Raging Current and Gale

At the end of the bend, even after continuously accelerating through the early stages, the chestnut mare's strides remained as light as ever.

"Second is Jade Record in the red cap with Li Muhua! Behind them are the two yellow-capped runners, while Yutaka Take and Meisho Gekkei remain farther back! Still leading is Mejiro Atalanta!"

Through his binoculars, Kurata could see that Jade Record, who was effectively leading the pack, was steadily closing the gap on Atalanta ahead.

So she couldn't keep it up after all.

Thinking that, Kurata focused his binoculars on the small figure at the very front.

"No, that's not it!"

He noticed that although Atalanta seemed to have slowed, the coordination between horse and rider remained utterly flawless.

A frontrunner's collapse was often caused by the conflict between a jockey trying to adjust the pace and a racehorse running on instinct, which increased the strain on both.

But Atalanta and Sasagawa showed no such disruption in rhythm today.

Only then did Kurata realize that he had misread both the flow of the race and Atalanta's true strength.

However—

Behind Atalanta, at the head of the pack—

Li Muhua, atop Jade Record, had already raised his whip.

The gap between Atalanta, Jade Record, and the horses farther behind seemed to be steadily shrinking.

As though drawn forward by Li Muhua's early move, the jockeys behind also began to follow.

Driven by the fear that the runaway leader might hold on all the way, they did not dare gamble everything on Nakayama's fleetingly short stretch as Yutaka Take did from his position farther back.

The jockeys behind had once been troubled by Atalanta's breakaway, but when they moved early to try to catch her, they had naturally made this calculation: judging solely by the visible distance to the