Haru Urara, a retired Japanese racehorse infamous for never winning a single race in her six-year career, is currently winning at life thanks to the global release of Umamusume: Pretty Derby. Thanks to the success of the game (which features Haru Urara as an anthropomorphized character), the racehorse has become popular to the point that fans are donating kilograms of ryegrass for her to munch on, breaking the servers of donation sites in the process.
Namabokusobank is a webpage that allows you to donate (“crowd-gift”) fresh hay or ryegrass to over 750 retired and accomplished racehorses. Several of these horses have Umamusume counterparts, such as Fine Motion, Nice Nature, Grass Wonder, and everyone’s favorite underachiever, Haru Urara. While Grass Wonder has 243 ambassadors (supporters) and 3,775 kg of ryegrass sent to him so far, Haru Urara comes in a close second with 175 ambassadors and 2,490 kg of ryegrass headed her way. Not bad for a horse that never won a race.
Following the global success of Umamusume: Pretty Derby’s English release, Namabokusobank received an influx of ryegrass orders for the real-life Umamusume counterparts that temporarily caused the webpage to crash. Since ryegrass is perishable and can only be shipped in limited quantities, the organizers said that they will properly schedule the donations so the horses will have an ample supply of fresh grass to eat. If you are not able to visit the real-life Umas, sending them a package of healthy ryegrass is another good way to support their retirement.
Umanusume: Pretty Derby is available for iOS, Android, and Windows (Steam).
