title: Christmas Past
text: # Christmas Past
  
  Christmas Past (April 15, 1979 – December 13, 2008) was an American Thoroughbred Champion racehorse. She was the American Champion Three-Year-Old Filly of 1982 when her wins included the Coaching Club American Oaks and the Monmouth Oaks.
  
  ## Background
  
  Christmas Past was bred and owned by Cynthia Phipps of the famous Phipps racing family. She was out of the mare Yule Log, a daughter of eight-time leading sire in North America and U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee Bold Ruler. Her sire was the 1964 French Champion Two-Year-Old Colt, Grey Dawn. She was conditioned for racing by Angel Penna, Jr.
  
  ## Racing career
  
  As a three-year-old in 1982, Christmas Past won five stakes races for fillies including the Coaching Club American Oaks by six lengths. Her performances earned her 1982 American Champion Three-Year-Old Filly honors.
  
  At age four, Christmas Past defeated her male counterparts in winning the February 26 Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Handicap in Florida. It marked only the second time in the thirty-seven year history of the race that a filly had won. A week later her owner decided to retire her from racing saying it was because of a variety of minor physical ailments that could hamper her running especially when she would be required to compete under heavy handicap weights that could increase the risk of a serious injury.
  
  ## Retirement and stud
  
  Retired to broodmare duty at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky, Christmas Past produced ten foals between 1985 and 2002, none of which won or placed in a stakes race.
  
  At age twenty-nine, Christmas Past was humanely euthanized on December 13, 2008, due to complications from the infirmities of old age. She was buried in the Marchmont Cemetery at Claiborne Farm.
  
  