Summary
Not every horse girl inUmamusume: Pretty Derbyis destined for the winner’s circle. The most challenging Uma Musume in the game do more than struggle for a podium finish; they turn every training session into a tactical puzzle, where mistakes are punished, luck runs dry, and even a perfect run can end with heartbreak.
Some are doomed byniche skillsthat seldom activate at the right time. Others have awkward career goals, erratic stat progression, or a mood meter that tanks at the worst possible moment. For this topic, each trainee is ranked based on a blend of unique skill effectiveness, stat growth patterns, and overall race performance. This list ranks these underperformers from the slightly problematic to the absolute worst, exploring what makes them the toughest picks on the track.
8Winning Ticket
The Reliable Rookie Who Gets Outclassed By Veterans
Winning Ticket often serves as a stable, early-gameoption for new trainers, providing reliable performance in the initial stages of the game. However, her limitations quickly become apparent as the competition stiffens. Her primary weakness lies in a set of “niche” skills that are highly specialized for medium-distance races.
This narrow focus means that while she can secure wins in her comfort zone, she is often “outclassed” in high-level events without a heavy investment of resources. She is the classic example of a trainee who hits a performance ceiling, forcing players to bench her for more powerful and adaptable alternatives.
7King Halo
A Rollercoaster Of Mood Swings And A Confusing Career Path
King Halo is notoriously difficult to optimize. Her stats aren’t terrible, and her skills can be strong in the right situation. But training King Halo is like running a gauntlet of random events,mood crashes, and career racesthat bounce across every distance on the schedule.
Her unique skill gives a late-race acceleration boost, but it’s locked behind very specific conditions, often outshone by better options. What truly haunts King Halo’s career is the sheer variety of objectives she faces. Trainers must juggle Short, Mile, Medium, and even Long-distance races, which spreads Halo’s stats thin and makes specialized training almost impossible.
6Nice Nature
Her Unique Skill Is Extremely Unreliable
Nice Nature’s kitseemed to be designed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Her most significant flaw lies in her unique skill, which activates only when she is in third place toward the end of a race. This activation condition is fundamentally counterintuitive; a character aiming to win shouldn’t rely on being in a losing position during the final, crucial stretch.
This renders her most powerful ability highly situational and frustratingly unreliable. This problem is compounded by her “low stats,” which place her at an immediate disadvantage from the start of any training run. Furthermore, her innate skills are primarily focused on debuffing opponents rather than enhancing her own performance. This does little to help her cross the finish line first, making her a poor choice for a primary runner.
5Matikanefukukitaru
When Winning Is Left Entirely To The Luck Of The Draw
Matikanefukukitaru is the embodiment of chaos in a horse girl. Her unique skill, “Luck Be with Me!,” sounds charming, but it’s just as unreliable as it claims—tied to random activation and often missing in clutch moments. Her kit is packed with abilities that theoretically could save a race, if the stars align.
Unfortunately, the law of averages means that trainers are more likely to experience disappointment than dramatic comebacks. She is also remarkably inflexible, being effective at only one real strategy and completely useless in short-distance sprints. Her entire design is a high-risk, low-reward gamble that rarely pays off.
4Mihono Bourbon
A High-Maintenance Horse Girl With Outrageous Stat Demands
Mihono Bourbon tempts trainers with the promise of being atop Front Runner, but the path to glory is brutal. Her stat requirements are sky-high, where players are expected to grind out 700+ Speed, 500+ Power, and a mountain of Stamina, all while hoping her unique skill actually goes off.
The catch is that her signature move only triggers if she’s “unfaltering” on the final straight, meaning one bad start or status ailment ruins everything. Even when everything is optimized, Mihono Bourbon’s performance can feel like a coin flip, with her skill failing to activate just when it matters most.
3Mejiro Ryan
Weak Stats And Niche Conditions Make Her A Tough Sell
If there’s a character who seems destined to ride the bench, it’s Mejiro Ryan. Her stat growth is lackluster across the board, making every training session a struggle to break past mediocrity. Even when her skills synergize, their impact is too weak to compensate for her poor base numbers.
Worse yet, she’s only truly effective in detrimental weather, and even then, just for a single distance. Trainers quickly learn that building Mejiro Ryan into a serious contender requires huge efforts for minimal reward. She’s plagued by random mood drops and debuffs, adding another layer of frustration to an already tough training arc.
2Haru Urara
A Fan-Favorite Underdog Who Is Built to Lose
Despite being abeloved fan-favorite, Haru Urarais competitively one of the weakest trainees in the game. She is tough to win with, in any serious race—a fact rooted in her fundamental lack of competitive stats and skills.
With exceptionally low base stats, she requires a monumental effort from trainers just to keep pace with the pack, let alone contend for a victory. Her unique skill provides a stamina boost, but the rest of her kit and stats are severely underpowered.
1Rice Shower
Mood Mayhem And Relentless Training Pain
Rice Shower claims the title of “worst trainee” not because she lacks potential, but because training her is a rollercoaster of stress, disappointment, and the occasional miraculous run. Despite possessing the raw potential to be an S-Tier long-distance monster, the journey to unlock that potential is a nightmare.
Rice Shower is infamousfor her “constant drops in mood,” a mechanic that directly sabotages training efficiency and race performance. Trainers are forced into a state of hypervigilance, needing to always increase Rice shower’s mood to prevent a run from spiraling out of control. She’s the ultimate test for anyone who thinks they’ve mastered Pretty Derby’s meta, and the worst option for anyone with a winning streak.
