IT is a big step up from winning a maiden to landing a Group 1, but this possibility must surely be in the mind of the teams at Ballydoyle and Coolmore for Toy, as doing so would elevate one of their broodmare band, You’resothrilling, to superstardom.

In the history of the thoroughbred, just three mares are credited with producing five individual Group or Grade 1 winning progeny. Yet, few mares have a record at stud as good as the Group 2 winner You’resothrilling, a daughter of Storm Cat (Storm Bird) and an own-sister to the great Giant’s Causeway (Storm Bird).

The significance of Toy’s maiden win alone cannot be overstated. She is the eighth foal, runner and winner for her dam, all of them by Galileo (Sadler’s Wells). Each of the seven previous winners gained blacktype, six of them are group winners, and four have won at the highest level. It is only a matter of time before one of the daughters of You’resothrilling extends the Group 1 record further.

Stakes company

Winner of the Group 3 Swordlestown Stud Sprint Stakes at Naas before adding the Group 2 Irish Thoroughbred Marketing Cherry Hinton at Newmarket, her only victories in seven starts, You’resothrilling had the distinction of only ever racing in stakes company. She was runner-up at Royal Ascot in the Group 3 Albany Stakes.

Being a full-sister to the brilliant Giant’s Causeway, it was inevitable that she would keep company with Galileo. Group 1 winners Marvellous, Gleneagles, the Cartier champion juvenile filly Happily and last year’s Group 1 Prix de Diane-French Oaks winner Joan Of Arc, as well as the Group/Grade 1 placed trio, Coolmore, Taj Mahal and Vatican City, are the mare’s first seven progeny. No pressure therefore on Toy!

Classic wins

Marvellous set the ball rolling when she landed the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas. Gleneagles was next and he proved to be outstanding over two seasons. He won the Group 1 Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes at two before adding the holy trinity of mile races the next season, the English and Irish 2000 Guineas and the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes. He is now a Group 1 sire.

Happily became the first filly in 31 years to win the Group 1 Qatar Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere when doing so five years ago, adding to a prior victory in the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes, before Joan Of Arc gave her dam a third major European classic winner.

Taj Mahal won a pair of Group 2 races in Australia, while Coolmore was a Group 3 winning juvenile. It is somewhat ironic that You’resothrilling’s only foal to earn blacktype and yet not win a stakes race, Vatican City, was the one who came closest to giving her a fourth classic winner, going down by less than two lengths to Siskin in the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas.