Lester Piggott - WikiHorseWorld Horse Articles
Lester Piggott
Jockey
Lester Keith Piggott (born 5 November, 1935) is a retired English professional jockey , popularly known as "The Long Fellow". [1] [2] He is considered to be the best of his generation and the greatest English flat jockey of all time, with 4,493 career wins, including nine Derby victories.
Contents
11 External links
Family background and personal life
Lester Piggott was born in Wantage to a family that could trace its roots as jockeys and trainers back to the 18th Century. [3] His grandfather Ernie Piggott (1878-1941) owned a racehorse stable at The Old Manor in Letcombe Regis and his father Keith Piggott (1904-1993) another at South Bank in Lambourn , where Lester lived until 1954. [4] Ernie Piggott rode three Grand National winners, in 1912, 1918 and 1919 and was married to a sister of the jockeys Mornington Cannon and Kempton Cannon, who both rode winners of the Derby, in 1899 and 1904 respectively. Keith Piggott was a successful National Hunt jockey and trainer, winning the Champion Hurdle as a jockey in 1939 and the Grand National as a trainer in 1963 with Ayala, becoming the British jump racing Champion Trainer of the 1962-63 season. Lester Piggott is the cousin, through his mother Iris Sargent, of two other jockeys, Bill and Fred Rickaby. Fred Rickaby was British flat racing Champion Apprentice in 1931 and 1932.
Piggott is married to Susan Armstrong. Her father Sam Armstrong and Robert Armstrong were both racehorse trainers. They have two daughters, Maureen, an ex- eventer (married to Derby-winning trainer William Haggas) and Tracy (a sports presenter on Irish television station RTÉ). He also has a son, Jamie, from a relationship with Anna Ludlow. [5] His house is named after a famous racehorse from history - Florizel .
Career as a jockey
Piggott began racing horses from his father's stable when he was 10 years old and won his first race in 1948, aged 12 years, on a horse called The Chase at Haydock Park . A teenage sensation, he rode his first winner of the Epsom Derby on Never Say Die in 1954 aged 18 years and went on to win eight more, on Crepello (1957), St. Paddy (1960), Sir Ivor (1968), Nijinsky (1970), Roberto (1972), Empery (1976), The Minstrel (1977) and Teenoso (1983). He was stable jockey to Noel Murless and later to Vincent O'Brien and had a glittering career of unparalleled success. Known as the "housewives' favourite", Piggott had legions of followers and did much to expand the popularity of horse racing beyond its narrow, class-based origins.
Famously tall for a jockey (5 ft 8 in/1.73 m), hence his nickname of "The Long Fellow", Lester Piggott struggled to keep his weight down and for most of his career rode at little more than 8 stone (112 lb/51 kg). He pioneered a new style of race-riding that was subsequently widely adopted by colleagues at home and abroad and enabled him to become Champion Jockey 11 times. There can be little doubt that had he not chosen after the 1971 season to ride more selectively that he would have won more championships.
In 1980 his relationship with the Sangster — O'Brien combination came to an end and in a jockeys' merry-go-round he was appointed as stable jockey to Noel Murless's son-in law Henry Cecil , the British flat racing Champion Trainer , at Murless's old stables, Warren Place. He was again champion jockey in 1981 and 1982. However, as the result of a dispute in late 1983 as to whether he had reneged on an agreement to ride Daniel Wildenstein 's All Along the ride went to young Walter Swinburn in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe , Wildenstein refused to allow him to ride any more of his horses. It was costly for Piggott, as All Along won the Arc and a string of other international races in an autumn campaign that ended with her being named U.S. Horse of the Year . Further, as Wildenstein was one of Cecil's principal owners, this placed a strain on the relationship, and in 1984 Cecil and Piggott split, with Steve Cauthen taking over at Warren Place.
Like many other jockeys and trainers Lester lives near the Home of Racing at Newmarket in Suffolk.
Later career and conviction for tax evasion
After he retired from riding horses at the end of the 1985 flat season, Piggott became a racehorse trainer. At its peak, his Eve Lodge stables had housed 97 residents and sent out 34 winners. In 1987 he was jailed for 3 years, of which he served 366 days, for tax irregularities. The following year he was stripped of his OBE (which he had been awarded in 1975) because of tax evasion. He resumed his career as a jockey in 1990 following his release from jail, winning the Breeders' Cup Mile on Royal Academy within ten days of his return, and riding another Classic winner, Rodrigo de Triano, in the 1992 2000 Guineas . He rode his last winner in October 1994 and officially retired, this time for good, in 1995.
Illness
On Tuesday 15 May 2007 he was admitted to intensive care in a Swiss hospital following a recurrence of a previous heart problem. His wife stated that this illness is not life-threatening and that he was recovering in intensive care as a precaution. [1] He attended Royal Ascot in June 2007 [6] and the Epsom Derby in June 2008 where he tipped the winner, New Approach, during a BBC television interview. He was also present for Gold Cup day at the Cheltenham Festival in March 2009, where he was interviewed in the parade ring.
Recognition
The annual jockey awards The Lesters , inaugurated in 1990, are named in his honour.
Major wins
Breeders' Cup Mile - (1) - Royal Academy (1990)
Washington, D.C. International - (3) - Sir Ivor (1968), Karabas (1969), Argument (1980)
In popular culture
The British music band James recorded a song named "Sometimes (Lester Piggott)" on their album Laid. It has a beat which is like a horse galloping. The outro on the original 12" of Sit Down also featured a falsetto voice singing the jockey's name.
The Hope and Anchor pub in Margate, Kent has been restyled with a horse racing theme and renamed Lester's after the famous jockey.
The Van Morrison song "In the Days Before Rock 'n Roll" also mentions Piggott by name: "When we let, then we bet / On Lester Piggott when we met [ten to one] / And we let the goldfish go"
In 1992, the Queen agreed, under pressure, to pay taxes. One satirical magazine showed a picture of her talking on a telephone. According to the magazine, she requested to be put through to Lester Piggot.
See also
Retrieved from " http://www.wikihorseworld.com/wiki/Lester_Piggott "
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