Kitasan Black was not actually "falling back"; she was merely maintaining her speed.
At this moment, the pack had just passed through the first turn, moving from the arc of the outside lane onto the long straight facing the grandstands.
After passing through the next two turns, they would immediately enter the final straight, leaving very little room for error when using the turns to adjust position.
This made the opening turns of every Tenno Sho Autumn just as fierce and brutal as what Kitasan Black had just experienced.
If you did not accelerate forward, it looked as though you were "falling back."
And Kitasan Black's "retreat" left all the opponents around her stunned.
Without exception, what they had all been vigilantly guarding against was Kitasan Black suddenly making a break for it.
That was far from impossible.
Her performances in several races and the publicly available training data were enough to show that Kitasan Black's Instantaneous Burst Power was perhaps the most terrifying of her generation, and could even rank near the top in the entire history of racing.
With such explosive power, a single moment of carelessness could let her seize the Lead Position.
And those same races and records had made Kitasan Black's strength at the front plain for all to see. If they let her Escape, overtaking her would be no different from trying to climb the heavens.
But now, she... was actually running backward on purpose?
What was going on?
Was she conserving stamina at the rear, intending to launch a surprise attack in the final phase?
But that was the specialty of Late-run Horse Girls. How could an Escape runner possibly have such a suitable opportunity?
Could it be that she was simply too confident in her own abilities?
That did not seem right