Mid-day Sun

Mid-day Sun
Mid-day Sun, ridden by Michael Beary, in 1937 in a photograph by Frank Griggs
Sire	Solario
Grandsire	Gainsborough
Dam	Bridge of Allan
Damsire	Phalaris
Sex	Stallion
Foaled	1934
Country	United Kingdom
Colour	Bay
Breeder	William Thomas Sears
Owner	Lettice Miller (Mrs G. B. Miller)
Trainer	Fred Butters
Record	15: 6-1-2
Earnings	£
Major wins
Free Handicap (1937) Lingfield Derby Trial (1937) Epsom Derby (1937) Hardwicke Stakes (1937)

Mid-day Sun (1934–1954) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. After showing little promise as a two-year-old in 1936, Mid-day Sun improved into top class performer at three. In 1937 he won five races including the Epsom Derby and the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot. He was retired to stud in 1938 but had little success as a stallion. He was the first winner of the Derby at Epsom to be owned by a woman.

Mid-day Sun was a bay horse bred in England by W. T. Sears. As a yearling he was sent to the sales at Newmarket but attracted little interested and did not reach his reserve price of 2,000 guineas. Shortly afterwards, a private sale was arranged by the trainer Fred Butters, acting on the advice of his more famous elder brother Frank, and the colt entered the ownership of Lettice Miller (officially Mrs G. B. Miller). Butters, took charge of the colt’s training at his stables at Kingsclere, Berkshire.

Mid-day Sun’s sire, Solario was an outstanding racehorse who won the Coronation Cup and the Ascot Gold Cup in 1926, before going on to be Champion sire three times. His dam, Bridge of Allan, was a minor winner and a half sister of the 2000 Guineas runner-up Knockando.

Mid-day Sun did little in his two-year-old season to suggest that he was a potential Classic winner. He lost his first six races, his best effort coming when he finished sixth to Perifox in the Richmond Stakes at Goodwood. At Newmarket on October 13 Mid-day Sun recorded his first win when carrying a light weight in a one-mile Nursery (a handicap race for two-year-olds). He then finished second in a similar event at the same course two weeks later, failing to give seventeen pounds to the winner. At the end of the season he was rated on 99 pounds, more than thirty pounds below the top-rated colt Foray.