YORK
The Middleton Stakes at York’s Dante meeting began in 1981. It’s a Group 2 for older fillies over a mile and a quarter. Prior to that, other less exalted Middleton Stakes and Handicaps there go back to 1971.
It most likely refers to one of the three Middletons in North Yorkshire. One in Ryedale has Middleton Hall, which is a large 18th century house, though not quite a stately home. That wasn’t the residence of the Lord Middletons, though one of them, the 8th, chose to live in the East Riding rather than the family seat in Nottinghamshire.
REDCAR
Redcar had its own Middleton Stakes from 1946 to until 1986.
Without a methodical search through the centuries I noticed there had been a Middleton Stakes at Epsom by 1830, at Oxford around 1879, Middleton Steeplechases at Sedgefield (1967) and Nottingham (1971-73). Perhaps the southern ones were inspired by the aristocrats whereas the northern ones were more likely to be named after places in Yorkshire.