FANTASY BELIEVER - A Horse of a Lifetime

FantasyFellow

FantasyFellow

At the Start
Joined
Jan 14, 2004
Messages
15
Location
East Anglia but trainers are: Mick Appleby, Ron Ha
I have to share the very sad news that I had to allow the vet to euthanize Fantasy Believer (FB) late last Friday evening, as a result of a bad attack of colic that did not respond to treatment.



For those of you that focus on flat racing I am sure you will remember Believer as a very smart sprinter. He took the spring to warm up and hit form in the summer and stayed there until the autumn.



I knew him as a good friend who gave so many special memories to me and the rest of the partnership.


I first met Believer when he was still a yearling on a stud in Hertfordshire.

A couple of months later I arranged for the trainer throughout his career John Quinn to buy him for me at the Doncaster sales. John trained FB well and we had some outstanding days and spent many hours discussing race plans over the years.


For much of FB's career I held his head whilst he was being saddled - I learned from doing this the days when he was really ready and up for it, the closer he got to biting me on these occasions - the better he would run.



In an awesome and consistent career that spanned 9 seasons between 2000 until 2009, Believer run 126 times and amassed 17 wins - none of which were in sellers or claimers.



He won on all types of going and at 14 different racecourses. During that time he was ridden by many jockeys. He received some excellent and some poor rides.


The best partnerships were with Darryll Holland, Jimmy Fortune and Jimmy Quinn, with notable mentions to the champion jockeys Kevin Darley and Kieren Fallon, both of whom in addition to contributing to Believer's wins also gave us some memorable days when we nearly won or would have won if.....after the 2005 Portland Fallon said he had never travelled so well on a sprinter.



Believer won his maiden at Musselburgh under the champion jockey to be Kevin Darley in 2000.



Then in 2001 he won an amazing 5 races during his three year old season. The wins started on grass at Kempton under Australian jockey Craig Williams, then were followed by successes at Lingfield (Fallon) and Ripon (Winston). Better was still to come as he then had a fantastic win in a class 2 6f sprint at the Ascot Festival of Racing when ridden by the then apprentice Paul Fitzsimons. This was then topped by a win against older horses and his stable mate Smart Predator at Doncaster's final meeting back over 5f on heavy ground, from a flag start under a great Jimmy Fortune ride.



Further wins followed in 2003 at Ayr (Darley), Ascot (Holland) and Newcastle (Holland). However the most exciting part of this season was FB's first of many annual runs in the AYR GOLD CUP. On this occasion FB hit the front a little too soon, with a bit of overweight and ended up being fourth beaten only a length by the remarkable Quito.


Between 2004 and 2006 we aimed FB at the top sprint handicaps - he deserved one.



In 2004 wins at Newbury (Holland) and Newcastle (Apprentice: Tony Hamilton) were followed by the double agony of being second in the STEWARDS CUP (Holland) - slowly away, won race on his side, to be beaten by the Group horse in a handicap Pivotal Point; and also the AYR GOLD CUP (Hamilton) - went a bit too soon and allowed to drift too close to the leader and eventual winner, Funfair Wane, whose jockey managed to hit FB across the nose with his whip causing him to lose momentum on soft ground.



2005 was a nearly season, with only a win at Epsom (Fenton) a third in the Stewards Cup and fifth in the Ayr Gold Cup (second on his side) and a few other places to show for all of FB's consistency.



FB repeated the feat of 5 wins in a season in 2006, where his wins concluded with the Listed Rous Stakes over 5f at Newmarket (Quinn). This followed a 3 length win in the Portland heritage handicap (Quinn) which was the long awaited and overdue major handicap that Believer deserved. It was run at York that year and shall probably always remain as the happiest and most emotional day of my racing life.

Earlier in this glorious year FB had started his winning spree at Pontefract (Holland) then won the Stewards Sprint at Goodwood (Fortune) in a faster time than the following days Stewards Cup. He then followed up a few weeks later with another win at Goodwood, this time under Jimmy Quinn's steering for the first time.



Unfortunately 2007 was a difficult year, spent mostly fighting the handicapper and which ended with FB being struck into from behind during the last run of the season at Doncaster and receiving his first major injury.


With hindsight perhaps we should have retired him then, but how do you let the horse of a lifetime without a final win? Alas it was not to be and even though FB with better luck would have won at Sandown in June 2009, we eventually retired him after a gallant second at Epson in July 2009.



I had expected FB to have a long and happy retirement having placed him in a good livery literally half a mile down the road from my home.

He had been enjoying himself this year.

It is so sad that at only 13 years of age, my friend is no longer with us.
 
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A really heart felt story, what a great servent to you and his compatriots down the line.

Sorry for your loss
 
Thanks for sharing what is clearly a very personal and moving story and I hope you don't mind if I add some stories I've read as a tribute to this truly wonderful horse.

Horse Racing: FANTASY OF A LIFETIME; FOCUS ON THE FLAT HARDY PERENNIALS Tom O'Ryan talks to John Quinn, trainer of near-centurion Fantasy Believer. March 2007

HARD-WEARING. Long lasting. Satisfaction guaranteed. Okay, so it's not ordinary terminology to describe a racehorse. But then this is no ordinary racehorse.

Fantasy Believer is about to begin his eighth season of competitive action, and is just one race away from becoming a honourable centurion. His 99 starts have yielded 17 wins, a similar number of placed efforts, and prize-money as close to pounds 300,000 as makes no difference. That's not all. He may be nudging the twilight period of his career, but he starts the new term on his highest-ever rating following a vintage campaign in 2006 when he won no fewer than five races, including the Portland Handicap at York and Newmarket's Rous Stakes, his first success in Listed company.

Is it any surprise that John Quinn, his only trainer, fondly regards him as one of the family? Is it any wonder that the conscientious Irishman can vividly remember the moment a simple flick of his catalogue at Doncaster's St Leger yearling sales secured him the sort of bargain others can only dream about. The hammer fell, for this son of Sure Blade, at 8,000gns.

"You wouldn't run down the street to get one by Sure Blade, but what I liked about this lad was that he was the real make and shape of a horse," recalls Quinn. "He had a great body and great limbs. His soundness has been one of his main fortes - that coupled with his toughness."

He was gelded before he ran. "I'm almost always in favour of gelding them before you even start," says the Malton trainer, who, true to his word, has already castrated all but three of his current batch of male juveniles. "It's racehorses we're hoping to get," he explains. "It makes the job a lot easier, and Fantasy Believer was never going to have stallion potential. He had a very light pedigree, and in any case would have become a top-heavy horse if he'd remained a colt."

Precocious from the start, he was never out of the first four in his first five races and finished second three times before getting off the mark under Kevin Darley at Musselburgh in July 2000. Little can anyone have realised, but it was the beginning of an enduring, star-spangled career.

Having started his three-year-old campaign on a mark in the mid-70s, he had dropped to 68 before winning for a second time at Kempton in June. But progress was then swift and spectacular. He wound up by clinching a total of five handicaps, including one at Ascot, and defied a rating of 91 when getting the better of his stablemate Smart Predator at Doncaster in October.

"The following year, though, he had a complete blank," says Quinn. "He was probably in the grip of the handicapper, but I honestly thought it was all over, I don't know why."

It was far from over. Far from experiencing another 'complete blank', he has since carved out a specialist niche for himself as a professional's professional among the sprinting brigade, notching a further 11 wins and a whole host of placed efforts, including the Ayr Gold Cup and Stewards' Cup. The 2004 renewal of the latter is, says his trainer, "the one that got away".

Quinn explains: "He was in the stalls a long time and completely missed the break. After two furlongs, he only had one horse behind him. He gave the winner, Pivotal Point, ten lengths start and at the line was a length behind him in second. That season was the best he'd been in his life - he also finished second in the Ayr Gold Cup - until last year, when he was red-hot again.

"Winning five was unbelievable, and he didn't just win the Portland, he smashed them. That was the highlight, but winning his first Listed race at Newmarket was also tremendous."

Quinn has never ceased to admire Fantasy Believer's enduring qualities. He says: "A lot of horses compete in heritage handicaps for one season and you never see them again. But, to his credit, this horse has been doing that since he was three, and now he's nine. He's got a great constitution, and he's tough. He's very strong to ride at home - you wouldn't be putting kids on him. He's a man of a horse and very much his own man. He's no teddy bear.

"In his box, he'd soon give you a nip, and when he's turned out in the paddock between races, he'd always go out on his own - he'd take lumps out of another horse otherwise."

Undercooked rather than overcooked is Quinn's motto with sprinters - "they'd kill each other if you started working them together". That said, he is making a conscious effort to have Fantasy Believer ready earlier this season than before.

"Off a rating of 104, he's going to have to mix it in Listed and Group 3 races, so he's got to be ready," says Quinn. "He'll start off in a Listed race at the Craven meeting, and then go back to Newmarket for another one at the Guineas meeting. If, after two or three races, he can't match them at that level, he can slip back into handicaps. We'll just see how we go. He owes nobody anything."

Not least Tony Blewitt, who heads the Fantasy Fellowship B partnership, lucky owners of a horse who has become a virtual institution. Quinn adds: "Tony and the lads have had some great days with him, and they've already put aside a pension fund for him from the prize-money he's won. You won't be seeing him in a claimer at the age of 12, that's for sure. He'll have an honourable retirement."

Not, though, just yet. Fantasy Believer is hale, hearty and happy as he prepares for another campaign - with his 100th race firmly etched on the horizon.
 
Good sprinters must be one of the best type of horses to own. They can run more often than those going over longer distances and there are suitable races for them most weekends. To own one as tough and durable as FB must have been a ball.
 
Grey said:
Good sprinters must be one of the best type of horses to own. They can run more often than those going over longer distances and there are suitable races for them most weekends. To own one as tough and durable as FB must have been a ball.
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Agree Grey, just not in this Country.
 
My one and only pony died from colic so I know how awful it is. What a dream horse he must have been. Although I'd always wanted to own a racehorse one day I realised that, if I did [it's never going to happen] a sprinter would be what I'd enjoy the most. You've lived out my fantasy as an owner. So sorry that you've lost him.
 
What? No programme for Listed class 5f-6f horses in Ireland? Are you forgetting to count the races won by Nicholls, Fahey et al with their raiders?
 
From childhood I always dreamed of owning a steeplechaser [growing up in the Arkle/Mill House era]. As my interest in racing grew over the years I realised that I was a complete wreck watching horses jumping fences and knew that, if it was my own I'd be an even bigger wreck. As I started to look at other races I found that the sprint handicappers were the ones that raced many times during the season..the race was over quite quickly so less time to be nervous, and the horses came back year after year unlike the fly by nights that ran over other distances. I now love the long distance handicaps, like the Ebor for the same reason. But, as I said, it's never going to happen unless I win the lottery.
 
So sorry for your loss FF. What a fantastic horse Believer was. It must have been such a privilege to have been so closely connected with him.

I hope that the sadness fades soon and lets you enjoy all those wonderful memories.
 
So sorry to see this - makes sense of your message now, its horrible when you have to make the decision for them, but its the most loving thing an owner can do for their animal.

RIP FB, you were loved, and were a total star.
 
As someone who's got to know the Fantasy Fellowship over several years, I know that they will be devastated that Believer is not going to enjoy a fuller and most thoroughly deserved retirement for the time he should have expected.

My sincere commiserations go out to those lovely people, who I know do really care about their Fantasy horses. Believer wasn't just a truly good racehorse, he was also extremely good-looking, and would've done show classes proud.

Truly saddened for you and the group, Tony, and I hope you'll give them all a big hug from me.
 
Just read this - so sorry about this news. He was a fabulous racehorse, so brave and determined - and fast! It must have been a real pleasure to be associated with him, it was certainly a joy to just watch him.

You did right by him, hard as it was, and gave him a dignified end to a wonderful life.
 
Grey said:
What? No programme for Listed class 5f-6f horses in Ireland? Are you forgetting to count the races won by Nicholls, Fahey et al with their raiders?
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If one or two of them are better than yours you'll never win a race. Options.
 
just found this and very sorry to read. he was a real favorite of mine and I just loved to follow him. keeping animals unfortunatly means heartbreak far too often, and always so much harder to take when so young.

my commiserations.
 
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