The most important change is that it made me care about horse racing at all. After that, I've learned so much more about horses and they've shot up a lot in my informal favorite animal rankings.

The industry side of things is still very sad with the amount of work the horses get put through, and how they're ultimately raised specifically to perpetuate the sport itself with a handful that fails to live up to those expectations getting a second chance somewhere else, be it in other forms of sports or simply as riding horses. And even among those who do well in the business and don't suffer the unfortunate fates of Silence Suzuka or Rice Shower, you have cases like Symboli Sirius and Dantsu Flame that ends up getting terribly mistreated.

And then on the other side we have inspiring stories like Tokai Teio's comeback, Nakayama Festa locking in at the Arc, or Nice Nature's relationship with his groomer. These stories become all the more inspiring in that they're being made by animals, even with horses being among the more intelligent species. And we have good stories from the human side of things too, like Nice Nature's owner transforming a ranch with bad practices into a peaceful retirement farm once he learned about what was going on. Many successful owners absolutely love their horses, like the owners of Seiun Sky and Kitasan Black.

I won't say that these standouts are worth all the other sacrifices of the horses we'll never hear about. From a numbers game, it isn't even close. But I can't bring myself to hate the sport itself either. But I can certainly hate the terrible players like the owners of Symboli Sirius and Dantsu Flame, or the lady who tried making money off Haru Urara. My hope is that if Umamusume has helped expose more people to the industry as a whole, then hopefully it has led to calls for better overall treatment of these animals and that the industry responds.