Summary
In the high-stakes world ofUmamusume: Pretty Derby, speed alone doesn’t guarantee a place on the winner’s podium. The S-Tier horse girls are a select group of racers whose dominance isn’t just about raw speed, but a perfect storm of overwhelming power, strategic necessity, and the ability to define the entire competitive landscape.
What sets these racers apart is a blend of innate growth rates, unique skill synergy, top-tier race aptitudes, and their compatibility with the best support cards in the game. Their unique skills simply force rivals to rethink their entire team build. The horse girls listed below are the top picks; the characters that every serious player dreams of maxing out.
8Special Week
The All-Rounder Who’s Never Out of the Race
Special Week embodies consistency, making her a go-to for trainers who value adaptability. She excels as a Medium-Distance competitor, boasting a +20% Speed and +10% Power growth bonus — ideal for keeping up in 2000–2400m events. Her dual A-rank aptitudes in both Pace-Chaser and Late-Surger strategies give her exceptional flexibility.
Her unique skill, Shooting Star, activates in the back half of the race after overtaking an opponent, providing a reliable speed boost that turns tight contests intolast-second comebacks. Paired with skills like In Body and Mind and Gourmand for stamina and velocity, she’s more self-sufficient than most racers.
7Gold Ship
The Closer Who Makes Every Long-Distance Race Unpredictable
Gold Ship is the embodiment of chaos and the undisputed queen of the high-risk, high-reward Closer (Oikomi) strategy. Known for her wild personality, she is anabsolute legend in Long-DistanceTurf races, making her an essential niche pick for any top-tier competitive roster.
With a +20% Stamina and a +10% Power bonus, she’s tailor-made for marathon events like the Tenno Sho (Spring). Her unique skill, Anchors Aweigh!, triggers halfway through the race, launching her from the back with a sustained speed boost. Her skills demand careful stat balancing and a keen sense of timing, but when everything clicks, Gold Ship transforms into an unstoppable force.
6Daiwa Scarlet
The Pace Controller Who Refuses to Lose a Lead
Daiwa Scarlet is “Miss Perfect” — a relentless front-runner who seizes control early and refuses to let go. With dual A-aptitudes for Front-Runner and Pace-Chaser roles, she’s hard to predict and even harder to overtake in PvP. Her +20% Guts growth bonus gives her the crucial final-spurt efficiency needed to maintain speed under pressure, while +10% Speed ensures she’s always out front when it counts.
Daiwa Scarlet’s signature skill, Resplendent Red Ace, offers both a velocity and acceleration boost in the second half, activating either when holding the lead or overtaking in a head-to-head. Skills likeKiller Tunes and Competitive Spiritreinforce her ability to control positioning and outlast others.
5Tokai Teio
The Miracle Finisher Who Turns Hope Into Victory
Tokai Teio is the definition of resilience. She dominates Medium and Long-Distance races as a deadly Pace-Chaser. With +20% Speed and +10% Stamina, her training efficiency is off the charts, allowing for powerful, flexible builds across event types.
Her unique skill, Certain Victory, is one ofUmamusume’s strongest: a massive velocity spike on the final straight if she’s overtaking near the front. Tokai Teio’s kit is packed with stamina conservation, lateral movement, and evolved recovery skills, giving her the potential to pull off miracle finishes from seemingly impossible positions.
4Maruzensky
The Mile Queen and Inheritance Icon
The absolute queen of Mile races, Maruzensky is built around a +10% Speed and a +20% Wit bonus. That high Wit stat gives her unparalleled skill activation rates, letting her maintain a razor-sharp edge as a Front-Runner. While she excels on Turf, her hidden potential on Dirt makes her a rare and valuable dual-surface threat.
Maruzensky’s unique skill, Red Shift/LP1211-M, delivers an explosive acceleration boost on the final corner, letting her break away just as rivals are winding up their finish. When built for both Speed and Wit, she achieves near-perfect consistency — a nightmare for anyone hopingfor lucky RNGto bring her down.
3Mejiro McQueen
The Empress of Long-Distance Endurance
Mejiro McQueen is the unyielding standard by which all long-distance runners are judged. Her perfectly balanced +10% bonuses in Speed, Stamina, and Guts let trainers hit sky-high benchmarks required for punishing 3200m events. As a Pace-Chaser, she leverages her A-aptitude to coast with the leaders before unleashing a game-changing move when it counts.
Her unique skill, Legacy of the Strong, is bothdefensive and offensive: a long-lasting speed boost that triggers when being challenged late in the race, allowing her to fend off rivals and pull away. Especially when paired with powerful stamina recovery and late-race acceleration skills, it makes her nearly untouchable in her niche.
2Oguri Cap
The All-Terrain Racer Who Excels Everywhere
Oguri Cap is less of a racer and more of a force of nature. HerS-Tier status is forgedfrom a combination of raw power and unparalleled versatility, making her arguably the most adaptable character in the game. She is one of the very few characters who can compete at the highest level on both Turf and Dirt surfaces, and across Short, Mile, and Medium distances.
With a potent +15% growth in both Speed and Power, she can be trained into an offensive powerhouse. Her innate B-rank in Dirt is a game-changing trait, as elite Dirt racers are exceptionally rare. Also, with minimal inheritance, she becomes a top contender on a surface where most others struggle.
1Kitasan Black
The Undisputed Meta-Defining Front-Runner
Kitasan Black is the apex predator of Umamusume. With a 10/10/10 stat bonus split (Speed, Stamina, and Wit), she’s perfectly designed to grab the lead, hold it, and close out with explosive acceleration. Her A-rank aptitudes across Medium and Long distance mean she’s always a relevant threat, no matter the event.
Her signature skill, Victory Festival Wasshoi!, is legendary: a combined speed and acceleration boost that activates for front-runners who can hold the lead. All of her learnable skills are synergistic, locking down the early lead and crushing the competition before they can mount a comeback. Her power is so absolute that she forces the meta to revolve around her, making her the undeniable number one S-Tier champion.
