Why Is Gold Ship So Crazy? Exploring the Stego Lineage in Uma Musume Pretty Derby, Inspired by Real Racehorses

Gold Ship – The Golden Unsinkable Ship

Uma Musume
Birthday: March 6
Height: 170 cm
Weight: Impossible to measure
Measurements: B88 / W55 / H88

A free spirit who lives life playfully and on a whim. If there’s a chance, she’ll crack a joke, play the fool, get fired up, and cool off just as quickly. She mingles with everyone without distinction, but whether she truly feels friendship or bonds is uncertain, perhaps it’s all just to keep the “Golshi Theater” lively. The ultimate trickster of Tracen Academy.

Racehorse
Sex: Male
Date of Birth: March 6, 2009
Coat Color: Gray (Roan)
Sire: Stay Gold
Dam: Point Flag
Racing Record: 28 starts, 13 wins (Japan: 27 starts, 13 wins; Overseas: 1 start, 0 wins)
Earnings: ¥1,397,767,000　($9,539,017)
Honors:
2012: Best Three-Year-Old Colt

Major Wins:
2012 Arima Kinen (G1)
2015 Tenno Shō (Spring) (G1)
2013, 2014 & 2015 Hanshin Daishōten (G2)
2013 & 2014 Takarazuka Kinen (G1)
2012 Kikuka-shō (Japanese St. Leger) (G1)
2012 Satsuki Shō (Japanese 2000 Guineas) (G1)
2012 Kobe Shimbun Hai (G2)
2012 Kyōdō Tsūshin Hai (G3)

Gold Ship debuted as a force of unpredictability. After winning the Kyodo Tsushin Hai, he captured the Satsuki Sho with a dramatic late charge on the inside rail, a move dubbed the “Golshi Warp.” Though defeated in the Derby, he claimed the Kikuka Sho and the Arima Kinen, becoming a dual Classic winner and the 2012 JRA Award Best 3-Year-Old Colt.

2012 Arima Kinen (G1)

As he aged, his erratic temperament led to inconsistent results, though he achieved feats such as back-to-back Takarazuka Kinen victories and three consecutive Hanshin Daishoten wins. In the 2015 Tenno Sho (Spring), he triumphed with a long, relentless drive. But in the Takarazuka Kinen, heavily favored at odds of 1.9, he stumbled at the start and finished last, an incident dubbed the “12 Billion yen incident”($81,864,000) Fans adored him for his whimsical, unpredictable nature.

Among horse racing fans familiar with Gold Ship, it has become common to brush things off with a single phrase: “It’s your own fault for trusting Golshi.”


Gold Ship’s six career G1 victories rank among the best in history.
While universally acknowledged for his talent, whether he displayed it depended entirely on his mood, often toying with fans and those around him, yet remaining a rare, beloved presence all the same.

12 Billion yen incident

Incidentally, although Gold Ship did run in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, he ended in a crushing defeat.
Because of that along with his fan service during the warm-up canter and the time he left his trainer behind in the woods people often say he merely went on a trip to France.