Regally bred Sea The Stars colt Knight To Behold puts rivals to the sword

The great Sea The Stars supplied his 71st stakes performer when Knight To Behold showed a chunk of improvement to make a winning three-year-old debut in the Listed Betfred Derby Trial Stakes at Lingfield on Saturday.

Sea The Stars has now supplied 25 Group winners - including eight that have struck at the highest level - and 21 Listed winners since retiring to the Aga Khan's Gilltown Stud in 2010 after a racing career that included seven Group 1 victories in events such as the 2,000 Guineas, the Derby and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

Knight To Behold now looks to set to emulate his sire by tackling Epsom's flagship event, the Derby. Bred by owner-breeder Neil Jones' Abergwaun Farms, Knight To Behold is the ninth foal out of the unraced Sadler's Wells mare Angel Of The Gwaun, who has produced six winners from as many runners.

Sea The Stars at the Aga Khan's Gilltown StudCredit: Patrick McCann

The mare has now produced three stakes performers, with her King's Best colt Cosmo Meadow landing a Grade 3 contest in Japan and Beauty O' Gwaun, a daughter of Rainbow Quest, winning the 2009 renewal of the Blue Wind Stakes for Jones and John Oxx.

Angel Of The Gwaun is related to some of Jones's most notable performers, including her brother Let The Lion Roar, who finished third to North Light in the 2004 Derby, and half-brother Millenary, who tasted Classic glory when winning the 2000 St Leger.

Knight To Behold also descends from a deep Ballymacoll Stud family rich in middle-distance talents, with the likes of Spectrum - sire of 2,000 Guineas winner Golan, Petrushka, Conduit and Glass Harmonium appearing beneath his third dam, Dancing Shadow.

The Sea The Stars over Sadler's Wells cross has already been responsible for one Classic winner courtesy of 2014 Oaks heroine Taghrooda.

The cross has supplied 17 winners, with other notable names bred along the same pattern including Hardwicke Stakes third Almodovar, the Listed-winning Crimean Tatar, Great Voltigeur Stakes winner Storm The Stars and Friday's impressive Nottingham scorer Raa Atoll.

Moreover, Taghrooda is not the only offspring of Sea The Stars to have struck in an Epsom Group 1, with his son, and now studmate, Harzand having landed the Derby and the Irish equivalent in 2016.

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