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Racehorse Profile

IMPORTANT - This racehorse is currently one of our Black Friday Deals. Her price will return to £180 per 0.3% share on Monday 1st December, or earlier if all the Black Friday shares allocated to the deal are sold. View all three deals for Black Friday.

Christmas Fantasy was bought at the Tattersalls October Yearling sale in 2025. She is by Bated Breath who is a much sought after stallion and is out of a winning race mare that has already produced winners from her early crops. She ticked plenty of boxes for Ollie Pears when he saw her in Newmarket and the trainer was pleased to have the hammer come down on his bid.

Ollie told us: “We have to be realistic when we go to the sales but I do think we got this one for a bit of a bargain. I’d have been tempted to go a bit higher had we needed to but very happy that we were able to bring her home.”

Yet again we find ourselves extolling his eye for a bargain at the sales. Ollie has made some outstanding value purchases for our shareholders over the years. Many horses that have gone through the ring 'under the radar' have ended up being multiple winners for our shareholders. This filly has all the makings of being yet another outstanding purchase by the trainer.

The dam Fantasy Queen was trained by Eve Johnson Houghton and was a four-time winner up to a mile, with a particular liking for Chepstow. She is by Aqlaam who sadly passed away at the age 8 just as his stallion career was beginning to take shape. Although by Oasis Dream, his damsire was Rainbow Quest – a notable stamina influence. Christmas Fantasy has had two winning half-siblings both of whom have trained on as three-year-olds. This could well be another astute purchase and in truth, it is slightly surprising we were able to pick her up for only 3,000gns.

Her sire, Bated Breath is a stallion that often keep an eye on when looking at yearlings. We have only had one other Bated Breath filly with Ollie Pears and she too was a very shrewd purchase. We are hoping for much the same from Christmas Fantasy. Only just under top class on the racecourse, Bated Breath has forged an excellent reputation as a stallion.

As existing shareholders will know, Ollie Pears loves to target the Rous Stakes at York – usually on the second Friday in June. We hit the bar a few times with several runners before our Celestial Flight won the race in 2023. Ollie won the race again in 2024 and in 2025, landing the hat-trick with our very own Carnation Queen. It is no surprise, even at this early stage, that the Rous Stakes is a major target for this filly.

“She settled in very quickly which is usually a good sign as an indication of her temperament. She seems to have been nicknamed ‘Zara’. We will be getting her started almost immediately. She is a little behind the yearlings that arrived a few weeks ago but she’ll get caught up and go into winter having done all her pre-training.”

She is currently at Ollie Pears' yard in Malton and will be broken in before November and then enter full training straight afterwards. After trotting and cantering in December, she will have a short rest before getting ready to race in the opening stages of the 2026 season.

We are already reporting on her progress for shareholders on an ad-hoc basis, reporting on the major breakthroughs with her training - and we will provide regular updates on her progress on the gallops and with her education in detail from January onward. During the heart of the season, we publish update reports every 7-10 days, and more regularly when she actively starts racing.

At this stage she looks as though she could be quite an early filly. If she is to head for the Rous Stakes at York she would likely have a run or two before that in April or May. We would expect her to grow and develop through the season and she should race into the autumn of 2026. We expect between 3 and 7 runs from her during the season, and she will most likely race around the Yorkshire, Lancashire and North Eastern racetracks.

Christmas Fantasy joins our other yearlings for the 2026 season to race as two-year-olds. We currently have two geldings and Christmas Fantasy is our second juvenile filly. We have had enjoyed some great success with our juveniles in recent years with Ollie Pears – and they all tend to mature and have long careers beyond their juvenile campaigns. We hope you'll join us and enjoy the ride!

Form & Race Plans

Although the Rous Stakes is very much the preferred target the race plans for Christmas Fantasy will be determined by her level of ability shown at home and on the course in 2026. On breeding she should start at either five or six furlongs and then will perhaps get further, possibly seven furlongs as she develops physically and mentally during the year.

The standard route of a horse of this type will be to start in Maiden (races for horses who have yet to win a race) or Novice/Auction (2YO only races where previous winners get extra weight). Her performance in these first three or four races will determine whether she goes into Nursery handicaps, or is good enough to tackle higher grade races.

Your online Racehorse Manager will provide full details of all developments in terms of the filly's progress and race planning as the season progresses.

Christmas Fantasy 2026 Guarantee

We expect to get 2-5 runs and sometimes more from all our 2YO horses per share period/season, however, you should expect periods of no racing as a result of recuperation from injury or training setbacks. This share period starts properly at the start of the turf season on April 1st 2026 and runs through the turf season until November 1st 2026, however, we will be reporting on the horse before the share period starts (from January 2026) should we have anything of importance to share with shareholders.

During the season the horse may be rested or have time away from the track to recover and it is quite normal for a flat horse to have periods of 3-6 weeks rest between races. Racehorses, especially youngsters, can be susceptible to sore shins, bone chips and growing pains, and can need a greater time to recover between races.

We provide guarantees with all our racehorses. If this horse has a season-ending injury and has not already RACED TWICE during the share period, we will replace him with an alternative horse for the remainder of the season. Replacement horses may not be of the same quality, are provided with no further guarantees and no alternative choice can be provided. Prize-money cannot be paid on any replacements, but all other benefits such as yard visits and race day badges are made available.

As a shareholder you MUST ACCEPT that we cannot guarantee your horses performance, a specific volume of runs (beyond our minimum guarantee if injured) or that runs will be evenly spaced throughout the share period. This is the chance you take when owning any racehorse and participating in this ownership experience. If you will be disappointed with only 2-3 runs from your racehorse during the season, then please DO NOT PARTICIPATE IN THIS OR ANY OTHER RACEHORSE, as you could be disappointed.

We believe in being crystal clear with our shareholders - any participation in racehorse ownership is a risk, and we are UNABLE TO PROVIDE REFUNDS because of share periods which finish early due to injury or retirement - as training, vets and livery fees for the horse still remain whether they are racing or not and part of your lease payment covers the five months of pre-season training.

This risk is the chance all shareholders take, as we do ourselves when participating in the ownership of a racehorse.