Her sire, Royal Charger was a successful sprinter and miler who was trained by Jarvis to win the Queen Anne Stakes and the Ayr Gold Cup in 1946.
Happy Laughter's dam, Bray Melody was a great-granddaughter of the influential broodmare Verve, whose other descendants include Greek Money, Shirley Heights and Pentire.
[2] As a yearling, the filly was sent to the sales at Doncaster where she was bought for 3,500 Guinea by the Newmarket trainer Jack Jarvis on behalf of the owner and breeder David Wills.
In the Free Handicap, a ranking of the best two-year-olds to have raced in Britain, Happy Laughter was rated twelve pounds below her stable companion Tessa Gillian, the winner of the Molecomb Stakes.
In April she made her first appearance of the season in the Free Handicap over seven furlongs at Newmarket in which she finished second to Good Brandy, a colt who was carrying five pounds less than the runner-up.
[9] In their book A Century of Champions, based on a modified version of the Timeform system John Randall and Tony Morris rated Happy Laughter an “average” winner of the 1000 Guineas.