Best Trainees for the Sagitarrius Cup in Umamusume Pretty Derby

In a week that saw NFL teams mentioning Umamusume fan support and even fan art posted to official accounts, it always seems like Umamusume is on someone’s mind somewhere. For those of us in the trenches of PVP prep, that mindset is getting ready for the Sagittarius Cup, the upcoming Long Distance race modeled around the Arima Kinen. We’ve put out two guides about the Sagittarius Cup so far, focusing on the race itself (with a history lesson) and Support Cards, so if you’re getting ready to prep for the race now, you’ll have just about all you could need to really challenge it head on.

If you’re new to Umamusume: Pretty Derby, the game functions as a management simulator in which you help a trainee reach their goal while perfecting their stats and skills; Champions Meetings, the PVP events, have you training a team of three. If you haven’t already, check out our other two guides for the Sagittarius Cup, or consider checking out our other Umamusume Guides for Career, Support Cards, and much more. This time, we’ll focus on what trainees need, how to get there, and some specific names you can consider looking for in your roster.

The Sagittarius: Recap

The Sagittarius Cup is a Long distance race (2500m) on Nakayama Racecourse run from the Right Inner Posts in Winter with Sunny Weather and Firm Conditions. As we’ve established in previous articles, these details are important to note for Green skills, but also for the type of race you can expect. Players who have faced the Arima Kinen in numerous careers are certainly familiar with the race itself, but planning to play it at the highest competition against other players is a slightly different beast, meaning that the right green skills can make all the difference when it comes to the Sagittarius and obtaining victory.

The general statline that you’ll want to shoot for on your Ace (and ideally all of your trainees if you want them to be competitive) is 1200 Speed, 800~900 Stamina, 900+ Power (and more if possible), 400~ Guts, and 600+ Wit (with an understanding that 600 is the bare minimum threshold). While Sagittarius is a Long, it is the shortest possible distance in that category, which is and is not somewhat relevant to your needs for stats. Generally, a longer race like some of the earlier races needed closer to 1000+ Stamina and 2 recovery, while Sagittarius can functionally work with even as low as 700, but far safer at 800+ and at least one Gold recovery, if not one Blue or more.

One of the bigger changes in the Unity Cup era of Champions Meetings is the increased Wit threshold. While 400 used to be the bare minimum, 600 is now generally where you want a trainee to be to ensure that your skills are activating when you need them to. Back in our early guides we discussed how the math behind wit activation works, with 400 giving you 80% activation rate; the big jump is that 600 gets us to 90%, and while that still is not 100%, the absolute deluge of new important skills is going to be the difference between a winner or loser, as most competitors you face will have comparable stats these days. A good way to test this is to seek out Room Matches to get a sense of what other racers are bringing to the table, particularly hardcore and whale players, and then figure out what you can do to remain competitive; in a lot of cases, Wit may be more valuable than other stats as long as you have achieved the threshold to compete generally at equal level; in other word, 600 Wit will help you beat a comparable Uma with less wit, but won’t help your 400 Stamina Uma survive a Long race most of the time.

Support Deck Basics

Back in our guide to Scorpio Cup, we spoke about the fact that Unity Cup training decks will often be 5 cards, with the 6th slot being devoted to Riko (Either MLB R or LB1+ SSR). That is still the case here, and may feel less punishing or restrictive for the fact that Riko acts as a Stamina card, providing very solid Stamina and Guts growth across the campaign. Her biggest fault is that you have to ensure getting her to Green relationship status in order to unlock her recreations, which are the bulk of where her larger bonuses come into play, and also that you generally want to ensure that you have that Green relationship before the first New Years event for a mid-career stat boost. It isn’t the end of a career to miss it, but it frankly does hurt.

Second, you’ll want to assemble a deck that supports whatever stat you need to grow the most, and in general, that is going to be Speed, Power, and then Wit. Depending on what Sparks you are planning to take, you’ll want to build your deck accordingly, but a solid foundation would be 2 Speed Cards (Kitasan Black MLB being one), A Power Card (likely SSR Rice Shower Power for Swinging Maestro, if available), a Wit card, and a flex slot; the flex slot is generally something that you will want to place either to focus on raising a particular stat (like a third speed card), more of an off-stat (power, stamina), or even an extra Wit card to bolster your energy regeneration and Wit gain; another very important consideration is skills, which you are primarily going to get access to via support deck cards.

Trainee Options for Any Player

Although it can be difficult to tailor a list to every player, one of the benefits of Umamusume is that there are generally always going to be trainees that are competitive even if you never pull for a single trainee in your entire time with the game. They may not perform as easily or as well off the bat, but generally, they can be made to do so, and honestly, Gold Ship has been one of the most consistently top performing trainees since the Champions Meetings started; the biggest challenge to making most starter trainees competitive is farming their Star Levels to at least 3, and generally looking at their Potential Levels; Gold Ship, for example, performs exceptionally well once she is at Potential Level 5, and has greater access to her full set of innate skills.

Below is a list of trainees that you can consider training for the Sagittarius Cup:

Starters Only: Gold Ship (Potential 5, preferably), Daiwa Scarlet, Vodka

Some Pulls: Mayano Top Gun, Mejiro Ryan, Agnes Tachyon, Grass Wonder, Super Creek, El Condor Pasa, Matikanefukukitaru, Air Groove

3 Stars: Christmas Oguri, Narita Taishin (Potential 5, preferably), Tamamo Cross (If she releases in time), Manhattan Cafe, Oguri Cap, Special Week, Meisho Doto, Summer Maruzensky, Seiun Sky, Christmas Biwa Hayahide, Mejiro McQueen, Symboli Rudolf, and Matikanefukitaru Full Armor

Frankly, something about this race that is fairly important to note is that almost ANY three star works exceptionally well in this race, if you take the time to train them. The ones listed here are, generally, the best options if you have them available, but there are very few trainees who do not excel at this race, which has a lot to do with the Arima Kinen itself (Which the Sagittarius Cup is based on), and also the fact that many trainees in Umamusume are Long Race A or B, meaning it can be very simple to make them work. The ones listed here have generally the best precedent based on the Japanese running of the event years ago, but don’t feel like you can’t compete if you don’t have the ones named here. With the right sparks, training, and care, pretty much any trainee can work, some just work easier than others.

Positional Advantages

Front Runners certainly have a difficult task ahead of them in this race, mostly due to the fact that Long races do not favor positions that have higher Stamina costs than others, meaning that Front Runners and Pace Chasers are the ones who lose out in this competition; that being said, the Runaway strategy for Silence Suzuka is functionally impossible to use even as a Debuffer in this race; aside from the fact that she doesn’t run Long races very well innately, the immense stamina requirement for Runaway is impossible to sustain in a way that matters here, so if you are the type who enjoys running Seiun Sky or Summer Maruzensky, you can certainly give them a shot here again; ensure of course that they have Groundwork, 4 Green Skills or Early activation skills like Focus, and Angling and Scheming, as well some Recovery Skills, especially something like Swinging Maestro. Also, Duty of Dignity Calls from Mejiro Ryan is a great skill to inherit for Seiun Sky, or to combine with Seiun Sky as a parent for Summer Maruzensky (or any other Front Runner).

Pace Chasers do need to keep in mind that they will need slightly more Stamina than other positions, as overtaking the Front Runners requires a burst of Stamina that often means you’ll need about 10% more than other racers. That said, a lot of great skills like No Stopping Me! And inheriting (or using) Oguri Cap’s Triumphant Pulse or Narita Brian’s Shadow Break are strong choices. As above, look to get Swinging Maestro at least, or even consider picking up Gourmand, the Pace Chaser exclusive Gold Recovery skill; if you have the points to get both, you could also go for that, but don’t neglect your acceleration and velocity skills.

Late Surgers can work out here, although for once they don’t exactly want to function as End Closers but not; specifically, you’ll have a few new options for skills to consider, but they are very positionally minded; for example, Symboli Rudolf’s “Behold Thy Emperor’s Divine Might” requires you to pass a certain number of trainees, while Mejiro Dober’s “Moving Past, and Beyond” needs you to be in 5-6th place to activate. The problem with Late Surgers is that taking the wrong skills often makes them useless; taking skills like Anchors Aweigh from a Gold Ship parent, for example, can absolutely ruin your run, as it will generally harm your ability to activate other skills you need. Do consider Let’s Pump Some Iron, especially if you’re running or using Dober, since it will trigger at the same time as her own unique.

End Closers have one of the easier cases of skills, much like Front Runners: They want Straightaway Spurt (and, if you’re using Taishin, Encroaching Shadow), as well as skills like Uma Stan or Triumphant Pulse, or some of the other Late Surger skills mentioned above. For Taishin players, you can also look into her unique healing skill, Sleeping Lion, which only she has access to; for others, you’ll need to rely on Swinging Maestro and at least one other skill. Also don’t overlook a skill like Homestretch Haste to help out in closing that gap!

Debuffers can run in numerous positions, but primarily you’ll find them in Pace or Late positions. If you’re looking to build a Debuffer, just remember that your other two trainees are who you are going to be focusing on to win, as Debuffers are rarely competitive, instead utilizing their skills to make other trainees suffer while then burning out at the end of the race. Nice Nature remains the best and most widely available Debuffer, but other good options include Halloween Super Creek, Wedding Mayano Top Gun, and Grass Wonder.

A Deepening Roster

As we move further and further into the release schedule, we also are starting to get more and more trainees, which means that the roster of viable trainees is going to continue to expand to the point that ‘anyone’ works. The goal of these articles is to put you on the right path while also signaling a few specific or special trainees you can use, and we’ll continue to do that even as the game roster expands, and hopefully soon that will include the new 1 and 2 star units like Twin Turbo or Ikuno Dictus, giving players new choices with low investments. It remains an exciting time to be an Umamusume fan, so if you have any questions, please leave us comments down below, drop by the Goonhammer Discord if you’re a Patron, or even email me at marcy@goonhammer.com! Until then, see you out on the track!

Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don't forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.

Tags: umamusume | Uma Musume Pretty Derby