Teenoso third favourite for the Lingfield Derby Trial in May. He took the lead five furlongs from the finish and stayed on well to win by three lengths from Shearwalk. When Lester Piggott, who had won the race eight times previously, elected to ride Teenoso in the Derby, the colt was strongly supported in the betting and started 9/2 favourite in a field of twenty-one runners. Racing on the heaviest ground seen at Epsom for many years, Teenoso was among the leaders from the start. Piggott sent the colt into the lead early in the straight and he was never in
Light Cavalry (horse) Cavalry's dam Glass Slipper was a half-sister of the Derby winner Royal Palace and showed good form during a brief racing career, finishing second in the Musidora Stakes. A year after Light Cavalry was foaled, Glass Slipper produced Fairy Footsteps, a filly who won the 1000 Guineas in 1981. Joel sent the colt into training with Henry Cecil at his Warren Place stable in Newmarket, Suffolk. Light Cavalry was ridden in his all his races by the retained stable jockey: the veteran English jockeys Joe Mercer (as two-year-old and three-year-old) and Lester Piggott (as a four-year-old). On his racecourse debut,