Before, when he and Kitasan Black watched the press conference on TV and heard Gold Ship mention her "retirement race," Anjing Zhen had been quite surprised as well.
Although the reports showed that this Horse Girl's mental strength had declined slightly, her physical condition was remarkably healthy. He had even analyzed the matter with Kitasan Black.
Yet she had suddenly announced that she would retire after the Arima Kinen. It still felt far too abrupt.
Especially since he had known her for nearly a year and received no small amount of help from her during that time, Anjing Zhen honestly had mixed feelings about it.
At the same time, he gained a deeper understanding of the Arima Kinen's significance.
If Horse Girls were asked to choose a race for their retirement race, then almost without exception, their answer would be the Arima Kinen.
This tradition-like notion had no specific origin.
The more common explanation was that after Oguri Cap achieved a legendary perfect ending at the Arima Kinen, retiring after winning the final G1 of the year, more and more Horse Girls began to share the same idea.
Then Tokai Teio returned to the track after 364 days and brought her difficult yet miraculous career to a close by running another miracle race—also at the Arima Kinen. That only further solidified this belief among Horse Girls.
Not every Horse Girl could have her wish fulfilled. After all, in this grand race that also carried the implication of an ending, there could only be one winner.
But precisely because of that, achieving a perfect ending at the Arima Kinen was all the rarer—and all the more sought after.
Anjing Zhen knew that Kitasan Black had gone to see Gold Ship afterward.
What the two of them had said, or perhaps what