To break this convention—or rather, to break the Overseas Horse Girls' dominance over the Japan Cup—many Japanese Horse Girls challenged the Japan Cup, including quite a few powerful and legendary ones.
Tamamo Cross, for example. Oguri Cap as well.
Yet neither of them appeared on the list of Japan Cup champions.
To be honest, whenever Anjing Zhen looked back on that period of racing history, he had to acknowledge the gap between Japan and the rest of the world.
For example, in the Japan Cup that Tamamo Cross and Oguri Cap entered, one of their opponents was Tony Bianca from Italy.
Before entering the Japan Cup, this Horse Girl had just won the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. The reports at the time used that as a selling point, loudly proclaiming things like, "A challenge to the strongest in the world."
Tony Bianca did not win that race. She only finished fifth.
However, the post-race examination revealed that she had fractured a bone as she crossed the line on the Final Straight—and still finished fifth despite running with a fracture.
When Anjing Zhen saw that, he felt completely numb.
He happened to have a fracture himself right now, and it was only a minor hairline fracture, yet it had already affected his daily life.
He could not imagine how Tony Bianca had managed to finish the race with a fractured bone at speeds of up to sixty kilometers per hour—and still place fifth.
More importantly, her opponents included Tamamo Cross, the strongest active Horse Girl at the time; Oguri Cap, who would later become the strongest active Horse Girl; and other powerful overseas opponents.
Unable to make sense of it and feeling utterly numb, that was all Anjing Zhen could say in the end.
And the ones who could be