By the time they left France for England, Offside Trap's anticipation for the Coronation Cup had only grown stronger.
She and Dolce had deliberately avoided traveling together. Though both of them were departing from Paris Tracen Academy, they would still be rivals in this race, so in the end, things had been arranged that way.
Walking along the track at Epsom Racecourse, Offside Trap could immediately tell how different it was from every course in Japan. The gradient at the end was the sort of difficulty she could never have encountered back home.
But she was not worried.
At the various training grounds in Paris Tracen Academy, Shinji Terumi had managed to find a course that could simulate this kind of brutal terrain. Thanks to the strength she had built up, Offside Trap adapted to this steep track extremely quickly.
Trainer and horse girl tacitly avoided bringing up that afternoon on the bed. Each kept their own thoughts tucked away as Shinji led her onto Epsom's turf.
The ground was slightly slick. Shinji was wearing rain boots, and he could not help thinking that European horse girls were no wonder so physically sturdy. On a course like this, if your strength was lacking, the final stretch would easily leave you with no reserves at all, and losing speed would be inevitable.
He stamped hard on the turf, his usual habit whenever he inspected a track. Even during the Japan Cup, run under torrential rain, he had done the same.
Nothing unexpected happened. His foot sank in at once, leaving a shallow hole, but still deep enough to swallow half the front of his boot.
And that was only with human strength. It was no wonder so many horse girls who had trained in Europe later said that running on these courses felt like swimming through them.
He turned to Offside Trap and tilted his head slightly, signaling for her to do the same.
With a helpless little expression, she stamped down hard.
Her shoe sank straight into the mud. Though she pulled it free with no difficulty, the surface of it was thoroughly smeared with dirt.
Shinji shrugged. It had rained the day before, so the course conditions should be a bit heavier now than they would be on Coronation Cup day. That gave him a rough idea of the sort of ground the runners would actually be facing.
His gaze shifted toward the far-off starting point. The place where he and Offside Trap were standing now was just before the final straight of the Coronation Cup. What it shared with Tokyo Racecourse was a straight long enough to strongly favor horse girls with explosive closing speed.
And whether it was Dolce or Offside Trap, both possessed dazzling, exceptional finishing kicks.
Shinji let out a breath.
"When the race starts, I trust you to find your acceleration timing. I'm not worried about that. What you need to be more careful with are the bends here. If you secure a good position in this race, there's no need to get impatient at that point. The final straight gives you more than enough room to establish yourself in front and then hold it."
It sounded simple, but in practice it would be filled with all kinds of complications.
Still, Offside Trap was already used to this. Shinji had gradually been trying to teach her how to think through and arrange her own tactics.
The strategy Shinji laid out was naturally what he, as a trainer, believed to be the best. But what a runner could actually execute on the track was always going to depend on her first instinct.
That was why it was so important to make his trainees develop their own thoughts and feel for racing ahead of time.
Shinji raised an arm and pointed toward the distant starting gate for the Coronation Cup.
"After the gates open, there'll be a short sequence with two directional changes. That's something completely different from any course in Japan, so don't relax just because your position happens to be good right after the break."
At his reminder, Offside Trap nodded firmly.
She would not make the mistake of growing careless. Her years of failure had already taught her that truth: if you wanted victory, you had to stop wasting chances. Back then, she had staked everything for it and still come up empty-handed.
Now that she finally had the qualifications to stand at the top of the world, she treasured the opportunity even more.
"Once you break, if you can shift left at the right time, the course eventually settles back into a left-handed line. Add in the fact that you're a pace-chaser and there aren't many runners in the field, and it almost guarantees you won't get boxed in."
As he spoke, scenes of the race were already taking shape in his mind. In that imagined race, the girl adjusted left, then used the entry into the turn to set herself into the ideal position to launch as soon as the straight opened.
That was, in Shinji's view, the most suitable path to victory for Offside Trap. There would be little danger in it. Even if other runners wanted to contain her, there would be no good way to do so.
Unless someone produced strength that outright surpassed Offside Trap's, Shinji believed that under those conditions no one could beat her.
Of course, that depended on Offside Trap actually being able to carry out what he envisioned.
"And don't get so obsessed with taking the left side early that you spend the whole opening fighting for it. It's better not to waste energy in the early stages if you don't have to. That's not because I doubt you. It's because we can win this more steadily. Keep yourself in the middle portion first, then once you're getting ready to enter the third and fourth bends, adjust over to the left."
Offside Trap already understood what he meant. Long before coming to France, she had watched a great many races at Epsom—especially the Coronation Cup and similar events—and she had seen the choices legendary runners made on this kind of course.
Shinji had basically said everything he needed to say.
In truth, this race would most likely come down to a direct showdown between Dolce and Offside Trap. Shinji was not worried about that. Even in a straight one-on-one duel, once Offside Trap activated Duel Master, not even Dolce would be able to beat her while her already enormous stats were boosted by another fifteen percent.
This was not blind confidence on Shinji's part. It was the conclusion he had drawn after studying an enormous amount of Dolce's data and recent training footage.
Dolce was undoubtedly one of France's top horse girls. But Offside Trap was a top-class runner as well.
"If you end up in a duel with Dolce—or any of the other strong runners—don't panic. Just hold your line."
"I understand."
Her little face was full of seriousness. Shinji brushed a few muddy specks from the hem of her skirt.
"Then take another good look for yourself. We've got plenty of time today. If there's anything you don't understand, or anything that suddenly occurs to you, come ask me."
Shinji leaned back against the rail, still beaded with moisture, and did not move away even as it dampened his clothes.
He watched Offside Trap's retreating figure as she stepped forward—
his trainee, who would stand with him here and try once more to seize Japan's first European middle-distance G1 victory.
Join here to read ahead.
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