On June 24, 2025, Cygames released Umamusume: Pretty Derby on Steam, tasking players with scouting, training, and managing the racing careers of the titular umamusume—horse girls born for the singular pursuit of speed.
Next month—just over a year later—developer Blue Bullet is releasing its own fantastical take on the storied tradition of umamusume racing with Full Stride, a jockey racing simulator that reimagines the expected horse girls as normal horses. You know, the kind that in our world spend their time doing things like eating roughage and unsettling passersby with their inscrutable auras. How quaint!
"Feel the tension as the gates open, fight for position within the pack, decide when to make your move, and experience the thrill of a head-to-head battle down the final stretch," Blue Bullet says in the Steam description, seemingly promising that players and their hoses will experience the thrill that before has been the exclusive privilege of elaborately costumed anime girls.
Evidently, it won't be enough to just drive your horse as fast as possible. Blue Bullet says victory won't be achievable if you neglect to consider a horse's racing style, stamina, sprint aptitude, pace, and preferred distance—just as an umamusume trainer would be foolish to enter Haru Urara in a late-career turf races without a diligent training regimen to break her reliance on dirt tracks.
There will also be a photo mode, allowing the player to really savor the almost dreamlike absurdity of a crowd gathering to see if their favorite horse goes fast. It's a high-concept idea, but if executed capably, there could be some real promise to it.
As long as nobody bets on anything. I can't imagine that would end well for anyone.
Full Stride launches on July 16, 2026. You can wishlist it on Steam now.
