In 1995, the Irish-bred 4-year-old Wind in Her Hair achieved a rare feat. A smart performer at 3, at that age she captured the 1994 Newbury Fillies Trial Stakes and Pretty Polly Stakes, ran second to Balanchine in the Epsom Oaks (G1), and then was third in the Yorkshire Oaks (G1). Bred to Arazi the following spring, she was in foal to that horse when she journeyed to Gelsenkirchen in Germany, where she achieved success at the highest level, capturing the 1 1/2-mile Aral Pokal (G1).
The foal that she was carrying, Glint in Her Eye, failed to place in seven starts, but did produce Jeremy, a dual group-winning and group 1-placed miler, whose group- and graded-winning daughter, Queen Blossom, figures as the dam of the 2023 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches (French One Thousand Guineas, G1) and Prix de Diane (French Oaks, G1) heroine, Blue Rose Cen.
Wind in Her Hair's second foal, the Thunder Gulch filly Veil of Avalon, won in England before returning to the United States, where she took the 2002 De La Rose Handicap (G3T). Subsequently, she produced a pair of stakes winners in Japan. Veil of Avalon was followed by the Seeking the Gold daughter, Lady Blond. Sold to Horse France as a yearling, she won five races in Japan and ran fourth in the 2003 Sprinters Stakes (a local grade 1 at the time) in six starts. A graded stakes producer, Lady Blond also appears as granddam of Rey de Oro (King Kamehameha), 2017 champion 3-year-old colt and 2018 champion older horse in Japan, leading 3-year-old male on the Longines World's Best Racehorse Rankings in the long distance category in 2017, and successful in the 2017 Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby, G1) and 2018 Tenno Sho (Autumn) (G1).
The same year that Lady Blond was exported, Wind in Her Hair also made her way to Japan. There, she was destined to have a breed-changing impact. At the time, she was carrying a Danehill filly, Like the Wind. She failed to make the frame in four starts, but is the granddam of Japanese graded scorers Luftstrom and Admire Miyabi, and third dam of Admire Terra, a grade 2 winner in 2025.
Wind in Her Hair's first foal by a Japanese sire was the Sunday Silence horse Black Tide. He raced from 2 to 7, winning just one black-type event, the 2004 Sho Spring Stakes—where he did take the scalp of subsequent champion Daiwa Major—before retiring to stud at a modest fee. Despite that, Black Tide has made his mark as sire of two-time Japan Horse of the Year, Kitasan Black, now a top young sire, notably of 2023 Longines World's Best Racehorse Equinox.
Black Tide probably wouldn't even have been given a shot at stud had it not been for the feats of his year-younger brother, Deep Impact. Champion and Japan Triple Crown winner at 3, and champion again at 4, Deep Impact was by far and away the most important stallion son of Sunday Silence, earning honors as leading sire in Japan for 11 straight years. What's more, in addition to a string of Japanese champions, Deep Impact made an outstanding international impact, including Auguste Rodin, Saxon Warrior, Snowfall, Fancy Blue, Study of Man , and Beauty Parlour, all class winners in the U.S., England, Ireland, or France.
Following Black Tide and Deep Impact, Wind in Her Hair produced just one more black-type winner, the listed scorer New Beginning, but the bay mare, who is still alive at the age of 34, did have one more notable to come. That was her 2006 filly, Land's Edge. A daughter of the Sunday Silence son Dance in the Dark and so bred similarly to Black Tide and Deep Impact, Land's Edge failed to win and never produced a black-type winner. Three of her daughters, however, are responsible for notable runners.
All three, Bloukrans, Edgy Style, and Roca, were represented by standouts last year. Bloukrans is the dam of Stellenbosch, successful in the 2024 Oka Sho (Japanese One Thousand Guineas, G1), and Edgy Style is the dam of the Suave Richard colt Urban Chic, winner of the Kikuka Sho (Japanese St. Leger, G1) and co-leading 3-year-old male on the Longines World's Best Racehorse rankings in the extended distance category in 2024.
The third of Land's Edge's grade 1-producing daughters is Roca. A graded stakes-placed performer, Roca is by Harbinger, and so a sister to Edgy Style. Her star, Regaleira, is by Suave Richard, which means she has an identical pedigree to Urban Chic. Winner in 2023 of the Hopeful Stakes (G1)—the first time a filly had won this race since it became an open event in 2000, and the first time a 2-year-old filly had won an open contest since 1980—Regaleira made history again last year as the first 3-year-old filly to capture the Arima Kinen (G1) since 1960. This term, Regaleira has started just three times, finishing eleventh in the Takarazuka Kinen (G1), winning the Sankei Sho All Comers (G2), and Nov. 16, the Queen Elizabeth II Cup (G1).
Regaleira and Urban Chic are the first and second grade 1 winners from the first crop of Suave Richard, which has supplied five graded stakes winners from 75 starters. By another Sunday Silence stallion, Heart's Cry, Suave Richard himself won five graded stakes, including the 2019 Japan Cup (G1). He was U.S.-bred on the dam's side, out of Pirramimma, an Unbridled's Song daughter of 1997 Sorrento Stakes (G2) and Landaluce Stakes (G2) winner and Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) runner-up Career Collection.
Regaleira and Urban Chic are products of the cross with Danehill-line mares which has produced five other graded stakes winners for Suave Richard's sire, Heart's Cry. It's notable that Heart's Cry's grandsire, Halo, is a grandson of the mare Almahmoud, and Danehill is inbred 3x3 to Almahmoud's daughter, Natalma (once through his grandsire, Northern Dancer, also a grandson of Almahmoud). Like a growing number of major Japanese stakes winners, the pedigree features inbreeding to both Sunday Silence and Lyphard (a son of Northern Dancer): Heart's Cry is by Sunday Silence and has a second dam by Lyphard, and Regaleira's granddam, Land's Edge, is by a son of Sunday Silence out of a mare by a son of Lyphard.
We'll conclude by noting that the female line is a most appropriate one to produce a Queen Elizabeth II Cup winner, as Burghclere, the dam of Wind in Her Hair; Burghclere's granddam, the 1974 One Thousand Guineas (G1) and Prix de Diane victress Highclere; and Highclere's dam, Highlight, were all bred by the late Queen Elizabeth II. This just happens to be the same #2 family (mtDNA haplotype L4a) as the previously mentioned Almahmoud, who appears a total of nine times in the pedigree.
