Two of the Queen’s greatest days in racing came in 1974, when her wonderful Dick Hern-trained filly Highclere won the 1,000 Guineas and the Prix de Diane.
Highclere’s descendants have spread themselves across the globe in the subsequent 38 years, during which period her influence has continued to grow. Most recently, her mighty shadow cast itself this weekend across the Classic picture in both France and Ireland.
In France, the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (France’s equivalent of the 1,000 Guineas) fell to the unbeaten filly Beauty Parlour, a Japanese-conceived but British-bred daughter of Deep Impact, the former Japanese champion who ranks as probably the greatest of all the great horses sired by the late Sunday Silence.
Deep Impact is a great-grandson of Highclere, through the latter’s Oaks-placed grand-daughter Wind In Her Hair, who was exported to Japan early in her stud career.
Irish National Stud stallion Jeremy
In Ireland, the Leopardstown 1,000 Guineas Trial fell to the Dermot Weld-trained Yellow Rosebud, a member of the first crop of the young Irish National Stud sire Jeremy.
A Group 2 winner at Sandown as a four-year-old in 2007 when trained by Sir Michael Stoute, Jeremy has Highclere as his fourth dam, being out of Wind In Her Hair’s US-bred first foal Glint In Her Eye, a daughter Arazi.
