Analyzing Tracks

Being able to determine what umas and skills will be good on a track is important. To do that, we need to know the aspects of the track. You can see a visualizer of the track on this website. Let’s look at a Sprint G1, the Takamatsu Kinen. The sloping green at the top shows the track’s elevation. Below that, it shows which parts of the track are considered hills. Below that, the locations of the Straights and Corners, and finally, where each of the legs start.

One of the most important aspects of tracks is whether the last spurt starts on a corner or not. The last spurt starts at the Final Leg. (Yes, it does not start in the Last Spurt. I know it’s confusing.) When the spurt starts, the umas have to accelerate to top speed. Acceleration skills at this point will help a lot, while Speed skills will be useless.

Maruzensky’s acceleration unique triggers on the final corner, so it’s useless on this track, it’s too early. Same for Seiun Sky, Taiki Shuttle, and so on. El Condor Pasa’s unique triggers on the final straight, so it’s very good, triggering nearly at the same time. Narita Taishin’s Encroaching Shadow(迫る影) skill is also strong. Umas like Silence Suzuka and Mihono Bourbon with last straight Speed skills will waste their uniques. If the last spurt started on the final corner, much of this would be reversed.

Hill skills trigger on the first hill. Since the first uphill happens shortly into the last spurt, the acceleration from Highlander(登山家) is very strong, while Restless(じゃじゃウマ娘) is useless (not that you’d take a recovery on a 1200m track). 1,500,000 CC(十万バリキ) is a Speed skill on uphills, so it triggers too early here. If the hill was later, 1,500,000 CC(十万バリキ) would be better and Highlander(登山家) bad.

The opening straight is around 300m, while the ending straight is 412m. Straight skills will be more likely to trigger in the final leg. If this was a longer track, that would make things like Vodka’s Breath of Fresh Air(好転一息) or McQueen’s Cooldown(クールダウン) very inconsistent.