Umamusume has taken the world by storm in the past year, and the horse girl racing franchise has been expanding into motor racing too.

On Wednesday, Cygames announced Umamusume has become the official event partner of the Japanese Grand Prix on October 2–4. The company proclaims it is “the first time a video game has served as an official event partner for the MotoGP Grand Prix of Japan, the Japanese round of the series.”

Tomoyo Takayanagi, the voice actress of Cinderella Gray spin-off protagonist Oguri Cap, will wave the checkered flag for the weekend’s Moto2 and Moto3 races. Themed signage will also be situated at select locations around Mobility Resort Motegi.

The largest is a 155-meter-long, five-meter-tall signboard that’ll be placed along the wall in the Green Campsite, where Turn 4 of Motegi’s old oval track used to be. Twin Ring Motegi’s oval hosted NASCAR and IndyCar before being damaged by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, then was demolished and replaced by camping and stands earlier in 2026. Turns 3 and 4 of the oval now serve as a spectator vantage point for three of the road course’s opening five corners.

This display consists of eight characters split into pairs, each of which is a rivalry between the real-life horses that’s been translated into Umamusume. Lucky Lilac and Almond Eye are paired up, having competed against each other in the late 2010s; Agnes Tachyon and Jungle Pocket are together as the main characters in the Beginning of a New Era film; Tamamo Cross and Oguri Cap are the stars of Cinderella Gray; and Daiwa Scarlet and Vodka are roommates-slash-rivals-slash-teammates in the main series.

The grandstand at Gate 6 will have a 3.6×4-meter sign with the current title loading screen in the Japanese version of the game. Characters shown here are Forever Young (the horse’s owner Susumu Fujita is the founder of Cygames’ parent company CyberAgent), Victoire Pisa, Marche Lorraine, Buena Vista, Almond Eye, Kiseki, Rulership, Epiphaneia, Logotype, Lucky Lilac, Blast Onepiece, Rose Kingdom, Sakura Laurel, Eishin Flash, Daring Tact, Cesario, Sakura Chitose O, Symboli Kris S, and Special Week.

Special Week and Buena Vista, whose real-life counterparts are father and daughter, also appear on the Umamusume-sponsored Super GT car of Pacific Racing that won for the first time last month.

Vodka, a motorcycle enthusiast, naturally gets her own banner. Spanning 6.1 meters and 2.3 meters high, it is part of a photo spot located by the Park Area.

Don’t let the cute anime girls and awesome music fool you, because Umamusume is a sports franchise first and foremost. Advertisements and activations for the project have been conducted at several sporting events, horse racing or otherwise, such as digital signs on Major League Baseball broadcasts and the aforementioned Super GT partnership.

The Japanese Grand Prix is the 16th round of the 2026 MotoGP season. Coincidentally, October 4 is the same day as the Cygames-sponsored Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in France.

Featured image credit: Cygames, Inc.