Piggott, Lester

When, at Doncaster, on November 5, 1994 - his fifty-ninth birthday – Lester slid from the back of Mr Confusion, no one - least of all Lester – knew that he had ridden in Britain for the last time.

Fully intending to return to England for the start of the next Flat season, he set off on a winter tour some six weeks later, taking in Bombay, Singapore and Australia. So much did he enjoy it that he postponed his return until that April, and, in doing so, triggered rumours that he would not be riding in Britain again. The fact that he had not yet applied for his licence only fuelled such speculation.

In truth, after such an extensive tour, Lester simply wasn't ready to plunge back into the cut and thrust of British racing.

As weeks of inaction turned into months, Lester began experiencing difficulty getting his weight under control and he decided to end all further conjecture.

In September, 1995, he made the announcement. He would not be back.

The career of the greatest ever jockey was over.

Photo, right, shows Lester with his father, Keith, in 1948

Photo, below, show Lester with his mother in the same year

Lester Keith Piggott was born in the town hospital of Wantage, in the small village of Letcombe Regis, on Tuesday, 5 November, 1935. This was the same day on which Scobie Breasley got married.

He was named after his uncle, Fred Lester Rickaby.

Frederick Lester Rickaby was killed in 1918 aged 23, having already won the 1,000 Guineas four times and the Oaks once. His middle name "Lester" was the name of an owner who was a friend of his father Frederick Edward Rickaby, who rode in the late 1800's through to about 1906.

They lived in a modern brick house which his father had built before the war: in the garden was a tennis court which his parents regularly used and a well which his father had sunk. Lester once recalled how good water from that well tasted compared with tap water!

Another feature of the house was the library of racing books stored on the staircase landing: Lester became an addicted reader.

Food during the war years was scarce: Lester learnt how to supplement the family diet by catching rabbits and pigeons: he also became an efficient angler.

Photo, right, show Lester with other stable lads, 1948

He started school at six, attending Wantage's King Alfred School, to which he would cycle each morning.

Aged eight he had developed a passion for Dick Barton, a radio serial of the time, and it was while listening to it one evening with his ear pressed up against the radio set that his partial deafness was discovered.

His other passion was horses: he had been put up on Brandy when aged two.

Brandy was a small, New Forest pony, and a bit of a character. Lester's parents rode her, attempting to instil some form of discipline, but – as soon as Lester got into the saddle – she would be off, careering in any direction and generally running herself into the ground.

Lester adored her and soon, together, they were competing in local gymkhanas.

This seemed a natural progression given his background.

His father Keith, (left, playing cards with young Lester) born in Stockbridge in 1904, had ridden some 500 winners under both codes – the first at Newbury on his fifteenth birthday. He had also won the 1939 Champion Hurdle on African Sister.Keith's younger brother, Vic, had been a successful National Hunt jockey while Lester's grandfather, Ernie, had ridden three Grand National winners.

It was from his father that he learnt the art of race-riding: unhurried and painstaking, Keith would point out Lester's novice mistakes; the would-be-jockey, attentive and in a hurry to acquire knowledge, found the teaching invaluable.

Aged nine, he was taken to his first ever race meeting (at Windsor). His abiding memory was

not so much of horses and jockeys but of the flying bomb which came over the track, scattering the crowd when its engine cut out.

The following year the family upped sticks and moved to a training yard named South Bank, close to the centre of Lambourn. (This is from where Barry Hills sent out Rheingold to win the 1773 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.)

South Bank was in poor shape in 1945: father and son got stuck in, refurbishing horse boxes and installing a swimming pool. (Right, a later photo of Lester with his father)

The distance between King Alfred School (left) in Wantage and Lambourn proved too tiresome: in 1947 Lester moved to a small school in Upper Lambourn which taught no more than a dozen pupils – great news for Lester who could now hear everything that his teacher – Miss Amy Westlake – said.

At the start of the 1948 Flat season, Lester became officially apprenticed to his father and, at Salisbury on Wednesday 7 April, 1948, he made his racecourse début.

The race was a one mile apprentice handicap worth £138. Lester's mount was a three year old filly called The Chase. They finished mid-field.

Lester's seventh race in public came at Haydock on 18 August 1948. He was to ride The Chase

once again, but this time the result was fixed before the race was run. The money was not down on his main rival, Prompt Corner, ridden by Cheltenham Gold Cup winning jockey Davy Jones, who, it had been agreed, would take it easy on his mount.As twelve-year-old Lester took up the running close home, Davy Jones, just behind him, urged him onwards screaming 'Go on – go on!'

Lester won by a length and a half, duly recording his only win of the season from twenty-four rides.

It was to be over a year before he scored his second victory (Forest Glade, Newbury, 20 August, 1949).

The following season's total was six winners from 120 rides

In 1950, Lester formally announced his arrival on the racing scene with wins in the Brighton Autumn Cup (with which victory he lost his claim) and at Ascot - Tancred, in the Buckingham Palace Stakes. Then, a week after his first Ascot victory, he won his first big race, the Jockey Club Stakes at Newmarket (Holm Bush).

Suddenly he was famous.

Aged just fourteen, he appeared on a radio programme hosted by comedian Ted Ray where his fellow guests were Shirley Bassey and Petula Clarke.

Then clouds appeared: he began to pick up cautions, then fines - usually for trying too hard to win at the expense of his fellow jockeys. Then, after an incident at Newbury in October, the bubble burst. He was suspended for the rest of the season. Feeling that he was being victimized, Lester left the course, fuming.

Refreshed from a ten day break skiing at Arosa in Switzerland, Lester met the 1951 season with relish. He became champion apprentice for the second successive year with fifty-one winners (one fewer than the year before) and won his first Group One race when taking the Eclipse Stakes on the French-trained Mystery lX.

And, for the first time, he rode the enigmatic Zucchero! (left)With its own ideas about racing, it was always all or nothing.

He dug his heels in at the start of the 1951 Derby won by Arctic Prince, yet ran a mighty race when Lester was on board to finish a close second in the inaugural King George at Ascot.

That August, Lester took a bad fall at Lingfield, and his season was over.

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It was in 1951 that J. V. Rank approached Lester, offering a retainer. He was one of the county's leading owners, his horses being trained at Druid's Lodge, on Salisbury Plain, by Noel Chance.

Rank died early the following year: Lester continued to ride for the stable which had been taken over by Rank's wife, Pat.

Lester rode the stable's Gay Time into second place in the 1952 Derby (and would probably have got the race on an objection had he not fallen from the saddle yards past the post – by the time the pair had been re-united he had run out of time to lodge an objection).(left, Gay Time is beaten a neck by Tulyar in the 1951 King George & Queen Elizabeth Stakes)

Now aged sixteen, it was onwards and upwards for Lester. He passed his driving test at the second attempt and bought himself an almost-new Rover for £1,000 (a fortune in those days, especially for one so young). He spent the early part of that winter race-riding in Greece – and returned at the end of January 1953.

Pitched against senior riders on level terms, Lester struggled to make a seasonal score of 41, his lowest for three years. He left the Rank stables and obtained a new retainer for Sir Malcolm McAlpine, whose horse were trained at Epsom by Victor Smyth. Lester failed to hit it off with Smyth and the arrangement was short-lived.

(Right, on holiday with fellow jockey and cousin Bill Rickaby)

Yet that was not his greatest problem at that time.

His weight had begun to sore. Now seventeen, he struggled to do ride under 8 stone 5 pounds,

and a National Hunt career beckoned: on Boxing Day, 1953, Lester rode his first winner over the sticks (on his third ride) – Eldoret at Wincanton. In total he won 20 times over hurdles, his best wins being on Mull Sack at the Cheltenham Festival and on Prince Charlemagne in the Triumph Hurdle (then run at Hurst Park).

He was back on the Flat for the start of the 1954 season, riding for, among others, Joe Lawson, who was to provide 18-year-old Lester with his first Derby winner, Never Say Die. Fifteen days later at Royal Ascot (17 June, 1954), a scrimmage in the King Edward Vll Stakes ultimately resulted in Lester being banned for six months. If you watch a video of the race, you will see that Lester got a raw deal, particularly when you read that Manny Mercer was fined just £50 for striking another jockey during a race at the same meeting.This race was the last occasion on which Lester and Gordon Richards rode against each other.

The year was not completely without good fortune: in the autumn he joined Noel Murless at Warren Place. Murless had only been there two years and there was still a comparative lack of talent: Little Cloud's victory in the Northumberland Plate at Newcastle was, so far. the highlight.

The following season, Lester rode 103 winners, thus coming third behind Doug Smith & Scobie Breasley.

1956 arrived - so, too, Carrozza, a filly which had been leased to the Queen by the National

Stud for her racing career. Carrozza (right) was, in 1957, to become Lester's only classic winner in the royal colours, but not the best horse he rode that season.

That distinction fell to the white-faced Crepello who, after winning the 2,000 Guineas, ran away with the Derby, never to be seen on a racecourse again.

Now 21, Lester continued to struggle with his weight and, through necessity, worked out a diet that would sustain him throughout his riding career.

He did not like rice, potatoes, salads or vegetables, so centred his meals around chicken and fish. He was also quite partial to mangoes which he'd discovered whilst riding in India. He also had a love of ice cream and chocolate, and was never adverse to the occasional gin and tonic. His day always began with dry toast and coffee.

The next horse of note Lester encountered was an iron-grey filly with a playful mind of her own. She was to become the the greatest horse of her sex which Lester rode. Her name was Petite Etoile. (left)She ran four times as a two-year-old, winning twice. She appeared to be nothing out of the ordinary. Entered into the next year's 1,000 Guineas, Lester turned her down, choosing instead to ride Collyria. Doug Smith was the fortunate substitute.

Lester made no such mistake in the Oaks: the pair won in a common canter.

On 22 February, 1960, Lester married Susan Armstrong. He had first met her at a small hotel

in Doncaster in 1950 (he was 15, she was 11): they wed at St Mark's, North Audley Street, London – John Sutcliffe, Lester's closest friend whom he'd known since childhood, was his best man.

The wedding reception was held at Brown's Hotel. A ten-day honeymoon was spent in Nice at the Westminster Hotel on the Promenade des Anglais.

Then it was back to business: apart from Petite Etoile, Warren Place housed a colt of immense promise which, on only its second start, had won the Royal Lodge Stakes by five lengths. It was called St Paddy, and Lester rode him into sixth behind Martial in the 2,000 Guineas.

Just six years after winning his first Derby, Lester then won a third as St Paddy beat Alcaeus by three lengths in the Epsom classic, but the race that made the biggest headlines was the King George Vl at Ascot. Petite Etoile, starting at 2/5, was beaten by the Jimmy Lindley-ridden Aggressor, and Lester came in for a mass of criticism over his riding of the filly.

The truth was that the she had been coughing before the race and, racing on ground softer than she liked, Petite Etoile had been bumped by Kythnos. All combined to bring about her downfall and a shock result.

That aside, 1960 was a year to remember for Lester and the one in which he became champion jockey for the first time by riding 170 winners from 640 mounts.

The following year Lester won his eighth classic when riding Aurelius to victory in the St Leger.

Lester was to remain with Noel Murless for 12 seasons though, throughout this time, more and more trainers sought his services.

Despite riding a treble on the opening day of the season (his first winner on the opening day in eleven years), Lester was, in early 1962, subdued.

Pinturischio, his best chance of winning a classic that season, had been lucky to make it to stud having been nearly killed by dopers, and Warren Place was unusually quiet.

Then, at the Lincoln evening meeting in May, the small Staffordshire trainer, Bob Ward, booked him to ride a filly named Ione. Ward had a second runner in the race, Polly Macaw, which was to be ridden by Peter Robinson.

Polly Macaw, having been backed down to even-money favourite, won very easily: Lester came second.

Incredibly, the racecourse stewards suspected a stitch-up, and accused Lester of not letting Ione run on her merits. The case was referred to the London Jockey Club Stewards.

As a result, Ward's licence to train was withdrawn and Lester was suspended for two months.

The ban led to his missing out on the big midsummer meetings, including Epsom and Royal Ascot..

Disgruntled, Lester was forced to watch the Derby at home on television.

He returned to the saddle on Tyburn Market at Windsor on 30 July, 1962. Two days later he rode his first winner since returning when landing the Richmond Stakes on the Murless-trained Romantic.

1964 was the year that Lincoln racecourse had been closed. Lester, who never won a Lincoln Handicap, was – like most jockeys – not heartbroken to see it go. It was, he said, a pig of a place to get to.At the start of the 1964 season he reached an agreement with Chantilly trainer Mick Bartholomew to ride for him on Sundays. They got off to a dream start by winning the French 1,000 Guineas in May.

Lester was also beginning to ride more frequently for Paddy Prendergast and Vincent O'Brien.

He rode for Noel Murless only when mutually convenient. There was no contract. Lester had become freelance.

At the end of that season – in which he'd won the Queen Elizabeth Stakes for Paddy Prendergast on Linacre – he flew across to France to ride Persian Garden at Longchamp, and sustained a hairline fracture of the skull when his mount was involved in a three-horse pile-up. He was taken to the Clinic Juvenet in nearby Saint-Cloud. In the next bed was French jockey Marcel Depalmas, who had also been hurt in the accident, rambling deliriously.

As a result of this race fall, Lester was to suffer blinding headaches sporadically for many year after.

His immediate priority, though, was the jockey's championship: at the time of the accident he led Ron Hutchinson by 13 so, six days after his fall, he persuaded the doctors that he was fit enough to leave hospital.

Arriving back at Heathrow, he was horrified to see a huge throng of photographers gathered. The last thing he wanted was popping flashbulbs and interviews: he needn't have worried – the press were there for The Beatles who were leaving on an overseas tour.

Before plunging back into the race for the title, Lester rested up for ten days and read the huge pile of get well cards & telegrams that had arrived.

Other arrivals were pop star Tommy Steele and his wife Anne. Tommy had been offered a film role which required him on horseback; never having sat on a horse before, he was after some tuition from the master, which Lester gladly gave.

Three weeks after his accident, Lester was back in the saddle. Ron Hutchinson had not managed to fully take advantage of his absence, and Lester took the title with 140 winners.

His performance at Royal Ascot in 1965 was incomparable – no jockey at any time, anywhere, has ridden better. His head victory in the Royal Hunt Cup on Casabianca defied belief: timing his run to a split second, he got up on the line to beat Weeper's Boy. As he passed the post, Lester was almost kneeling on Casabianca's withers in what seemed a parody of his own style.

He also won the Ribblesdale Stakes (Bracey Bridge), Rous Memorial (Sweet Moss, for Noel Murless), Coventry Stakes (Young Pretender, for Paddy Prendergast), New Stakes (Tin King, for Fulke Johnson Houghton), the Ascot Gold Cup (Fighting Charlie, for Freddie Maxwell), Chesham Stakes (Swift Harmony for Ernie Reavey) and the King George V Stakes (Brave Knight, for Walter Nightingall).

1966 got off to a shaky start (Lester declined the ride in the 2,000 Guineas winner) then he managed to fall out with both Noel Murless and Paddy Prendergast.

Vincent O'Brien (left with Lester) offered Lester the ride on Valoris in the Oaks. Noel wanted Lester, whom he regarded as his stable jockey, to ride Varinia in the same race. Valoris had already won the Irish 1,000 Guineas and Lester thought she was a certainty for The Oaks. Lester turned Noel down, thus closing – for a while – his door to Warren Place.

Valoris won The Oaks .

The situation with Paddy Prendergast was different – the Irish trainer had got it into his head that Lester didn't like his new stable jockey, Des Lake, and even openly accused Lester of deliberately chopping Lake off at Chester.

Prendergast announced that 'Piggott will never for me again – not even for the Crown Jewels'.

He forbade his owners to request that Lester rode their horses.

But there was always Vincent O'Brien – the two men shared an almighty bond, each respecting and admiring the other.

Vincent asked Lester to ride Right Noble in that year's Derby. Lester agreed, but, on the eve of the race, was doubled-up in excruciating pain: next morning the doctor told him that he had crystal-like particles in his digestive system, the grating of which caused the incredible agony.

The cause was insufficient liquid intake, a not uncommon complaint among jockeys. (Indeed, in the early days of racing, many jockeys died from it.)

In the event, Right Noble – a big horse – proved totally unsuited by the contours of Epsom, finishing down the field behind Charlottown.

Six weeks later, having had no contact whatsoever with the trainer, Noel Murless rang him, offering an olive branch. He wanted the relationship to continue. Lester leapt at the chance.

So the winning partnership was restored and the dual link between Ballydolye and Warren Place thrived.

Then, that August, Noel informed Lester that – as the stable continued to flourish – he would require a full-time stable jockey for the future.Both men knew that Lester's other commitments ruled him out – shaking hands, they parted that evening, still on the best of terms.

In 1967, Lester became acquainted with 'the best horse I ever sat on'.

It was called Sir Ivor and, when Lester was given the leg-up in in the parade ring before the Grand Criterium at Longchamp that October, the horse had already won the National Stakes in Ireland (though not with Lester) and was highly thought of.

That he became the 1968 2,000 Guineas & Derby winner is a matter of history. Another great victory Lester & Sir Ivor enjoyed was in the Washington Park International.

Between 1967 and 1980, Lester rode fourteen English Classic winners (provided by six different trainers). Had he remained with Murless, he would have partnered nine.

He went on to ride a total of 30 Classic winners (though Frank Buckle, credited with 27, almost certainly rode more) and achieved a total of 4,493 winners in Britain between 1948 and 1994. He was champion jockey on 11 occasions. He rode a further twenty winners over the hurdles.

He rode in the Derby 36 times, winning on 9 occasions. He came second on 4 other occasions.

His last winner in Britain, October 5, 1994, was on Palacegate Jack at Haydock, where it had all started some 46 years earlier.

In the closing stages of the 1979 Grand Prix de Deauville, Lester - having had his own whip accidentally knocked from his hand – reached over to Alain Lequeux and said 'Le baton, s'il vous plait.' (Can I have your whip?) 'He didn't seem to mind at the time as he had no chance of winning, but I must admit it looked bad on telly,' said Lester afterwards. The stewards thought so too, and gave him a 20-day suspension. The whip later fetched £8,400 for the Invalid Children's Aid Society.

Lester used every trick in the book to ride a winner. Two days before Geoff Lewis was due to ride two favourites for Cecil at Hamilton in September, 1969, the trainer received a call from Lester. 'I'll ride your two at Hamilton,' he said. 'Geoff will be at Nottingham.'

When Lewis spotted the change of jockey in the press, he rang Cecil to ask what had happened. 'Lester said you would be at Nottingham,' explained Cecil.

'But that's a bloody jump meeting!' exploded Lewis.

(Below, a statue of Lester at Haydock racecourse)

After his win on Crepello in the 1957 Derby, owner Sir Victor Sassoon gave Lester his Lincoln Continental. American-built, it was the biggest, longest car Lester had ever seen. On a very wet day just a week later, on the Great West Road, Lester was unable to stop in time at a set of traffic lights.

He rammed into the rear of another driver who was badly shaken but unhurt, and able to continue his journey – unlike Lester, who was obliged to walk to the nearest garage. The car needed a new grille and radiator, parts which could only be obtained from America.

The Duke of Bedford bought it from him to add to his spectacular collection of vehicles at Woburn.

Lester (and his wife, Susan) were once persistently pestered by a crazed woman who constantly phoned them, screaming abuse. Then she started sending threatening letters, and Lester called the police. They tracked her down to a London address where she worked as a cleaner for a retired diplomat. In March, 1980, she was convicted at Newmarket Magistrates' Court, and find £100. That did not stop her. She caught a cab from London to Lester's house telling the driver that the jockey would pick up the fare. Susan called the police as the woman stood on the doorstep hurling abuse. She was eventually put into a hospital. On her release, she went to the nearest railway station and threw herself under a train.

Lester won on Sea Pigeon (as a two-year-old at Ascot, 1972): Red Rum plus Norton's Coin (Ascot, 1991) which, between them, went on to win the top three jump races.

Frankie Dettori was nineteen when he first rode in the Derby. Ryan More twenty-one. Lester, aged eighteen, had already won his first. Plus a Triumph Hurdle.

An invisible, naked force perpetually drove him: a week after being trapped in the stalls at Epsom and having half an ear torn off, he won the 1981 One Thousand Guineas (right) on Fairy Footsteps.

Likewise, having - aged 56 - starred critical injury - or worse - in the face following his fall from Mr Brookes in the 1992 Breeders' Cup, he continued riding.

On Saturday, October 27, 1990, aged 54 and just twelve days in from a five-year layoff – a year of which had been spent uselessly in prison – Lester made the greatest comeback in sporting history.

Vincent O'Brien had entered Royal Academy in the $1 million Breeders' Cup at Belmont Park, New York. With normal pilot John Reid sidelined, Lester was offered the ride.

Slight complications arose – on account of his conviction, Lester had to apply for a special visa which, at the time, allowed him just one visit to the States per year. As bad as it was, it was far better than than the situation as regards Japan. There he had to wait ten years from the date of his release before he could ride in the country. (Later, the French Jockey Club informed him that they had a rule prohibiting jockeys riding in that country after the age of 50. Lester got round this by paying a French doctor to check out his fitness level.)

Two days before the race, Lester checked into the Waldorf Astoria, New York.

Royal Academy was set to carry 8 stone 10 pounds in the race. Then Lester caught a cold, resulting in his weight shooting up three pounds. He ate nothing for the next 48 hours.

Royal Academy was the first horse to be put into the stalls: consequently, he was half asleep when they finally opened, and almost fell out of them.Recovering, he had just three behind him in the back straight, but – turning for home – was going easily enough. Then he put his foot in a hole and faltered.

Lester gave him a moment to rebalance, then went after the leader, a grey horse called Itsallgreektome, ridden by Corey Nakatani. Lester (above) caught him a few yards from the line.

On October 23, 1987, Lester (following advice) pleaded guilty at Ipswich Crown Court to failing to make complete disclosure of his income to the Inland Revenue (tax evasion). He was eventually sent to Highpoint, a prison near Haverhill, some ten miles from Newmarket. His day would start with breakfast at eight-thirty followed by work, with a break for lunch, until four in the afternoon. Lester spent the rest of his day walking, playing golf or cricket. In June he was informed that the OBE he'd been awarded in the 1975 New Year's Honours List, had been stripped from him. In June, Susan had a bad accident, tumbling from the racehorse Versailles Road. Lester was allowed to visit her and found her in an oxygen tent and clearly in a bad way. Happily, she fully recovered. Lester was released from prison on 24 October, 1988, a year and a day after his trial and conviction.