Uma Musume‘s Most Popular Horse has Passed Away

By Bee Wertheimer  |  September 9, 2025 | 5:08pm
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Uma Musume‘s Most Popular Horse has Passed Away

It is with a heavy heart that I bring you difficult news. Today video game fans and racing enthusiasts alike are joined in mourning the death of Japanese racehorse Haru Urara, known as “the shining star of losers everywhere.”

As reported by Friday Digital, Haru Urara passed away from colic at 29 years old. She was born in 1996 and retired in 2004, and lived at the Matha Farm in Onjuku, Chiba from 2013 until her passing. Over the course of her career, Haru Urara lost every single one of the 113 races she competed in. This unbelievable losing streak endeared her to the Japanese public; fans would place sure-to-fail bets on her and use the slips as good luck charms, according to PC Gamer.

Haru Urara was a skittish horse who feared open spaces and jumped at the smallest of sounds, as reported by Games Radar. Her owner abandoned her at Matha Farm in 2014, where she was then financially cared for by donations from supporters.

Two decades after the end of her career, Haru Urara was adapted into a pink-haired anime horse girl in the gacha game Uma Musume: Pretty Derby, elevating her popularity to global star status. Uma Musume fans visited the real Haru Urara at Matha Farm and once donated so much $40 ryegrass to her that the Namabokuso Bank website crashed due to high traffic.

In addition to lots and lots of fresh ryegrass, Haru Urara did eventually get to experience the taste of victory. In May 2019—15 years after her retirement—Haru Urara’s trainers entered her in the “Soft Girls’ Gathering,” a race for retired female horses. This race marked Haru Urara’s first ever victory, with a time of 16.54 seconds.

Her life was not always easy, but Haru Urara did experience the love of good people, as every living creature should. May she rest in peace.

 
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