Light Cavalry was a "big, rangy" heavily built bay horse with a white blaze and a white sock on his right hind leg bred by his owner Jim Joel. He was the only British classic winner sired by Brigadier Gerard, an outstanding racehorse who won seventeen of his eighteen races between 1970 and 1972 including the 2000 Guineas, Champion Stakes (twice), Eclipse Stakes and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Apart from Light Cavalry, his best offspring was probably the Champion Stakes winner Vayrann. Light 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).
