What does horse racing have to do with pop culture, especially in the Asian region? Well, quite a lot, apparently.
Yes, it sounds like a joke, but horse racing has already entered the pop culture world in a very unusual way-mainly with anime characters. Across Asia-Pacific, horse racing is increasingly crossing into games, animation, virtual personalities, social entertainment, and even music.
You probably already know what we’re leaning into—the Japan’s Umamusume: Pretty Derby, which went well beyond a regular franchise.
But what does this have to do with horse racing? Well, people start becoming fans of the fiction version, whether it is a game, animated movie or series, or a song, and then they are drawn into the horse racing culture and usually expand to the real thing. So, a couple of months after playing Umamusume: Pretty Derby, they are standing at Tokyo Racecourse wondering how this became their weekend.
Umamusume Changed the Direction of the Introduction
Back in the day, racing introduced people to racing culture. Basically, someone took you to a track, you became interested in a horse, a jockey, or the betting, and you gradually learned the history.
Well, we have games like Umamusume that have reversed that journey.
This is a game created by Japanese developer Cygames. The franchise reimagines famous real racehorses as fictional female characters who train and compete in a racing academy. It sounds weird, we know, but bear with us.
Its stories draw heavily on the careers, personalities, and famous moments associated with actual Japanese Thoroughbreds. All of that is great; you can easily see why they made it like that. But why girls? Why not horses? Either way, the franchise works.
When we’re talking about the Umamusume franchise, we’re talking about games, anime, manga, music, and even live entertainment. And the game is most popular. By the time its English-language game launched in June 2025, Cygames said the Japanese and Asian versions have already surpassed 30 million downloads.
International Events Have Become Part of the Story
These Asian pop culture moments have effects on a wider scale. People were suddenly interested in international horse racing. The Breeders’ Cup is perhaps the clearest example.
Cygames itself became an official Breeders’ Cup partner in 2024, sponsoring the Cygames Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar. This partnership returned in 2025 for a second consecutive year, with Cygames branding on the starting gate and saddle towels during the $2 million Sprint.
The Breeders’ Cup Classic contenders are already warming up for the 2026 version of the race, and who knows, maybe Keeneland and the Breeders’ Cup will partner with Cygames and Umamusume Pretty Derby yet again.
Fans Are Actually Going to the Racetrack
The crossover is no longer theoretical.
Bloomberg reported in late 2025 on international Umamusumefans travelling to Japan specifically to visit racetracks and places connected with real horses. One American fan interviewed for the story said he had little interest in horse racing before discovering the game but later travelled to several Japanese tracks, including Tokyo Racecourse for the Japan Cup.
Someone did not see a Japan Cup advertisement and become interested in Umamusume. They played Umamusumeand eventually bought a plane ticket to see the Japan Cup.
The Real Horses Benefit Too
Perhaps the nicest consequence is what happens after fans discover that many of their favorite characters were based on horses that continued living long after their racing careers ended.
Japan has an established retired-racehorse community, and Umamusumehas introduced a new audience to it.
The Retired Horse Association of Japan has thanked Cygames and noted that Umamusumeinspired many people to become interested in supporting retired horses. Several horses represented in the franchise, including Nice Nature, Meisho Doto, and Taiki Shuttle, were connected with the organization’s programs.
Hong Kong Is Building the Same Bridge Differently
Japan is the clearest example, but Hong Kong is pursuing a similar goal without relying on anime.
The Hong Kong Jockey Club has been deliberately transforming its racecourses into broader entertainment destinations aimed partly at younger visitors.
In 2025, it announced a partnership with entertainment producer Simon Fuller’s XIX Entertainment, bringing global pop group Now United into racing events and creating music, reality content, and social media material around Hong Kong racing. The group was also scheduled to perform at the Hong Kong International Races.
At Sha Tin, the Club has gone further with interactive digital environments, virtual horses, gamified racing education, and an extended-reality experience that allows visitors to simulate riding famous Hong Kong horses.
Pop Culture Is Starting to Flow Back Into Racing
Perhaps the clearest sign that the relationship has matured is that the entertainment companies are now entering the real racing industry themselves.
In 2025, Cygames became the title sponsor of the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris at ParisLongchamp.
A Japanese video-game company created a fictional racing franchise inspired by real racehorses. That franchise became an enormous entertainment property. The company then used its international expansion to sponsor an actual historic Group 1 horse race in France.
Nobody thought pop culture could affect the entire horse racing industry in so many ways, but we love it. This only makes the sport more popular, which eventually leads to more high-end races.
Let’s hope that companies learn from the success stories we mentioned and use horse racing in pop culture in the future.
