So let’s just get this straight so everybody gets this, as this is now officially local legend as from today.
A workman called Craciun Marius Dorin (Craciun means Christmas in Romanian) discovers a time capsule under Joseph Paxton’s bust in Crystal Palace Park on the 15 April 2026 and it contains a letter and coins urging the reader to bet on a Christmas themed horse. The coins in the letter came from a winning bet on Santa Claus in the 1964 Epsom Derby.
So the story is published on the BBC website the day before Derby Day.
And today a horse called Christmas Day wins the Derby.
The actual wording of the letter is asking the finder to bet on a horse “whose name can be associated in some way with Santa Claus”.
So I look up the sculptor of the bust and find he died on 24 December.