Happily could add more polish to a produce record that's so thrilling

The great broodmares belong on the highest pedestal, above even the most influential sires, as they accumulate multiple elite performers and manage to shape pedigrees despite being able to produce far fewer offspring than their male counterparts in the breeding shed.

So there is a special place in the thoroughbred pantheon reserved for esteemed names such as Mumtaz Mahal, Natalma and Selene and more recently Hasili and Urban Sea. The next to join this exalted company looks increasingly likely to be You'resothrilling.

Happily could seal the mare's immortality by becoming her third Classic winner from only five runners when she lines up for Sunday's Qipco 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket as favourite. She has already made it three Group 1 winners and a clean sweep of Pattern winners and Group 1 podium finishers for her dam by winning the Silver Flash Stakes, Moyglare Stud Stakes and Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere for trainer Aidan O'Brien and owners the Coolmore partners last year.

You'resothrilling, still only 13, has been mated with Coolmore kingpin Galileo in every year of her paddocks career and all her progeny have been retained by her owner Coolmore and sent to O'Brien.

Her first foal, Marvellous, was a three-length winner of the Irish 1,000 Guineas in 2014; her second, Gleneagles, won the National Stakes at two that same year and notched the Anglo-Irish 2,000 Guineas double and added the St James's Palace Stakes to his resume at three.

Happily: a sister to Classic winners Gleneagles and MarvellousCredit: Edward Whitaker

Next came Coolmore, who scored in the Group 3 CL and MF Weld Park Stakes at two and was third in the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks at three, and she was followed by Taj Mahal, who has taken the Group 2 Zipping Classic in Australia and finished second in the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes in the US.

That record stands up well to those of the other modern-day blue hens. Urban Sea's first five foals were Urban Ocean (Group 3 winner), Melikah (second in the Irish Oaks and talented producer), Galileo (three-time Group 1 winner and champion sire), Black Sam Bellamy (dual Group 1 winner and Group 1 sire) and Atticus (unraced).

YOU'RESOTHRILLING IN NUMBERS

2 wins in her own racing career - in the Cherry Hinton Stakes and Naas Sprint Stakes

5 offspring to have raced

5 offspring to have gained black type

3 offspring to have won at Group 1 level

2 offspring to have won Classics

£2,039,145 combined earnings of her progeny

Meanwhile, with her first five offspring Hasili reeled off Dansili (Group 2 winner and important sire), Banks Hill (three-time Group 1 winner and dam of a Group 1 winner), Heat Haze (dual Grade 1 winner), Intercontinental (dual Grade 1 winner) and Cacique (dual Grade 1 winner and talented sire despite subfertility).

Clearly You'resothrilling still has a little work to do to be mentioned in the same breath as that pair – Hasili went on to produce Champs Elysees, while Urban Sea later gave us yet another top-notcher in Sea The Stars, and both were responsible for colts and fillies who would also go on to produce Group 1 winners of their own – but it seems inconceivable she won't reach that status in the fullness of time.

Gleneagles - now standing at Coolmore - lands the St James's Palace StakesCredit: Charlie Crowhurst

After all, Gleneagles is being given every chance in his stallion career at Coolmore, daughters Marvellous and Coolmore will be granted the best coverings at paddocks and, most importantly of all, she has more of her own progeny in the pipeline - no two-year-old this year, but a yearling colt by Galileo and covered again by him in 2017.

You'resothrilling is following, and perhaps even improving upon, the example set by her own dam Mariah's Storm, a Grade 2-winning daughter of Rahy bought in foal to Storm Cat by Coolmore supremo John Magnier for $2.6 million at the Keeneland November Sale in 1996.

That foal carried in-utero at Keeneland turned out to be the 'iron horse' and multiple North American champion sire Giant's Causeway, whose death was announced last month. He and his full-sister You'resothrilling – winner of the Cherry Hinton Stakes and Naas Sprint Stakes – were among eight black-type performers out of Mariah's Storm, along with leading New York sire Freud.

Another daughter of Storm Cat and Mariah's Storm, Pearling, produced last year's triple Group 1 hero and Irish National Stud recruit Decorated Knight for owners Saleh Al Homaizi and Imad Al Sagar, while her half-sister by Sadler's Wells, Love Me Only, is the dam of Great Voltigeur Stakes winner and Irish Derby runner-up Storm The Stars.

Intriguingly, You'resothrilling and Hasili share the same fifth dam, Itsabet, winner of the Colonial Handicap and Prioress Stakes in 1948. Kaaptive Empress, the dam of Australian Group 1 winners Pressday and Press Statement, also descends from Itsabet.

This is evidently a family with a fine record for producing fabulous broodmares and win, lose or draw in the 1,000 Guineas, Happily looks to have all the qualities to eventually emulate You'resothrilling and Mariah's Storm by producing champions at stud herself.

If you enjoyed reading this, you might also like...

Coolmore success founded on a broodmare band of uncommon quality

Strong home support for Decorated Knight as he starts stallion career

The only rule with this unique sire is that there are no rules