You just finished the "Training the Trainer" missions. Your hands are shaking slightly. In your digital inventory sits the most powerful item a new player can own: the uma pretty derby 3 star voucher.
It looks simple. A little gold ticket. But use it wrong and you’ve essentially handicapped your account for the next six months. Most players rush. They see a girl with a cool design—maybe Rice Shower because she looks like a dark gothic dream—and they click "Exchange."
Big mistake. Huge.
Honestly, the way this game treats "rarity" is a bit of a trap. In other gachas, a 3-star is just a stat stick. In Uma Musume: Pretty Derby, a 3-star is a specific set of race tracks, a specific training difficulty, and a very specific legacy. If you pick a girl you can't actually win with, that voucher is just a fancy wallpaper for your home screen.
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The "Newbie Trap" and Why Your First Ticket Matters
Here is the thing about the voucher you get at the start: it lets you choose. This is rare. Normally, you’re at the mercy of the gacha gods, praying that a rainbow gate appears.
But there’s a second ticket. Most people forget about the Make Debut 3-star ticket. That one is random. If you use your selector voucher to grab Silence Suzuka because you love her speed, and then you pull the random ticket and it also gives you Suzuka, you've wasted your selector. You get some character pieces for the dupe, but you lost the chance to broaden your roster.
Wait. Use the random ticket first. Always.
Who Should You Actually Pick?
If you want to win, you have to look at Oguri Cap. She is the undisputed queen of versatility. Most girls are locked into one or two types of terrain. Oguri? She can run Mile, Medium, and Long races. She can even run on Dirt if you give her the right legacies. She is basically the "Easy Mode" button for clearing the main story and the daily legend races.
Then there is Taiki Shuttle. If you’re struggling with Dirt races (which most new players do because the starter pool is thin on dirt runners), she is your savior. She’s a Short/Mile specialist who just eats up the track.
The "Waifu" vs. Meta Debate
I get it. You might really love Mejiro McQueen. She’s elegant, she’s cool, and she’s a long-distance beast. But McQueen is hard to train for a beginner. Her missions require you to win the Spring Tenno Sho, a 3200m marathon that will crush your soul if your stamina stats aren't perfect.
If you pick her with your uma pretty derby 3 star voucher, prepare for some "Game Over" screens. It’s not that she’s bad—she’s actually top-tier in PVP—it’s just that the learning curve is a vertical wall.
The 2026 Anniversary Strategy
Since it's 2026, we’ve seen the "Paid Selectors" come and go. If you are a light spender, keep an eye out for the Anniversary Bundles. Usually, these cost about 1,500 to 3,000 paid carats. Unlike the free starter voucher, these paid vouchers often include newer girls who have been released since the game launched.
The starter voucher pool is usually "frozen" in time. It only includes the launch cast:
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- Special Week (The balanced protagonist)
- Silence Suzuka (The front-running speedster)
- Tokai Teio (The final-stretch specialist)
- Maruzensky (The short-distance queen)
- Symboli Rudolf (The "Emperor" of PVP)
If you’re looking at a newer unit like Kitasan Black or Satono Diamond, your starter voucher won't help you. You’ll need the newer exchange tickets that drop during half-anniversary or full-anniversary events.
Why 3-Stars Aren't Everything
Don't let the gold color blind you. Some of the best girls in the game start as 1-star or 2-star units. Agnes Tachyon (2-star) is a monster in Medium distances. Mayano Top Gun (2-star) can literally run any strategy from Lead to Chaser.
The real power in this game comes from Support Cards. You can have a 5-star fully awakened horsegirl, but if your Support Card deck is trash, she will lose to a 1-star Haru Urara who was trained with SSR cards.
Use your carats on Support Card banners. Use your uma pretty derby 3 star voucher to fill a gap in your roster—usually a Dirt runner or a Short-distance specialist—and then focus entirely on building your deck.
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Practical Steps for Your Voucher
Ready to pull the trigger? Don't. Not until you do these three things:
- Clear the "Make Debut" Random 3-Star Mission: This is the one that gives you a random girl from the launch pool. Do this first so you don't accidentally pick a duplicate.
- Assess Your Roster: Look at your 1-star and 2-star girls. Do you have a Short-distance runner? Do you have someone who can run on Dirt? If you have El Condor Pasa and Grass Wonder, you might not need another Mile specialist.
- Check the "Inheritance" Factor: Some 3-star girls have "Unique Skills" that are amazing when passed down to others. Oguri Cap’s "Victory Shout" and Symboli Rudolf’s "Koutei" are legendary inheritance skills. Picking them gives your whole stable a permanent buff.
Once you’ve done that, go ahead and spend the ticket. Whether you go for the meta-defining Oguri Cap or your personal favorite, just make sure you've got the Support Cards to back them up. Success in the Derby isn't just about who starts the race; it's about the training that happened months before the gates opened.
Check your mission tab now. If "Training the Trainer" is at 100%, that voucher is waiting for you in your gift box. Go claim it, but think twice before you click exchange.