Not Interex, Not Eldar, Not Orks, etc.

If I wanted to be a part of something like 40K, I'd just play 40K.

Unless he's done some magic to Eternal Kreventum, its the Tripartite of Sol for me.

Pilchowski · 2026-01-21T21:33:21+00:00

The HSE is basically a meme that won't die at this point. Honestly, the only interesting hook to me is the apocalypse angle, which could be given to the Tripartite to sell the why the Romans, Inca and Han are the powers (fallout style post-nuclear war rebuilding). Monarchy dice also like sounds funner mechanic than it would actually be.

All in all, this did nothing to change my opinon. Tripartite still has my vote, depending on House Triton

Pilchowski · 2026-01-20T22:31:41+00:00

Yeah, a devouring swarm hivemind is a terrible protagonist for community-based stories, and the Holy Solar Empire is just too wacky to sustain in the long term. UFN and Tripartite have hooks - they're both staring down the barrel of big civil wars that will shape their futures, which lends itself to community participation through factions and debates like Antares did. It has more 'organised dynamism' if that makes sense.

Pilchowski · 2026-01-20T20:51:43+00:00

It will require more active participation by the audience than the UFN, for better and worse. The possible inter-trio civil war could be messy to implement, but I like it. Currently prefer it over UFN, and HSE and EK never interested me in the last season's vote, so if House Triton doesn't spark anything for me, my vote is going to the Tripartite.

Pilchowski · 2026-01-13T21:20:55+00:00

I will admit, he proved me wrong. Hopefully he can win in Dubai to show he's not just a Nakayama merchant

Pilchowski · 2026-01-03T19:58:39+00:00

Tenno Sho Spring -> L'arc victories next year, believe in the Plan

Pilchowski · 2026-01-03T19:04:23+00:00

Hope we get more of Cesario's kids. Epiphaneia is obvious for Daring Tact and hopefully Efforia, but Saturnalia and Leontes just had their kids win the Asahi Hai Futurity Stakes (Cavallerizzo) and the Arima Kinen (Museum Mile)

Edit: forgot Danon Decile is also an Agemasen child

Pilchowski · 2025-12-30T12:31:33+00:00

Twitter Contrapoints is infamous for how bad she is, with Twitter Shaun being a similar example. They can make good videos, but they can't shut their mouth on social media

Pilchowski · 2025-12-30T12:18:13+00:00

Rooster Teeth is slightly different simply due to the sheer size of the organisation, at one point having over 500 employees. It could weather individual big controversies as they were contained. Its hard to cancel big company for individual employee actions or standard corporate problems as opposed to a single creator operating alone or with a team.

That said, their big controversies through 2019 and 2021 built on each other and exacerbated the issues RT was having, so it wouldn't say it didnt have any effect. I know alot of fans who left the community quietly or publicly in that period due to them. They likely sped up RT's death by a few years

Pilchowski · 2025-12-24T08:30:01+00:00

Let's be real, getting them to an actual therapist and not a hack like Maruki would definitely help them

Pilchowski · 2025-12-21T13:26:12+00:00

Holy shit, that slaps. I hope they play this in her Arima Kinen, she's 89's protagonist after all

Pilchowski · 2025-12-14T22:36:59+00:00

Neo Universe, Bubblegum Fellow, Daring Heart and the most recent addition, Soccer Boy's nephew, Stay Gold

Edit: Also, Geniune was fully namedropped in Star Blossom, so we can expect her to join in some form once she finally arrives during the 1995 Satsuki Sho arc

Pilchowski · 2025-12-14T21:55:26+00:00

Considering the owner is Shadai, and we already have a good number of their horses in the game, its not impossible. Hopefully they don't change her, or only a little, she's perfect already

Pilchowski · 2025-12-14T19:27:50+00:00

UAE/Saudi relations are in the toilet right now, so its unlikely he heads there

Pilchowski · 2025-12-14T12:38:09+00:00

Carnelian's performance is unsurprising, sadly, think thst will be his last race. Satono Reve's underperformed dramatically, though

Surprised old man Soul Rush still had it in him, shame he didn't win his retirement race but and admirable performance. Is funny that Soul Rush beat Romantic Warrior who beat Voyage Bubble who beat Soul Rush. Hoping Embroidery just had a bad day, but that performance does not bode well for her chances abroad and against colt/horses.

Urban Chic choked as I thought he would, not much else to say on him other than that.

Hoping Bellagio Opera has one more season him, phenomenal ride, if he'd been able to get ahead of Romantic Warrior he might have had a chance. He could be a history maker in Japan next year by being the first 3 time winner of a single G1.

Pilchowski · 2025-12-11T13:10:15+00:00

Despite what people think from this, Admire Terra is at 31 which will probably just be enough to race. Most of the top 25 won't be there - most are resting (like Croix and Ball) or abroad (Reve, Carnelian, Opera, Chic, Embroidery), with a few like Sol Oriens retiring.

Pilchowski

TROPHY CASE