May-day was a British Thoroughbred racehorse who won the classic 1000 Guineas at Newmarket Racecourse in 1834. On her only subsequent start she was fatally injured in the Oaks Stakes at Epsom.
Born
1831
Overview
May-day (1831 – 30 May 1834) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse who won the classic 1000 Guineas at Newmarket Racecourse in 1834. On her only subsequent start she was fatally injured in the Oaks Stakes at Epsom.
Background
May-day was a chestnut filly bred near Brandon in Suffolk by her owner Robert Wilson, 9th Baron Berners. She was sired by Wilson's own stallion Lamplighter, a successful racehorse who won the Craven Stakes, The Whip and several King's Plates at Newmarket. May-day's dam, the Rubens mare, was an unnamed daughter of Rubens out of Tippitywitchet and was one of the outstanding broodmares of her time. Her other foals included the Ascot Gold Cup winner Camarine (foaled 1828), The Derby winner Phosphorus (1834) and the 1000 Guineas winner Firebrand (1839). Both Phosphorus and Firebrand were sired by Lamplighter making them full siblings to May-day.
Racing career
1833: two-year-old season
Until 1913 there was no requirement for British racehorses to have names, and many horses were known by the name of their owner or their pedigree. The filly who would become known as May-day made her first appearance as "Ld Berners's ch. f. by Lamplighter, out of Camarine's dam" in the Criterion Stakes at Newmarket on 28 October 1830. She was made the 4/1 second favourite in a field of thirteen two-year-olds, but finished unplaced behind Bentley.
