Why do you think people bet on IRL horse races? Sure there's the gambling side of things, but you can easily just go to the pachinko parlor for such things. No, the stories and journeys of the horses inspires people and makes them want to root for them. Not to mention I think there's just something in human nature that loves watching things go fast and trying to be the fastest.

Uma Musume is just the horse version of a track and field anime that nobody has made despite there being so many track events here and there in single episodes of anime.

competition is one hell of a drug, after all
narratologically speaking

>>84368
>Why do you think people bet on IRL horse races?
Addiction, mostly. You know the slots are rigged against you, but you can convince yourself horse racing is about having an eye for the best animal which makes you seek out more information on them which makes you more confident in your assessment abilities and so on.

And maybe finding the horses sexy, but that applies here even less than the gambling. The umamusume don't even have hooves.

I didn't much care for the latest one I watched, which was uhh.. S3. Too much focus on the racing part which I really wasn't interested in. It might have just been that the main character was really bland so it was reliant on other characters (with less screen time) to make it entertaining. Gold Ship's episode was good, as expected.

>>84372
Kita-san Negro was a fun and likable character.

>too much racing
You probably don't want to watch the movies, then. They're all about that runnan. Really good visual depictions of racing your ghost, though, and Tachyon is pretty cool.