[AusRace] RIP Lester Piggott

L.B.Loveday lloveday at ozemail.com.au
Tue May 31 07:20:04 AEST 2022



	 

RIP LESTER PIGGOTT – YOUR LEGEND LIVES ON

	The greatest flat jockey of all time changed horse racing forever.   
[1] 
 [2] [3]

 MICK HUME 
COLUMNIST 

 [4] [5]30th May 2022 [6] [7] [8] [9]      Share    Topics Culture
[10]    

	Every media obituary has rightly hailed Lester Piggott, the great
champion flat jockey who died on Sunday aged 86, as ‘a legend’ of
horse racing. Yet Lester’s legend was built on characteristics that
might be frowned upon in fashionable sports coverage today, from his
ruthless will to win at all costs to his refusal to play the celebrity
game.       

	Piggott in later life became officially revered as an icon: hailed as
‘the queen’s favourite jockey’, recognised with a statue at
Epsom racecourse – where he won the Derby a remarkable nine times
– and by having the annual jockey awards named ‘the Lesters’  

	During his riding career, however, the younger Lester was an unlikely
rebel. Frowned upon and persecuted by the upper-class racing
establishment, he changed the sport forever and helped free
professional jockeys from their lowly status as bonded servants in
riding breeches.          

	Piggott’s father and taskmaster, Keith, himself a successful jockey
and trainer, taught the young Lester that winning was what mattered.
Lester rode his first winner in 1948, when he was just 12 years old;
these days he would not legally be permitted to do a paper round
riding a bike at that age. He rode his first Derby winner, fittingly
called Never Say Die, in 1954, aged 18; none of today’s young star
protégés has come anywhere near that.  

	Over his career, Piggott rode 4,493 winners in the UK, his record
nine Derby triumphs among a record 30 winners in British Classics. He
finally retired in 1985. But after serving more than a year in jail
for tax evasion, he staged one of the greatest sporting comebacks of
all time. Arriving in the US to ride Royal Academy in the prestigious
Breeders’ Cup Mile days before his 55th birthday, he duly came from
last to first to win on the line, the richest victory of his long
career.    [11] 
 [12] [13]
 [14] [15]    

	Only his iron discipline and drive allowed Lester to ride any winners
at all. At five foot eight, he was really too big to be a flat jockey.
Known as ‘the Long Fellow’ he spent his life constantly fasting,
apparently living on little more than a cigar in order to ride at up
to 30 pounds below his natural bodyweight. (Asked why he famously rode
with his backside stuck high in the air, the relatively long-legged
Piggott replied, ‘I’ve got to put it somewhere’.)  

	But the lithe Lester had the strength to push his horse to win in
countless driving finishes, often using the whip in a rat-a-tat style
that would be frowned on today. He was also notoriously unafraid to
push rival jockeys out of his way, whether physically during a race or
beforehand by persuading top trainers and owners to ‘jock off’
their regular riders and let him ride a promising horse instead.      
   

	It may not always be true that nice guys come last, but champions
surely often have to be hard. And as veteran racing commentator Brough
Scott writes, Piggott was ‘the hardest of the hard’, capable of
winning a Classic race only days after being trapped in a starting
stall by a bucking horse and almost having his ear torn off.  

	The taciturn Lester’s apparent standoffishness (a condition
exacerbated by his partial deafness) earned him the alternative
nickname of ‘Old Stoneface’. Despite reportedly displaying a dry
wit in private, Piggott exuded none of the public charm of friend and
admirer Frankie Dettori, racing’s national treasure and the only
more recent jockey fit to pull up Lester’s riding boots.     [16] 
 [17] [18] [19]

 [20] [21]    

	As Piggott’s old rival, Willie Carson, observes, unlike today’s
celebrity sportsmen the ‘iconic’ Lester ‘didn’t care what
people were going to think about him’. But never mind the PR. More
importantly, as Carson also says, Lester ‘changed the way things
were done from his early days until he retired’, and other jockeys
‘were better off for his endeavours’. 

	Not only did Piggott raise the professional standards of jockeyship
and force others to follow suit – he also changed the status of
professional jockeys.          

	The old-school-tie establishment that ran British racing never liked
the young upstart, frequently punishing Piggott with
longer-than-normal bans for ruthless riding. It liked Lester even less
when, in 1967, he tore up convention, gave up his job as stable jockey
to trainer Noel Murless and became the first top rider to go
freelance. Everybody predicted it would be a disaster. Instead,
Piggott’s career and finances reached new highs.  

	Until Piggott came along, even champion jockeys were supposed to be
cap-doffing serfs, calling owners and trainers ‘Mister’ and doing
as they were told. Lester broke that old mould forever and created the
modern superstar jockey. His obsession with money as well as winning
would eventually lead to his conviction and jail sentence for tax
evasion. (Even then, some thought Piggott was the fall guy for the top
hats who had willingly paid him off the books, none of whom were ever
charged.)         

	I grew up surrounded by prints of Piggott’s great rides on the
walls of our family home, with one of 1970 triple crown winner
Nijinsky enjoying pride of place. (I still have it, sporting
Lester’s signature next to a hair from the history-making horse’s
tail.) If George Best was my 1960s sporting hero, Piggott was my
father’s. It was a happy day in the Hume household when Lester won
the Derby on Sir Ivor in the afternoon, and Georgie scored as
Manchester United won the European Cup the same evening. It was 29 May
1968, and Lester died on the 54th anniversary of that great day. 

	The last time I saw Piggott in person was almost 20 years ago at the
late, great Walthamstow dog track, giving out prizes alongside a TV
racing personality of the time. A youngish punter next to me asked,
‘Who’s that little old bloke with Big John McCririck?’. Such is
the fickle culture of celebrity with which we now live. McCririck
might be long gone and largely forgotten. But a legend such as Lester
will live on in the memories of all who saw him, and hopefully the
hearts of all who love real sport.        

	As no finer judge than Frankie Dettori tweeted [22] on Sunday, ‘The
greatest of all time. Rest in peace my friend.’ MICK HUME is a
_spiked_ columnist.

Links:
------
[1] https://www.spiked-online.com/author/mick-hume/
[2] https://www.spiked-online.com/author/mick-hume/
[3] https://www.spiked-online.com/author/mick-hume/
[4] https://www.spiked-online.com/author/mick-hume/
[5] https://www.spiked-online.com/author/mick-hume/
[6] https://www.spiked-online.com/author/mick-hume/
[7] https://www.spiked-online.com/author/mick-hume/
[8] https://www.spiked-online.com/author/mick-hume/
[9] https://www.spiked-online.com/author/mick-hume/
[10] https://www.spiked-online.com/topic/culture/
[11]
https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/05/26/get-your-copy-of-how-woke-won/
[12]
https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/05/26/get-your-copy-of-how-woke-won/
[13]
https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/05/26/get-your-copy-of-how-woke-won/
[14]
https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/05/26/get-your-copy-of-how-woke-won/
[15]
https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/05/26/get-your-copy-of-how-woke-won/
[16]
https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/05/28/chris-mcglades-class-war/
[17]
https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/05/28/chris-mcglades-class-war/
[18]
https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/05/28/chris-mcglades-class-war/
[19]
https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/05/28/chris-mcglades-class-war/
[20]
https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/05/28/chris-mcglades-class-war/
[21]
https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/05/28/chris-mcglades-class-war/
[22]
https://twitter.com/FrankieDettori/status/1530853375167832067?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

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