Regaleira emphasizes the legacy of wind in her hair

In 1995, Irish-bred four-year-old Wind in Her Hair achieved a rare feat. Already a smart performer at the age of three, she captured the 1994 Newbury Fillies Trial Stakes and Pretty Polly Stakes, ran second to Balanchine in the Epsom Oaks (G1) and then finished third in the Yorkshire Oaks (G1). She was bred by Arazi the following spring and was in foal to that horse when she traveled to Gelsenkirchen, Germany, where she achieved success at the highest level, capturing the 1 1/2-mile Aral Pokal (G1).

The foal she bore, Glint in Her Eye, failed to place in seven starts but did produce Jeremy, a two-time group-winning and Group 1-placed miler, whose group and class-winning daughter, Queen Blossom, is the dam of the heroine of the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (French Thousand Guineas, G1) and Prix de Diane (French Oaks, G1) from 2023. 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 won the 2002 De La Rose Handicap (G3T). She then produced a pair of stakes winners in Japan. Veil of Avalon was followed by the Seeking the Gold daughter, Lady Blond. Sold as a yearling to Horse France, she won five races in Japan and was fourth in the 2003 Sprinters Stakes (a local Grade 1 at the time) in six starts. Lady Blond is a grader stakes producer and granddam of Golden King (King Kamehameha), 2017 champion in the 3-year-old colt and 2018 champion in the older horse in Japan, leader of the 3-year-old male in 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 found its way to Japan. There she was destined to have a race-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 grandmother of Japanese GC riders Luftstrom and Admire Miyabi, and third dam of 2025 Class 2 winner Admire Terra.

Wind in Her Hair’s first foal from a Japanese father was the Sunday Silence horse Black Tide. He raced from 2 to 7 and won just one black event, the 2004 Sho Spring Stakes – where he took the scalp of future champion Daiwa Major – before withdrawing to cover for a modest fee. Nevertheless, Black Tide has made his mark as the sire of two-time Japan Horse of the Year, Kitasan Black now a young top sire, especially of Longines World’s Best Racehorse 2023 Equinox .

Black Tide probably wouldn’t have even had a chance to be stud if it weren’t for the performance of his one year younger brother, Deep Impact. Deep Impact was champion and Japan Triple Crown winner at age 3 and champion again at age 4. Deep Impact was by far the most important stallion son of Sunday Silence, earning leading sire honors in Japan for eleven years in a row. Furthermore, in addition to a string of Japanese champions, Deep Impact has had an outstanding international impact including Auguste Rodin , Saxon warrior Snowfall, Fancy Blue, Study of man and Beauty Parlour, all class winners in the US, England, Ireland and France.

After Black Tide and Deep Impact, Wind in Her Hair produced just one more black-type winner, noted scorer New Beginning, but the bay mare, who is still alive at 34, had another notable one in store. That was her 2006 filly, Land’s Edge. Land’s Edge, a daughter of the Sunday Silence son Dance in the Dark and thus bred similarly to Black Tide and Deep Impact, failed to win and never produced a black-type winner. However, three of her daughters are responsible for notable runners.

All three, Bloukrans, Edgy Style and Roca, were represented by luminaries last year. Bloukrans is the mother of Stellenbosch successful in the Oka Sho 2024 (Japanese One Thousand Guineas, G1), and Edgy Style is the mother 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 long distance category in 2024.

The third of Land’s Edge’s 1st class producing daughters is Roca. Roca is a stakes artist and is from Harbinger, making it a sister of Edgy Style. Her star, Regaleira is a daughter of 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 has won this race since it became an open event in 2000, and the first time a 2-year-old filly has won an open race 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 won just three times started and finished eleventh in the Takarazuka Kinen (G1), winning the Sankei Sho All Comers (G2), and on November 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 produced five grader stakes winners from 75 starters. With another Sunday Silence stallion, Heart’s Cry, Suave Richard himself won five graduated stakes, including the 2019 Japan Cup (G1). On his mother’s side, he was bred in the US from Pirramimma, a 1997 Unbridled’s Song daughter, winner of the Sorrento Stakes (G2) and Landaluce Stakes (G2) and runner-up of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) Career Collection.

Regaleira and Urban Chic are products of the cross with mares from the Danehill line, which has produced five other ranking winners for Suave Richard’s sire, Heart’s Cry. It is notable that Heart’s Cry’s grandfather, Halo, is a grandson of the mare Almahmoud, and that Danehill is 3×3 inbred to Almahmoud’s daughter, Natalma (once through his grandfather, Northern Dancer, also a grandson of Almahmoud). As with a growing number of major Japanese stakes winners, the pedigree includes 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 grandmother, Land’s Edge, is a son of Sunday Silence out of a mare by a son of Lyphard.

We conclude by saying that the female line is best suited to produce a Queen Elizabeth II Cup winner such as Burghclere, the mother of Wind in Her Hair; Burghclere’s granddam, the 1974 One Thousand Guineas (G1) and Prix de Diane victor Highclere; and Highclere’s mother, Highlight, were all bred by the late Queen Elizabeth II. This happens to be the same #2 family (mtDNA haplotype L4a) as the aforementioned Almahmoud, which appears a total of nine times in the family tree.