March 25, 198th year of the Alliance dar, sunny, Wednesday.

  Today is the day of the spring horse rag event. After pleting his chores at the ranaoki decided t a few Pokémon along to watch the races and join in the fun. He also saw this as an opportunity to learn about the petition rules for future participation.

  The spring races were held on a vast pasture just outside of town. By the time Naoki arrived, a sizable crowd had already gathered.

  There were trainers passing by, young couples enjoying the day, a boy watg the race with his father, an old man raising horses, and more. The grassnd was festively decorated with lights, and a rge ribbon bearing the words "Kosaji Town Spring Horse Rag Festival" hung at the entranearby, a stall sold horse rag tickets, and behind it were various small prizes and props that could be exged for those tickets.

  At the racecourse, many testants and their Pokémon had already assembled. Naoki stood nearby, watg with a sense of envy.

  Among the gathered Pokémon, he spotted a Rapidash with bright red fmes c its body. The Rapidash appeared well-cared for and stood out among the other testants.

  In addition to the regur form of the Rapidash, there was also a variant from the Gar region Rapidash, whose snow-white body ahereal, colorful mane made it look almost dreamlike.

  Other partits included the Zebstrika, the strong and powerful Mudsdale, and a slightly chubby Hippowdon.

  Wait… a Hippowdon?

  Naoki raised an eyebrow in fusion. 'Wasn't Hippowdon a hippo Pokémon? How could it pete in a horse race?'

  Just then, Naoki heard the voice of Postman Ivan behind him. He turo see Ivan jogging over. "Hey! Naoki, you're here too?"

  Naoki nodded, "Yeah! I finished up at the rand thought I'd check out the races."

  Ivan grinned and led Naoki closer to the racecourse. "e on, pick a testant to support! Who's your favorite?"

  To be ho, Naoki hadn't decided yet. But he did have a question.

  Gng at the Hippowdon kig up sand, Naoki asked, " a Pokémon like that really pete in a horse race?"

  Ivan chuckled, "There aren't many horse Pokémon around, so the town has a rule that any Pokémon with 'horse' in its name ehe race!"

  Naoki blinked in disbelief.

  Ivan tinued with a ugh, "It's actually better this year. Last year, someoried to enter with a Seadra!"

  Naoki struggled to imagihat. After all, Seadra is so small and wouldn't be able to carry a human rider.

  "So, who are you rooting for?" Ivan asked.

  Naoki turned his gaze back to the horse Pokémon and finally settled on a strong-looking Rapidash.

  "Well, that Rapidash looks like it has the potential to win."

  pared to the heavy Mudsdale, Zebstrika seemed too bulky for speed, and Hippowdon didn't look like a fast tender either.

  But the Garian Rapidash, its body was also quite agile.

  Naoki's eyes flicked bad forth betweeidash, and he found himself torn.

  Ivan, however, was brimming with excitement. "I'm bag that Mudsdale! It looks s!"

  "But won't a heavier Pokémon run slower?" Naoki asked, puzzled.

  Ivan grinned, seemingly uanding Naoki's thoughts. "Not in this race!"

  Naoki raised an eyebrow.

  Ivan poi Mudsdale and expined, "In this race, Pokémon are allowed to use their moves. Take Mudsdale, for example. If it uses Earthquake while running, the other petitors will—BAM!—lose their band fall behind!"

  Naoki blinked in surprise. "Wait, do the trainers ride on the Pokémon during the race?"

  "Of course!" Ivan said. "But don't worry, the trainers ecial protective gear that absorb the impaost Pokémon moves, so they won't get hurt too badly."

  Naoki: "…"

  This world really was something else. The thought of trainers riding Pokémon while they used powerful moves like Earthquake made Naoki resider his choice.

  Earthquake could level the pying field for a heavy Pokémon like Mudsdale, despite its lower speed.

  The Hippowdon, raise dust and interfere with the vision of other pyers.

  The Thunder Zebra, Zebstrika, also has a rge number of interference moves.

  If you think about it carefully, it seems even more difficult to choose a winner.

  However, the horse rag was about to begin, so Ivan took Naoki to buy rag tickets. The owner of the stall was a bald man wearing gsses, who looked very shrewd. Oable in front of him was a sign stating that each person could only purchase 200 horse rag tickets, with the price of one horse rag ticket set at 50 Poke Dolrs.

  In the cupboard behind him were various props.

  The most basic items included special Poké Balls, such as Dive Balls a Balls, each worth 50 horse rag tickets.

  The more expeems were Pokémon-held items, such as the Light Ball, whicreases Pikachu's Attad Special Attack when held, the Hard Stone, whicreases the power of Rock-type moves, and the Bck Gsses, whicrease the power of Dark-type moves.

  These required 250 rag tickets.

  Additionally, there were Evolution Stones of various types that Naoki articurly ied in. He quickly ghrough them and found that all the stones—Ice, Fire, Water, Leaf, and Thunder—were avaible, except for the Sun Stone and Moon Stone.

  The exge price for each was 300 horse rag tickets.

  "A horse rag ticket is 50 Poke Dolrs; 200 tickets cost 10,000. I'll buy it!"

  Naoki waved his hand and purchased two huickets from the boss. Ivan also bought two huickets.

  At this time, a horn sounded, announg that the first round of the petition was about to begin.

  The boss behind the ter remihem, "Do you two want to start betting?"

  As he spoke, he took out a chart listing the odds for each pyer.

  The highest odds were for Hippowdon, reag an exaggerated figure of 1/57. The odds for Rapidash, Garian Rapidash, arika were all equal at 1/1.5. The odds for Mudsdale hovered around 1/3.

  "It seems that most people are like me and choose to bet on Rapidash!" Naoki thought.

  Ivan, oher hand, simply bet all his horse rag tickets on Mudsdale.

  Naoki hesitated for a moment but decided to trust his own judgment a on the Rapidash.

  After pg their bets, Naoki took Koraidon and followed Ivan to the audience seats. Ivan's Pokémon, a small Milcery, erched on his head like a piece of sushi, watg the game with him.

  The audience began to gather. All the testants at the racecourse donned protective gear and mouheir Pokémon.

  As the whistle blew, all the horse-like Pokémon orack surged forward.

  Watg them gallop below, Naoki felt a surge of envy.

  At that moment, he made a decision in his heart: one day, he would have a horse pokemon of his own! Just like the Spectrier and Gstrier!

  Speaking of Spectrier and Gstrier, Naoki suddenly thought that he might be able to travel to the Gar region.

  The situation with Calyrex, the King of Bountiful Harvests, was not looking good. Not only had he been fotten by the world, but his two steeds had also goray.

  The plot of the Tundra emerged in his mind. Perhaps he could reunite Calyrex with his loyal steeds and people.

  Then, he could borrow one of Calyrex's horses to participate in petitions.

  But.

  The ranch was still in its developmental stage and couldn't do without him. Once he left, the Pokémon would go hungry.

  And even if he went to the Tundra, there was no guarantee he would find Calyrex.

  But then, Naoki suddenly thought of something. Acc to legend, Calyrex, the King of Bountiful Harvests, could see everything in the past, present, and future.

  So the question was: if he did something beneficial for Calyrex in the Paldea region, would Calyrex be able to see it?

  For example, building a shrine or something simir might help increase favorability with Calyrex so that when he eventually traveled to the Gar region, Calyrex would take the initiative to meet him.

  Thinking of this, Naoki decided to build a shrine for Calyrex on his ranch.

  Whether Calyrex could actually se or not didn't really matter. It didn't cost anything to have faith.