Old Bu's Rabbit-Ear Quest — $2,000 Champion Walkthrough

🔬 Sourcing. Quest specification verified on screen in 老番茄's Bilibili playthrough at 7:58 (setup) and 11:21 (payout confirmation). The full source list and outbound link is on /sources.

Old Bu is a side-quest NPC most playthroughs walk past without realising he's a $2,000 cash dispenser. The reason he's easy to miss: his quest is one of the only ones in the game that requires a specific phenotype combined with a championship win. You can't cheese it with a fast horse alone. This guide is the cleanest path from "starter mare" to "horse with rabbit ears holding a championship trophy" → $2,000 in your wallet.

The quest specification (verified)

老番茄 @ 7:58 reads Old Bu's ask:

"Old Bu's horses are useless, but he will give 2000 dollars if you can breed a champion horse that has rabbit ears like his."

老番茄 @ 11:21 confirms the payout when conditions are met.

Both must hold:

Phenotype: the horse must have rabbit ears (visible morphology, not a hidden stat)
Achievement: the horse must have won a championship race at least once

The Champion Race itself requires two prior cup wins (老番茄 @ 10:22), so the full prerequisite chain is:

2 × regular cup wins → eligible for Champion Race → 1 × Champion win → bring to Old Bu

Combined with the rabbit-ear phenotype, this is a 2-3 in-game-day quest, not a casual fetch.

Step-by-step walkthrough

Step 1 — Acquire a rabbit-DNA donor

The DNA Database's rabbit preset gives you the raw genome reference for a rabbit. To get rabbit ears onto a horse, you need to splice rabbit DNA into a horse line.

Two paths:

Path A — Catch a wild rabbit (preferred, no DNA work yet)

Drive the map perimeter looking for wild rabbits
Lasso one (Cheru @ 3:38 — lasso is $50)
Bring it home; extract DNA at the in-game DNA Lab (see /guides/horsey-game-crispr-dna-lab for the full workflow)

Path B — Use the DNA Database tool to scaffold the genome before in-game

Open /tools/dna-database
Load the horse preset
Click "F1 CROSS" → pick horse × rabbit
Copy the resulting genome as text
Save it to your specimen archive — this is your blueprint for what you're trying to build in-game

Both paths land you at the same spot: a horse-shape genome with rabbit-derived alleles at the helices that govern ear shape.

Step 2 — Get the DNA Lab unlocked

If you haven't already, follow the Opening Speedrun — specifically Step 5 (power up the abandoned nuclear plant). Without the lab, you can't splice the rabbit DNA in.

Step 3 — Splice rabbit alleles into a champion-line horse

You want two genomes in the lab:

Your strongest racing horse's DNA (extracted)
A rabbit's DNA (extracted from the captured wild rabbit)

Use the gene-drive interface to copy the rabbit's ear-region helices into the horse genome. Which helices govern ear shape is unverified — the DNA Database F1 cross gives you a reasonable starting splice; iterate from there.

Inject the spliced genome into a fresh foal or a CRISPR'd existing horse. Visual confirmation: the resulting horse should clearly have rabbit-shaped ears sticking up.

Step 4 — Race the rabbit-eared horse to 2 cup wins

Race entry is $25 per attempt (Cheru @ 4:35). The "easiest race" pays $500 (HeTheLyon @ 1:18).

Don't enter the rabbit-eared horse in races where it's clearly outmatched (see betting & odds for trophy-tier reading). Wait for races where this horse can plausibly win.

You need 2 cup wins before the Champion Race tab unlocks for it.

Step 5 — Win the Champion Race

The Champion Race costs $250 entry and pays $2,500 prize (老番茄 @ 10:22). Keep at least $250 buffer in your bankroll before attempting.

If your rabbit-eared horse loses the Champion Race, you can re-enter once it accumulates two more regular cup wins. The achievement does not lock per-attempt.

Step 6 — Bring the now-champion-with-rabbit-ears to Old Bu

Walk the horse to Old Bu's farm. Initiate the quest dialogue. Receive $2,000 (老番茄 @ 11:21).

Time + payout math

| Phase | Time | Cash flow | |---|---:|---:| | Acquire rabbit ($50 lasso + capture trip) | 5 min | −$50 | | DNA Lab access (assumes Opening Speedrun done) | 0 min | $0 | | 2 regular race entries + wins | 2 in-game days | +$1,000 net (after $50 entry × 2) | | Champion Race attempt | 1 in-game day | +$2,250 net ($2,500 − $250 entry) | | Old Bu payout | <1 min | +$2,000 | | Net | ~3 in-game days | +$5,200 plus champion-race retirement reward (unlimited-use lasso) |

The retirement reward — an unlimited-use lasso (老番茄 @ 10:53) — is arguably more valuable than the cash. Every wild horse you capture afterward costs you nothing in lasso replacements.

Common pitfalls

Skipped the Opening Speedrun. No DNA Lab = no splice = no rabbit ears = no quest. Do the speedrun first, always.
Didn't pre-cross horse × rabbit in DNA Database. Without a blueprint, your in-game splice is guesswork. Spend 2 minutes in the tool first.
Tried to splice with only 1 helix changed. Ear shape likely involves multiple helices — don't expect 1-helix surgery to produce a visible rabbit-ear phenotype. Use the F1 cross output as a starting point and iterate.
Raced the rabbit-eared horse against trophy-tier competition before its first cup. Trophy horses get 1:2 odds → high win rate against your unproven horse. Filter for races without trophy entrants for the first 2 cup wins.
Forgot the 8-year retirement wall. The whole chain takes 3 in-game days. If your rabbit-eared horse is already 5+ years old when you start splicing, the math gets tight (see lifecycle guide).

What to do after the quest

Once Old Bu pays out:

Don't scrap the rabbit-eared horse. Archive its genome in the DNA Database Specimen Archive — rabbit-ear lineage is rare and useful for future Champion Race entries (the horse already has the genome, you just need to keep racing it through more championships).
Capture another wild rabbit if your unlimited-lasso reward is now active. Free DNA donors for future splices.
Try the Bubba quest next — also $2,000, different requirement (lineage descent + big ears). The two quests don't compete; you can hold both rewards on the same playthrough.

What's next

Bubba's $2,000 Lineage Quest — different requirements, same payout
Horsey Game Betting & Odds — Champion Race math
Horsey Game Horse Lifecycle — the 8-year wall + the Champion retirement lasso
DNA Database — F1 cross horse × rabbit
Horsey Game CRISPR & DNA Lab — the in-game splice workflow

Sources

See /sources for canonical attribution and direct links to the playthroughs cited above.

Last updated: 2026-05-09. Tested on game version 1.0.4.

Last verified: 2026-05-09 · Game version: 1.0.4 · See /sources for citation list.