Chapter 58. Absolute Protagonist Part 1
As Mejiro Dober stepped out from the underground passage, her eyes instinctively sought the corner of the grandstand nearest the track.
There—exactly where she expected—stood Shuta An.
"Go for it!" he shouted. The roar of the crowd swallowed his voice, but she did not need to hear the words. She understood them.
She lifted a hand in response and continued forward, her stride steady as she approached the turf.
The moment her shoes pressed into the grass at Woodbine, she gave a firm stomp and raised an eyebrow.
"Oh…" she murmured softly. "Just as Trainer said. This turf truly suits me."
Confidence flowed through her. The course layout replayed clearly in her mind. The 1600-meter start lay on the backstretch opposite the grandstand—an extended straight of more than 700 meters before the first bend, then a sweeping turn, and finally the decisive stretch of over 400 meters.
"Just a little shorter than Tokyo," she thought. "And no less fast."
Her smile brightened.
The broadcast director caught the shift in her expression and ordered a close-up. On the massive screen, her composed and radiant face filled the frame.
In the stands, Shuta An's expression eased.
"Dober-chan doesn't look too nervous," Tokai Teio observed. "Her mental strength is better than I expected."
"Of course she's nervous," Shuta An replied calmly. "But that's irrelevant. If she runs to her standard, I don't see how she loses."
Silence Suzuka covered her mouth slightly. "This might be the first time I've seen you so certain."
"Any doubts I had disappeared the moment I saw the others walk," he said evenly. "Golden Mirage and Kirbys Song aside—Kirbys Song coming all the way from Ireland—the rest look far more suited to dirt than turf."
"You can tell that just from watching them?" Suzuka asked, genuinely impressed.
"Other Trainers might not," he said, tapping beneath his eye. "That doesn't mean I can't."
Suzuka lowered her gaze slightly. "Then I'll make sure to understand you better."
Mejiro Dober entered gate three.
To her left in gate four stood Marvelous Silver, unbeaten in five starts over Woodbine's mile. To her right in gate six was SharpyDancer, a front-runner Shuta An had already dismissed as non-threatening.
Both neighbors favored the lead.
"If I chase," Dober thought, "they'll break quickly and move ahead. I can afford a measured start—even slightly slow."
Shuta An would never instruct her to hesitate in a mile race. There was little margin for error over 1600 meters.
But this was her decision.
Compared to the pressure she had felt against Meiner Max at the Hakodate Nisai Stakes, today's field did not radiate the same intensity. That realization strengthened her resolve.
Snap.
The gates burst open.
As anticipated, her break was slightly slow—not a stumble, not a misstep, but just restrained enough. Marvelous Silver and Sharpy Dancer moved ahead immediately.
"This isn't ideal—" Agnes Digital muttered from the stands. "Her path's blocked. Should she angle out?"
"No need," Mejiro Ramonu replied smoothly. "The opening straight is over 700 meters. There's ample time before the bend. She's planning a sustained run. As long as she secures the outside before turning for homestretch, she'll be fine."
Agnes Digital absorbed the explanation quickly. A simple hint from a Triple Tiara champion was enough.
Watching her, Mejiro Ramonu sighed inwardly. "If only she were one of our own—"
On the track, Dober settled into seventh. Only Salacia and Misty Hour trailed her.
But she read the field differently. Kaydee Classic, like herself, was conserving energy. Misty Hour, by contrast, was visibly uncomfortable on turf, her acceleration labored.
"It's fortunate she's behind me," Dober noted. "If she were in front, she'd only disrupt my rhythm."
By the rail, Shuta An stood motionless, eyes fixed on the screen. Beside him, Tokai Teio cheered with animated enthusiasm.
"Ann, it looks smooth so far," Silence Suzuka observed.
"Yes," he said quietly. "Kirbys Song appears to be executing her declared strategy."
Yet almost as soon as the words left his mouth, Kirbys Song surrendered the lead. Marvelous Silver surged past, and Kirbys Song abruptly eased back—settling just one length ahead of Mejiro Dober.
Shuta An's gaze sharpened.
The race had just changed.
"What is she doing?" Tokai Teio blurted out, utterly baffled. "Wasn't Kirbys Song supposed to be a front-runner? She had the lead and then just… gave it up? Handed it to Marvelous Silver? And now she's sitting right in front of Dober-chan? Is this deliberate?"
Silence Suzuka tilted her head slightly. Tactical pacing outside her own front-running domain was not her specialty, and Kirbys Song's behavior defied conventional race theory. She had no immediate answer.
Back in Japan, at the Mejiro Family estate, Agnes Digital and the younger members were equally perplexed. Even Mejiro Ramonu, usually quick to dissect race dynamics, remained silent.
Among those watching, only Shuta An and Oguri Cap had already pieced it together.
When Berno Light posed the same question, Oguri Cap calmly finished her candy before replying. "Normally, when adjusting tempo, you go from slow to fast. Kirbys Song did the reverse. That's why it feels strange." She nodded toward the screen. "Look at the splits. The first 400 meters in 23.1 seconds. Maintain that, and 800 would be around 46. But watch the actual 800."
The number appeared: 48.1 seconds.
Berno Light stared. "Why did it slow down so much?"
"Because the only true front-runner in this field is Kirbys Song," Oguri Cap explained evenly. "Marvelous Silver is a senko-type runner, not a pure pacemaker. She was content to track Kirbys Song. But once Kirbys Song surrendered the lead, Marvelous Silver was forced to dictate the tempo herself. Without front-running experience, she eased it down."
She glanced at the course profile. "On a track like Woodbine, with nearly 450 meters in the final straight—that matters."
Shuta An's analysis extended one layer further.
"Kirbys Song likely tested her burst in morning work and felt confident," he said with a faint smile. "So she gambled—disrupted the field, forced someone else to control the pace. But she and her Trainer overlooked one thing."
"They underestimated Dober?" Silence Suzuka asked softly.
"They underestimated all of us," he replied. "They might underestimate Japanese runners if they wish. But not the Sadalsuud Team."
He looked at Suzuka briefly. "And that includes you."
She lowered her gaze, a small smile hidden at the corner of her lips.
On the track, Mejiro Dober remained unshaken. Kirbys Song's maneuver did not rattle her. She maintained her rhythm, conserving energy precisely as planned.
Approaching the final bend, she drifted outward, securing clear running room.
"Not yet," she reminded herself. "Wait. When I go, I pass them all in one move."
Kirbys Song, however, grew impatient. Upon entering the bend, she accelerated sharply, sweeping past three rivals in rapid succession and reclaiming third.
"She moved too early," Shuta An observed calmly.
Acceleration on a curve costs more energy than on a straight. If Kirbys Song had chosen restraint earlier, patience would have been consistent with that strategy. Instead, pressure had forced her hand.
The commentator's voice rose. "Kirbys Song surges again! First she leads, then she rates, now she's attacking once more!"
But Dober understood the motive.
"She feels me behind her," Dober thought. "Is my presence that unsettling?"
Still, she refused to engage. Not yet.
—
At 1200 meters, the clock flashed: 1:12.4.
"The last 400 in 24.3," Tokai Teio calculated instantly. "That's much faster than the middle section."
"Golden Mirage and Kirbys Song are applying pressure," Shuta An replied. "And Marvelous Silver isn't comfortable dictating pace. The speed was bound to rise again."
Without visibly accelerating, Dober advanced. As rivals ahead began to decelerate slightly, she slipped into fifth, then edged past KaydeeClassic with minimal effort upon straightening for home. Within twenty meters, the gap widened decisively.
Ahead remained three: Golden Mirage, Marvelous Silver, and now Kirbys Song—who unleashed yet another burst, reclaiming the outright lead.
Four hundred meters to the finish.
Dober's breathing remained steady.
Leading now meant nothing. Leading at the post was what mattered. If she chased too soon, she would compromise the integrity of her sustained-run plan.
Her years of sketching had cultivated patience. Timing mattered. Composition mattered.
"I need the right moment," she told herself. "Golden Mirage and Marvelous Silver still have something left. If I swing wide and sprint, will they respond and block my line?"
She could not be certain.
But uncertainty did not frighten her.
It sharpened her focus.
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