Millions of gamers on Steam and beyond gather to mourn famously untalented horse who inspired the beloved anime girl in Umamusume, Haru Urara: “May she get all the grass and carrots in heaven”
By Ashley Bardhan
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Millions of gamers on Steam and beyond gather to mourn famously untalented horse who inspired the beloved anime girl in Umamusume, Haru Urara: “May she get all the grass and carrots in heaven”
Ashley Bardhan
9 September 2025
“We share our condolences to all the staff involved”
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(Image credit: Cygames)
The quietly passionate, thoroughbred racehorse Haru Urara has died at 29 years old on September 9. She leaves behind a humble legacy defined by the 113 consecutive losses that made her famous in her native Japan around the time of her retirement in 2004, and something like a daughter – a pink-haired anime character with the same name in gacha game Umamusume: Pretty Derby.
“It is with heavy hearts that we share that Haru Urara passed away on September 9,” developer Cygames announced in a Twitter post after Japanese news site Friday Digital reported Haru Urara had become suddenly afflicted with a deadly case of tummy gas build-up, or colic. “We share our condolences to all the staff involved in Haru Urara’s care.”
While Haru Urara’s famous losing streak earned her a reputation for being tenacious – a quality that Umamusume fans value in the game’s spirited character, with her strawberry milkshake hair – many of her 29 years were spent uncomfortably.
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Umamusume players hold a digital funeral for Grass Wonder, the real, 30-year-old racehorse behind one of the game’s beloved anime horse girls: “May you eat dandelions in heaven”
Horse girl gacha gamers are so obsessed with pink racer Haru Urara that the farm that owns the real-life horse she’s based on, who never won a single race, had to respond
Steam users obsessed with a pink horse girl sent so many kilograms of grass to the real horse she’s based on that it broke the food donation website: “It’s very crowded right now”
“Racehorses are destroyed when they don’t win,” her former trainer Dai Muneishi told The Scotsman in 2004. “But to my way of thinking, a horse is also a living being, and it’s inexcusable to destroy it at the mere whim of humans.”
今日ウララさんとサヨナラして来ました#春うららの会#ハルウララの会 pic.twitter.com/ekPysPGeaXSeptember 9, 2025
She continued to race despite what Muneishi once described as her skittish nature, with a tendency to shy from small sounds and react violently to grooming, given a pink Hello Kitty blinker mask and turned into merchandise.
It’s a sad history to remember, but some Umamusume fans seek to preserve even this shady part of Haru Urara’s story. Through her anime successor – who is, and deserves to be, happy – they’ve learned to love her.
“May she get all the grass and carrots in heaven,” wishes one popular comment on Reddit.
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“This – to be perfectly honest – absurd idea for a game allowed us to learn about the lives of racehorses, jockeys, and trainers, and made us care,” observes another. “Even those of us who have never before considered that sport or those who participate in it, it made us care.”
Pleasantly for Haru Urara, this charitable mood defined the most recent chunk of her existence. After she was abandoned at Matha Farm in Onjuku a little over 10 years ago, she could finally unwind.
Umamusume recently donated thousands of kilograms of cold ryegrass to the farm for Haru Urara to chew on, though her colic ultimately would have meant she lost the ability to digest this fragrant sign of goodwill. Ultimately, she died at Matha Farm surrounded by caretakers.
One of them writes on Twitter (translated by DeepL) that it looked like “as if she were asleep.” They bought her bouquets of pink lilies and roses.
Horse girl gacha gamers are so obsessed with pink racer Haru Urara that the farm that owns the real-life horse she’s based on, who never won a single race, had to respond.
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Ashley Bardhan
Senior Writer
Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She’s been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she’s written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she’s not covering gaming news, she’s usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.
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Umamusume players hold a digital funeral for Grass Wonder, the real, 30-year-old racehorse behind one of the game’s beloved anime horse girls: “May you eat dandelions in heaven”
Horse girl gacha gamers are so obsessed with pink racer Haru Urara that the farm that owns the real-life horse she’s based on, who never won a single race, had to respond
Steam users obsessed with a pink horse girl sent so many kilograms of grass to the real horse she’s based on that it broke the food donation website: “It’s very crowded right now”
Someone actually did it: an Umamusume player got so into horse girls that they “bought a racehorse” for £6,000 a year, says she “mostly reminds me of Gold Ship”
Steam faces a stampede: horse girl game Umamusume: Pretty Derby is “actual cinema,” and a massive hit on PC with 5,000 overwhelmingly positive reviews after a week
Fan of Steam’s latest gacha craze Umamusume: Pretty Derby sacrifices brand new fridge to his sociopathic horse girl who’s only winning third place: “She’s a late bloomer”
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