Uma Musume

If your horse girl is blazing fast but crumbles in the final stretch, stamina is the culprit. This complete Uma Musume stamina guide explains everything: how the stat works, how much you actually need, and the exact strategies top trainers use to build champions.

What Is Stamina in Uma Musume?

In Uma Musume: Pretty Derby, stamina functions as your horse girl's hidden HP bar during a race. Think of it as a fuel tank — it depletes as she runs, and the moment it hits empty, her speed drops dramatically, turning a potential winner into a distant loser.

Stamina is the second most important stat in the game, right behind Speed. No matter how high your Speed rating climbs, it becomes meaningless the moment your Uma Musume runs out of fuel in the final straight. Allocating the right amount of stamina — not too little, not so much that you waste stat points — is the defining skill of every great trainer.

How Stamina Works in Races

Stamina drains continuously throughout a race, but the rate of drain is not constant. Several factors accelerate how quickly your Uma Musume burns through her fuel:

Factors That Increase Stamina Drain

• Running speed: The faster she runs, the faster stamina depletes. High-speed builds burn through stamina noticeably quicker.
• Running style: Front-runners (Escape) fighting to maintain the lead consume stamina more aggressively than Late Surgers who conserve it in the pack.
• Race distance: Longer races demand exponentially more stamina. A sprint needs a fraction of what a 3200m classic demands.
• Uphill segments: Track elevation increases stamina consumption. Downhill segments reduce it.
• Skill activation: Using speed-boosting skills temporarily increases drain by a minor but real amount — roughly 10–30 stamina per activation.
• Debuffer opponents: In Champions Meeting PvP events, debuff skills can artificially drain your Uma's stamina faster than normal.

Running with 1200 Speed but only 500 Stamina on a 3200m race is roughly 3 seconds slower than the inverse. You lose enormous speed when out of stamina.

What Happens When Stamina Runs Out?

When stamina depletes completely, your Uma Musume enters a "stalled" state. Her running speed falls sharply below her potential maximum, and she is unable to activate her Last Spurt phase at full power. In practical terms, a stamina-depleted horse girl in the final 400m will lose to almost any adequately built rival, regardless of Speed advantage.

Required Stamina by Race Distance

One of the most practical things any trainer can know is the minimum stamina threshold for each race category. The values below are community-tested benchmarks assuming approximately 1200 Speed, 1200 Power, 600 Wit, and no recovery skills. Tracks with significant downhills can reduce these numbers by 100–200 points.

Track-Specific Variations

Not all tracks of the same distance are equal. A track with long downhill sections like Hanshin 3000m requires roughly 150 less stamina than Kyoto 3000m, which is mostly flat. When preparing for the Champions Meeting, research the specific track layout to fine-tune your stamina target rather than relying solely on distance-based benchmarks.

Stamina vs. Guts: What's the Difference?

New trainers often confuse Stamina and Guts, since both relate to endurance. They serve fundamentally different roles, and understanding the distinction prevents wasted stat points.

The community-tested equivalency is that 400 Guts is roughly equal to 200 Stamina in terms of late-race survivability. Since directly training Stamina is generally more efficient, the standard advice is to hit your stamina threshold first, then invest in Guts as a supplement. Guts becomes increasingly meta-relevant in later game content and higher-tier PvP scenarios.

For long-distance runners, the established benchmark is 900+ Stamina with several recovery skills, then at least 400 Guts. Mile runners often target 600+ Stamina and similar Guts values.

Recovery Skills You Must Have

Stamina recovery skills are a critical part of every competitive build. They restore a portion of your Uma's stamina mid-race, effectively extending how long she can maintain peak speed. For long-distance races, gold recovery skills are non-negotiable.

Understanding Recovery Skill Tiers

Recovery skills come in regular (white) and gold tiers. Gold recovery skills restore the most stamina but activate with roughly a 70–80% chance per race. This means you should never rely on a single recovery skill for your stamina budget — having two recovery skills provides the redundancy needed for consistent results.

How to Obtain Recovery Skills

• Support card events: Many Stamina-type support cards have events that teach or hint toward recovery skills — this is the primary route.
• Skill point purchases: Recovery skills can sometimes be unlocked via SP in the skill panel, particularly during scenario-specific events.
• Parent inheritance: When building parent Uma Musume for future training runs, always include at least one recovery skill so it passes down to children.

Best Horse Girls for Stamina Builds

Certain characters are better suited to stamina-heavy long-distance builds due to their innate stat growth bonuses. Mejiro McQueen and Super Creek are prime examples of Uma Musume with a 20% stamina growth rate bonus, making them natural candidates for long-distance racing. Their growth advantage means their final career stamina values will naturally be among the highest achievable without sacrificing as many training turns.

Stamina and Running Styles

Your Uma Musume's running style has a major impact on how much stamina she consumes. Understanding this relationship is key to calibrating your builds correctly.

One often-missed nuance: if an Escape runner loses the lead in early stages, she consumes extra stamina attempting to overtake and reclaim position. This makes Escape builds significantly more stamina-hungry than the baseline charts suggest. Always add a 10–15% stamina buffer for Escape-style runners, and invest in early skills to avoid losing the lead in the first place.

Training Stamina Efficiently

Knowing your stamina target is only half the battle. Reaching it efficiently within the limited turns of a training run requires smart prioritization and timing.

• 1
  Set early milestones by race season. For long-distance Late Surgers, aim for 200+ Stamina before Year 2 May (Japanese Derby), 300+ by Year 2 October, and 450+ by Year 3 end for URA Finals. Building in stages prevents over-investment early and runs out of turns.
• 2
  Train stamina with bonus characters present. When a support card character with a Stamina specialty is standing at the Stamina facility, the stat gain per turn is multiplied. Prioritize those turns — they're your best value.
• 3
  Don't skip Wit entirely. Wit affects your skill activation rate AND your stamina consumption efficiency. A low-Wit Uma Musume will waste stamina due to poor pacing decisions, effectively running as if she has less stamina than her stat sheet says.
• 4
  Secure two recovery skills minimum. After hitting your stamina threshold, spend Skill Points on at least two recovery skills. The community standard is 300+ Wit to ensure reliable skill activation across all race conditions.
• 5
  Account for debuffers in PvP. In Champions Meeting, opponents may run dedicated debuff builds designed to drain your stamina mid-race. For competitive PvP, build 10–15% more stamina than the bare minimum to absorb these effects.

Best Support Cards for Stamina

Support cards are arguably more important than the horse girl characters themselves when it comes to stat development. For stamina-focused builds, your support card deck should include at least one or two dedicated Stamina cards that provide strong stat bonuses, recovery skill hints, and events that boost stamina training gains.

Recommended Deck Composition

The community's most effective deck structure for medium and long distances generally follows this formula: 2–3 Speed cards (Speed remains king), 1–2 Stamina cards, 1 Power card for uphill and acceleration support, and 1 flexible slot for Wit or Guts depending on your target distance.

Notable Stamina Support Card Characters

Look for cards tied to characters with strong stamina training bonuses and events that teach gold recovery skills. Mejiro McQueen and Super Creek support cards are among the most highly prized for long-distance stamina builds, providing direct stamina bonuses and recovery skill access during training scenarios.

Common Stamina Mistakes to Avoid

Even experienced trainers fall into these traps. Recognizing and avoiding them is what separates good builds from champion-level results.

• ✗
  Treating sprint builds like long-distance builds. Sprinters like Bakushin O genuinely need minimal stamina investment — they only need Speed and Power. Over-building stamina on a sprinter wastes turns that should go directly into Speed.
• ✗
  Relying on a single gold recovery skill as your safety net. With only a ~70–80% activation rate, one missed proc in a crucial race can cost you everything. Always run two recovery skills for any race over 2000m.
• ✗
  Ignoring downhill track advantages. Tracks with significant downhills require meaningfully less stamina than flat courses of the same distance. Check the specific Champions Meeting track to avoid over- or under-building.
• ✗
  Using Career Mode as your only benchmark. The Career Mode invisible +400 stat bonus makes every run feel comfortable. Always build with PvP and Champions Meeting targets in mind, where the bonus does not apply.
• ✗
  Substituting Guts for Stamina in early-game builds. While 400 Guts is roughly equivalent to 200 Stamina at the margins, directly training Stamina is more efficient in the early and mid-game. Build your Stamina floor first, then supplement with Guts.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know if my Uma Musume has enough stamina?

Does having too much stamina hurt my performance?

Is Guts a substitute for Stamina?

Why do I still run out of stamina even at the recommended amount?

How much stamina do I need for the URA Finals?

What's the best Uma Musume for long-distance stamina builds?

Does the track surface (turf vs. dirt) affect stamina?

Final Thoughts

Mastering stamina in Uma Musume: Pretty Derby is what separates trainers who win consistently from those who can't understand why their "fast" horse girl keeps losing. The core principles are simple: know your distance threshold, build to that target with a small buffer, secure at least two recovery skills, and always account for the extra demands of your Uma's running style.

The sweet spot is precision — not racing with 1400 stamina on a 1600m mile race, and not showing up to a 3200m classic with 700 stamina and one recovery skill. Use the community calculators, study the specific track, and you'll be engineering champions in no time.

Good luck on the track, Trainer. 🏇

Uma Musume Stamina Guide  ·  Last updated July 2025  ·  For informational purposes only. Uma Musume: Pretty Derby is a trademark of Cygames, Inc.