Chinese Toon Queen Cup

[Thank you to the generous patrons for your continued support. With the prep races over, we're entering the dense G1 season. From here on, aside from the retirement races of a few key racehorses and the protagonist horse's races in each volume, only G1 races will be covered.]

Eight Min Central Racecourse, third week of March.

Spring sunlight poured over the track, warming the brown dirt until it was faintly hot.

Less than twenty minutes remained before the Chinese Toon Queen Cup began. The eighteen fillies entered in the race were already circling in front of the gates to warm up.

Zhang Jun watched Wind-Chasing Hound step lightly forward, his hands clenched together until his knuckles turned white.

This was Zhang Jun's first time entering a Central classic race as an owner. Even if it was merely a prep race in the Fillies' Triple Crown series, it was still a major step in his career as a horse owner.

More importantly, Wind-Chasing Hound was unlike Shadow Hunter and Cloudstream Flying Shadow. Shadow Hunter and Cloudstream Flying Shadow had already proven themselves at the regional level; entering Central merely gave them a new stage on which to display their ability.

But Wind-Chasing Hound had yet to prove herself in any Graded Stakes race. She had run three races regionally and won only two. In the last one, a CN2 race, her second attempt at leading from the front had ended in defeat by half a head.

Moreover, this G3 prep race was her first time facing Central's strongest horses.

Since Huaxia had split regional and Central racing, countless horses had emerged from the regions every year hoping to prove themselves in Central. Yet very few had managed it.

Just like in this race, five racehorses besides Wind-Chasing Hound had D-rank speed,