July Release Schedule Preview
July marks the beginning of the second half of the year for Umamusume. We will have the 1.5 Anniversary Event which leads into the launch of the fourth scenario, Grand Concert. And apart from the scenario banner there are also several strong support cards coming out.
July 2nd - July 14th - Story Event: "Make a Splash! Summer Showdown!"
This is a new story event. The featured characters this time will be Mejiro McQueen, Gold Ship, Maruzensky, Nakayama Festa and Sakura Chiyono O.
Sakura Chiyono O
This is the new free Support Card from the event. This card has no Race Bonus, which makes her quite weak in Trackblazer. Her gold Skill is 
Step on the Gas!, a random mile acceleration Skill. She also comes with 
Pace Chaser Skill hints and adds 20 to starting 
Speed, 
Power, and Guts. With Guts builds being sidelined in Grand Concert she will probably see limited use in the future.
July 2nd - July 14th - Banners
New Umas: Mejiro McQueen (Summer) & Gold Ship (Summer)
Mejiro McQueen (Summer)
She is a Pace Chaser designed for Long distance races, although she can also be converted to a 
Front Runner quite easily.
Her Unique Skill, 
Your Smile Sparkles as the Waves, activates after halfway through the race when she is between 1st and 4th place. It is a Velocity Skill that scales its duration on her remaining HP, much like Mejiro Bright's Lovely Spring Breeze. She is also equipped with a gold Recovery Skill, 
Heart All Set.
Gold Ship (Summer)
She will see use as parent thanks to her Unique Skill Adventure of 564 which allows her to activate any gold Skill from her repertoire, regardless of its conditions, except for Green Skills like 
Firm Course Menace, or skills that have already been activated. This allows for devastating combos for Debuffers going forward with 
Dominator and Keen Eye. For Team Trials this activation also counts as a gold Skill - just be aware that she may activate a skill that would have triggered by itself at a later point.
Also while Adventure of 564 ignores any condition on the gold Skill, it still does respect its cooldown, such as with 
Professor of Curvature. Skills without a cooldown can only be activated once per race - for instance Taking the Lead activates in the Early-Race and has no cooldown and thus cannot be activated again.
Gold Ship (Summer) herself is not very strong, especially when compared to her OG version, whose Unique Skill, Anchors Aweigh!, is very strong.
New Support Cards: Maruzensky Speed SSR & Nakayama Festa Wit SSR
Maruzensky
This card has a load of Front Runner hints and she is frequently listed as one of the recommended Speed Support Cards for Grand Concert.
This is because of her Unique Perk: Maruzensky increases Training Effectiveness by 5% per level of the facility she is on. Since we raise facility levels much more frequently in Grand Concert than in Trackblazer, Summer Maruzensky makes training with her stronger as the run goes on. She does this even as a LB0 card, but since she has a Power Bonus at LB1 it is recommended to pull at least one additional copy.
This card is also included in the free SSR Selector we will get as a mission reward during the 1.5 Anniversary.
Nakayama Festa
Nakayama Festa has an interesting Unique Perk as well, allowing her to reduce the Failure Chance of a training to zero. While this can be valuable at the right moment, it is also unreliable.
She features a long list of skill hints including 
Uma Stan and 
Nimble Navigator, but with 12 hints total it's hard to reliably obtain them.
Her Wit output is a bit below Mr. C.B.. She can be difficult to justify in your deck, depending on your Wit support lineup.
July 7th - July 16th - Banners
New Uma: Bamboo Memory
Bamboo Memory
Bamboo Memory is a 
Late Surger with an Acceleration Unique Skill, 
Red-Hot Discipline!, that gets stronger the more Umas she overtakes in the final corner or beyond. She comes with skills for Sprint and Mile.
Support Card Re-Runs: Ikuno Dictus Guts SSR & Yukino Bijin Wit SSR
Both of these cards had their moments during Trackblazer but it is unclear if they will get to shine in Grand Concert.
Ikuno Dictus
Ikuno Dictus is a good Guts stat stick. She has a 15% Race Bonus which was great in Trackblazer, though it is less impactful on other Scenarios. Her gold Skill, 
The Bigger Picture, is a Field-of-Vision Skill, which has very limited viability, and it is difficult to run Guts decks in Grand Concert.
During the height of Trackblazer, this banner had some value for high spenders, but that value has faded now that Guts decks are no longer competitive.
Yukino Bijin
Yukino Bijin is first and foremost a source of No Stopping Me! - which is a very strong skill for all Non-Front Runners on courses with an Acceleration Zone that starts prior to the Final Corner. As a pure Wit Card, she is underwhelming with low bonuses across the board, and her Unique Perk is just an additional 5% Race Bonus and 5% Training Effectiveness.
In October 
Special Week will be released that also gives out this skill, so Yukino will have competition soon.
July 12th - July 21st - Champions Meeting Leo Cup
This is the last Champions Meeting in Trackblazer. It is also the last Summer race and our second ever Sprint race. Please check out our CM16 guide for how to build your Umas, when it releases. Good luck.
Begins July 14th - 1.5 Anniversary Celebration, Part 1
At the start of the 1.5 Anniversary Celebration we get a daily Login Bonus of 150 carats for 8 days for a total of 1200 carats. Note that the first Login Bonus is awarded on the 14th at 10 pm UTC and lasts until the daily reset on the 15th. If you are logged in at the time you need to go back to the title screen to get the Login Bonus.
We will also get a free daily gacha pull until the main event.
This is the first of the 1.5 Anniversary mission campaigns. The most important mission reward is 500 carats, but there are also some gacha tickets and skill hint books.
Monies
| Item | Exchange Limit | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Alarm Clock ×1 | 10 | 1,000 |
| Alarm Clock ×1 | 5 | 2,000 |
| Book of Hints ×1 | 1 | 15,000 |
| Textbook of Hints ×1 | 1 | 30,000 |
| Rare Book of Hints ×1 | 1 | 60,000 |
| Rare Textbook of Hints ×1 | 1 | 90,000 |
Friend Points
| Item | Exchange Limit | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Alarm Clock ×1 | 5 | 100 |
| Alarm Clock ×1 | 3 | 200 |
| Book of Hints ×1 | 1 | 500 |
| Textbook of Hints ×1 | 1 | 1,000 |
| Rare Book of Hints ×1 | 1 | 2,000 |
| Rare Textbook of Hints ×1 | 1 | 3,000 |
| Trainee Scout Ticket ×1 | 1 | 3,000 |
| Support Card Scout Ticket ×1 | 1 | 3,000 |
The grand total of buying out 1.5 Anniversary Part 1's shop is 215,000 Monies and 16,350 Friend Points.
Daily Legend Race Roster
The roster of the Daily Legend Races will be expanded to include the following Umas:
- Curren Chan
- Maruzensky
- Fuji Kiseki
- Mihono Bourbon
- Matikanefukukitaru
- Seiun Sky
- Biwa Hayahide
- Air Groove
- Eishin Flash
- Agnes Digital
- Nice Nature
- Grass Wonder
- Oguri Cap
Do not forget to race every Uma that you have not yet raced for the trophy and a 150 carat reward!
New Uma Star Portraits added to the Daily Shop
The Daily Shop will now include many more Star Portraits. Here is a complete list of all the new Star Portraits that can now show up:
- Admire Vega
- Kitasan Black
- Matikanetannhauser
- Satono Diamond
- Mejiro Bright
- Fuji Kiseki (Ballroom)
- Seiun Sky (Ballroom)
- Nishino Flower
- Yaeno Muteki
- Nice Nature (Cheerleader)
- King Halo (Cheerleader)
- Ines Fujin
- Mejiro Palmer
- Curren Chan (Wedding)
- Fine Motion (Wedding)
- Inari One
- Sweep Tosho
- Taiki Shuttle (Camping)
- Mejiro Dober (Camping)
- Air Shakur
- Gold Ship (Summer)
- Mejiro McQueen (Summer)
- Bamboo Memory
July 16th to July 26th - Banners and New Racetracks
New Uma: Copano Rickey
Copano Rickey
Copano Rickey is a strong Dirt Uma thanks to her Unique Skill, Luck Comes to the Prepared, which makes her a strong choice for the Dirt Champions Meeting that is coming up soon. Her Unique Skill is a Hybrid, a combination Target Speed and Acceleration Skill that gets stronger the more Green Skills she activates, up to six. The Skill has no position requirement.
She comes with three Green Skills already in her kit, although one of those is 
Pace Chaser Savvy ○.
Copano Rickey is also capable of Front Running where her Green Skills are very useful in activating Groundwork.
The only thing holding her back for now is that she needs parents with a lot of Green Skills. Still, she is a top-tier Uma for Champions Meetings as well as Team Trials.
New Support Cards: Manhattan Cafe Stamina SSR & Seiun Sky Wit SR
Manhattan Cafe
Manhattan Cafe comes with Of Calm Mind, a Recovery Skill and Velocity self-debuff for Long distances.
Stat-wise, she is not even close to the other version of her, Manhattan Cafe, that we already have and performs similarly to the level of her SR Card, Manhattan Cafe.
Seiun Sky
Seiun Sky is also not impressive. Outclassed by most other Wit SRs, she at least has some good Front Runner skill hints.
Neither of these cards is worth pulling for, especially with the Anniversary right around the corner.
Starting on July 16 alongside Copano Rickey, 3 new Dirt exclusive Racetracks are added to the game! These tracks are Funabashi, Kawasaki and Morioka.
Funabashi Races
| Grade | Name | Distance | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| G1 | Kashiwa Kinen | Mile 1600 | Senior Early May |
| G2 | Sazanka TV Hai | Mile 1800 | Classic/Senior Late September |
| G2 | Diolite Kinen | Medium 2400 | Senior Late March |
| G3 | Marine Cup | Mile 1600 | Classic/Senior Early April |
| G3 | Queen Sho | Mile 1800 | Classic/Senior Early December |
Kawasaki Races
| Grade | Name | Distance | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| G1 | Zen-Nippon Junior Yushun | Mile 1600 | Junior Late December |
| G1 | Kawasaki Kinen | Medium 2100 | Senior Early February |
| G2 | Kanto Oaks | Medium 2100 | Classic Early June |
| G2 | Empress Hai | Medium 2100 | Senior Early March |
| G3 | Sparking Lady Cup | Mile 1600 | Classic/Senior Early July |
Morioka Races
| Grade | Name | Distance | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| G1 | Mile Championship Nambu Hai | Mile 1600 | Classic/Senior Early October |
| G3 | Mercury Cup | Medium 2000 | Classic/Senior Late July |
| G3 | Cluster Cup | Sprint 1200 | Classic/Senior Late August |
Oi also received 4 new G2/G3 Races
| Grade | Name | Distance | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| G2 | Tokyo Hai | Sprint 1200 | Classic/Senior Early October |
| G2 | Ladies' Prelude | Mile 1800 | Classic/Senior Early October |
| G3 | TCK Jo-o Hai | Mile 1800 | Senior Late January |
| G3 | Tokyo Sprint | Sprint 1200 | Senior Late April |
Begins July 22nd - 1.5 Anniversary Celebration, Part 2
This marks the launch of the new Scenario: Grand Concert!
In addition, we get the following:
1.5 Anniversary Story, Song and Outfit
Like 1st Anniversary, we receive a short 3 episode Anniversary Story, Song and Outfit! The song this time around is called "Gaze on Me!" and the outfit looks like this:
| Outfit A | Outfit B |
|---|---|
 |  |
Login Rewards and Free Anniversary SSR Support Card
The Anniversary comes with 3,000 carats up front and a login bonus of 300 carats up to 10 times for a total of an extra 3000 carats! Not only that, we also get 2 copies of the free Anniversary SSR Support Card - this time it is Mihono Bourbon, which as far as welfare cards go, has some decent Front Runner Skill Hints.
Event Missions
We get more missions from the "1.5 Anniversary Celebration, Part 2 mission campaign". The notable rewards are 500 Carats and 1 SSR and SR Uncap Crystal Shards but you can also obtain 3 additional copies of Mihono Bourbon to MLB it.
Daily Free 100x Support Banner Gacha Pulls
Starting on 10:00 PM July 22 (UTC), we will receive a free daily 10x pull on the featured Support Card Banner Agnes Tachyon / 
Light Hello - a must pull for this scenario. However, starting on 10:00 PM July 27 (UTC), the pulls will swap over to Tokai Teio / Twin Turbo until 9:59 PM August 1 (UTC).
TIP
Depending on when you login on the day of the Teio and Twin Turbo banner, you will either have a 60/40 split or a 50/50 split of the 100 pulls. If you login on July 27 (UTC) before 10:00 PM, the sixth 10 pull will go on the Tachyon/Light Hello Banner, making it a 60/40 split. If you login after 10:00 PM (UTC), the 10x pull will go onto the Teio/Twin Turbo banner, making it a 50/50 split.
The pulls are also stocked up once if you miss a few days, meaning more pulls can be spent on Tokai Teio/Twin Turbo if desired. However, like the end date of the free pulls, the stocked up pulls will expire at 10:00 PM August 1 (UTC), so make sure to use them before they expire!
Updated Anniversary Shop
Additional items have been added to the Anniversary Shop!
Monies
| Item | Exchange Limit | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Pleasing Parfait ×1 | 10 | 2,500 |
| Pleasing Parfait ×1 | 5 | 5,000 |
| Mini Carrot Jelly ×1 | 10 | 5,000 |
| Mini Carrot Jelly ×1 | 5 | 10,000 |
Friend Points
| Item | Exchange Limit | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Pleasing Parfait ×1 | 5 | 250 |
| Pleasing Parfait ×1 | 3 | 500 |
| Mini Carrot Jelly ×1 | 5 | 500 |
| Mini Carrot Jelly ×1 | 5 | 1,000 |
| ★2+ Make Debut Scout Ticket R1 ×1 | 1 | 10,000 |
| SR+ Make Debut Scout Ticket R1 ×1 | 1 | 10,000 |
The grand total of buying out 1.5 Anniversary Part 2's shop is 150,000 Monies and 30,250 Friend Points.
Discounted 7500 Carats Packs
If you are looking to spend real monies on the game, the big 7500 carats packs are refreshed. If you buy them directly in the Cygames webshop, you get a 10% free carat bonus. The discounted packs can be purchased for a total of three times!
Random 3* Uma and SSR Banners
The random 3* Uma and SSR Banners are back. Here you can spend 1500 carats once for a random 3* Uma and once for a random SSR card. These are completely random and can result in getting an Uma or an SSR you already have!
Career Rewards and Daily Racing Tickets doubled, Half TP Cost
For the duration of the campaign (on JP this was five weeks) the rewards from playing the Career are doubled, TP cost is halved and Daily Race Tickets are doubled to a total of 6.
WARNING
The Spark-Reroll feature will still cost 30 TP!
July 23rd - Aug 10th - Banners
New Uma: Smart Falcon (Grand Concert)
Smart Falcon
The Grand Concert version of Smart Falcon is also a top-tier Dirt Uma despite being overshadowed by Copano Rickey in the upcoming Dirt Champions Meeting. Her Unique Skill, α-star*, is a Mid-Race Velocity Skill that also heals her if the race is run on Dirt. She is not considered to be stronger than her OG version, but still worth considering if you lack Dirt-capable Umas.
New Support Cards: Light Hello Pal SSR & Agnes Tachyon Speed SSR
The most important banner this month, however, is Agnes Tachyon / Light Hello.
Agnes Tachyon
Agnes Tachyon has a ton of Medium distance Pace Chaser Skill Hints. Her gold Skill, Unstoppable, is a powerful Mid-Race Skill for Pace Chasers. She is also a solid general-purpose Speed card. She is exceptionally powerful at MLB where she provides a powerful 2 Skill Point Bonus. It is important to note that in Grand Concert we need every Skill Point we can get, since we generally don't run extra races like in previous Scenarios.
Light Hello
Light Hello is our Pal for this scenario. She gives See Ya Later! which is the gold version of Playtime's Over!. This alone could earn her a place in parent decks even beyond Grand Concert.
More importantly, as a Scenario-Linked Pal Card, she interacts uniquely with the Grand Concert scenario mechanic, giving us additional tokens - in particular, those we have the least amount of. This allows her to smooth out currency generation and makes her a must-have for this scenario.
Light Hello does this at LB0, with LB1 and LB2 giving her additional Training Effectiveness.
It is strongly recommended to invest some carats into this banner beyond the free pulls for a strong start in Grand Concert. If you saved up an SSR Uncap Crystal, this might also be the time to use it, depending on how your pulls went. Both of these cards will most likely be in every deck for this scenario.
Good luck with your pulls.
Begins July 27th - 1.5 Anniversary Celebration, Part 3
The 1.5 Anniversary Celebration winds down with Part 3.
Discounted 1500 Carats Packs
This time the 1500 carats packs are refreshed. Again in Cygames webshop, you get a 10% free carat bonus. The discounted packs are available for a total of three times!
Training The Trainer, Part 4
In addition we get the "Training the Trainer, Part 4" Mission Campaign, that will reward us with the 1.5 Anniversary SSR Selector ticket. This allows you to trade for any SSR Support Card up to and including Maruzensky and Nakayama Festa. The mission to get this requires you to get an Uma with the Grand Concert Scenario spark. Other mission rewards include another 500 carats, SSR and SR Uncap Crystal Shards and Skill Hint Books.
Updated Anniversary Shop
Additional items have been added to the Anniversary Shop for the last time!
Monies
| Item | Exchange Limit | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Toughness 30 ×1 | 10 | 5,000 |
| Toughness 30 ×1 | 5 | 10,000 |
| Trainee Scout Ticket ×1 | 1 | 100,000 |
| Support Card Scout Ticket ×1 | 1 | 100,000 |
Friend Points
| Item | Exchange Limit | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Toughness 30 ×1 | 5 | 500 |
| Toughness 30 ×1 | 3 | 1,000 |
The grand total of buying out 1.5 Anniversary Part 3's shop is 300,000 Monies and 5,500 Friend Points, and the final total of buying out everything in the Anniversary Shop is 865,000 Monies and 49,350 Friend Points.
With that the 1.5 Anniversary Celebrations come to a close.
July 26th - New Story Event: "Wings of Iron: Hazy Tales"
This is the second Story Event starting this month. This time the featured characters are Winning Ticket, Narita Taishin, Tokai Teio, Twin Turbo and Biwa Hayahide.
Biwa Hayahide
The free Support Card from the Story Event this time is Biwa Hayahide, which has some Pace Chaser Skill Hints and VIP Pass, a gold recovery for Long distance.
July 26th - August 10th - Banners
New Umas: Winning Ticket (Steampunk) & Narita Taishin (Steampunk)
Accompanying the Story Event are new versions of two of the BNW Trio.
Winning Ticket
Winning Ticket is regarded as better than the OG Winning Ticket.
She is a Late Surger for Medium distances. Her Unique Skill, GO! Full-send, increases her Target Speed in the Last Spurt on the Final Straight, and she gains extra Target Speed when she activates Skills while her Unique Skill is active. She needs to find her acceleration elsewhere, but that is what Late Surgers are all about.
Narita Taishin
Narita Taishin has become stronger with the 2nd Anniversary evolved skills.
She is an 
End Closer with From the Brink, the gold version of Take the Chance which is a Late-Race Acceleration Skill for Medium distances. This makes her strong when Straightaway Spurt, for which OG Narita Taishin is famous, does not work.
New Support Cards: Tokai Teio Wit SSR and Twin Turbo Guts SSR
Tokai Teio
Tokai Teio is a strong Wit card.
She gives Professor of Curvature which allows Kitasan Black to finally get that Skill.
She has been seen showing up in whale decks that omit Kitasan Black due to higher priority Speed Cards. The biggest problem of this card is the timing of its release, since we just pulled the Scenario banner, leaving few resources for a strong card that is not quite a must-have.
Twin Turbo
Twin Turbo has some useful Skills for Front Runners, including a gold Skill, 1000% Output!, which greatly increases Velocity, at the cost of Stamina. However, her stats are unimpressive.
Her Unique Perk is that her Friendship Bonus increases whenever you perform friendship training with her - for which she at least has a decent Specialty Priority.
But whether that will be enough to justify a place in your decks is questionable, especially considering the difficulty of fitting Guts Cards in the deck.
Closing Thoughts
This is a big month for Umamusume. Starting with a Balance Patch, going into the final stretch of Trackblazer with a Champions Meeting and then into the 1.5 Anniversary Celebration and a new Scenario "Grand Concert".
If you saved up your carats, the Scenario banner is the priority to spend them on. The lack of another Champions Meeting on the schedule can be deceptive: Expect Virgo Cup - a Dirt Medium race to begin Early August.
Until then, there is a lot to look forward to.