Sun Briar

Sun Briar
Sun Briar at Court Manor Stud
Sire	Sundridge
Grandsire	Amphion
Dam	Sweet Briar
Damsire	St. Frusquin
Sex	Stallion
Foaled	1915
Country	France
Colour	Bay
Breeder	Marcel Boussac
Owner	Willis Sharpe Kilmer
Trainer	Henry McDaniel
Record	22: 8-4-5
Earnings	$74,355
Major wins
Great American Stakes (1917) Saratoga Special Stakes (1917) Grand Union Hotel Stakes (1917) Albany Handicap (1917) Hopeful Stakes (1917) Travers Stakes (1918) Delaware Handicap (Saratoga) (1918) Champlain Handicap (1919)
Awards
American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt (1917) American Champion Older Male Horse (1919)

Sun Briar (foaled 1915 in France) was a Thoroughbred racehorse retrospectively named the American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt of 1917 and the American Champion Older Male Horse of 1919 by writers from The Blood-Horse magazine. He was a son of Sundridge, the 1911 Champion sire in Great Britain who also sired Epsom Derby winner Sunstar. Sun Briar was out of the mare Sweet Briar, the daughter of St. Frusquin, a multiple winner of top-level races including the 1896 British Classic and the 2,000 Guineas Stakes. St. Frusquin was also a leading sire in Great Britain and Ireland in 1903 and the Leading broodmare sire in Great Britain & Ireland in 1924.

Sun Briar was sent from France to the 1916 Saratoga yearling auction by American bloodstock agent Delbert Reiff, where he was purchased for $6,000 by businessman Willis Sharpe Kilmer. Trained by future Hall of Fame inductee Henry McDaniel, in his Champion two-year-old season, the colt won five of his nine starts, including the 1917 Saratoga Special and Hopeful Stakes.

Not training well in the spring of 1918, Sun Briar did not run in the Kentucky Derby but by mid summer was in peak form. Under regular rider Willie Knapp, he set a North American record of 1:36 1/5 for one mile on dirt over an oval track while winning the Delaware Handicap. Less than two weeks later, Knapp and Sun Briar won the prestigious Travers Stakes in which he set a new stakes record for a mile and a quarter on dirt. In a September 1918 race against the clock at Saratoga, Sun Briar ran a mile in 1:34 flat.