Midday (GB)
b f Oasis Dream – Midsummer (Kingmambo)
Sir Henry Cecil
Midday was for a long time Juddmonte’s most successful race filly/mare in Europe. By Juddmonte’s own Oasis Dream, she was born in 2006 and ran three times as a juvenile, winning once. She made her three-year-old season with a second in a Conditions event at Epsom, before putting herself into the Oaks frame when winning the Listed Oaks Trial at Lingfield by an impressive six lengths. In the Gr.1 Oaks itself however, she narrowly lost out on first place to Sariska.
After running third behind Sariska in the Gr.1 Irish Oaks, Midday landed the first of what would become a record-breaking three victories in the Gr.1 Nassau Stakes at Glorious Goodwood. A third place in the Gr.1 Prix de l’Opera at Longchamp followed, before Midday travelled to Santa Anita for the Gr.1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. She gave her trainer Henry Cecil his first ever winner at the meeting after a great ride to overcome a bad draw by jockey Tom Queally.
Returning to the track as a four-year-old, Midday once again found Sariska too good in the Gr.2 Middleton Stakes at York, but then notched up a trio of successive Group 1s in the Nassau Stakes, the Yorkshire Oaks and the Prix Vermeille defeating top-quality opposition such as Stacelita and Snow Fairy. In another tilt at the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf however – this time held at Churchill Downs – Midday had to settle for the runner-up slot, losing by a neck.
Midday ran seven times as a five-year-old, landing her third Nassau Stakes and also the Middleton Stakes. She was second to St Nicholas Abbey in the Gr.1 Coronation Stakes at Epsom, runner-up in the Gr.1 Pretty Polly Stakes at The Curragh, and second to stablemate Twice Over in the Gr.1 Juddmonte International – in the year in which Juddmonte had bred the first three home. After two unplaced runs in the Gr.1 Champion Stakes (fourth) and Breeders’ Cup Turf (seventh), Midday was retired to the Juddmonte broodmare band.
Midday’s first two foals – Midterm and Midi – were both rather aptly born around noon, and both went on to be stakes winners.