Farewell to ‘The Long Fellow’... a genius who was as famous as Pele and Ali

LESTER PIGGOTT was so ruthlessly competitive that it would have rankled that he never quite reached

5,000 winners.

He got close with 4,493 victories in a career that saw him crowned champion jockey 11 times.

And Piggott became synonymous with the Derby, which he won a record nine times, part of a haul of 30 Classic successes.

But apart from his genius in the saddle, he often, unwittingly, found himself in the limelight.

Famous for his whispery mumble, his shyness meant he spent most of his career trying to dodge giving interviews – not easy for a sportsman who in the 1960s and 70s attracted a similar level of fame to Pele and Muhammad Ali.

Off the track he had a complex personal life and was jailed for tax fraud.

Known as ‘The Long Fellow’ thanks to being unusually tall for a jockey (he was 5ft 8in), Piggott was born in Wantage, Berkshire, in 1935, into a racing family.

His grandfather, Ernie, owned a yard in Letcombe Regis, rode three Grand National winners and was champion jump jockey on three occasions.

Piggott’s father, Keith, was a notoriously hard man who ran a training yard in Lambourn where Lester lived until 1954.

His dad was a successful jockey and trainer, winning the Grand National as a trainer in 1963 with Ayala. Piggott Snr was also champion jumps trainer in 1962-63.

Lester started riding as a young boy and, remarkably, rode his first winner in 1948, aged just 12, on a horse called The Chase at Haydock. He became a teenage sensation and rode his first Derby winner at Epsom on Never Say Die in 1954, aged 18. He 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).

It was his association with

Nijinsky that will be best remembered. They were a perfect union of man and horse, and their Triple Crown success in 1970 (2,000 Guineas, Derby and St Leger) has gone down in racing folklore.

Lester was stable jockey to Noel Murless and later to Irish genius Vincent O’brien. His glittering career meant he became known as the ‘Housewives’ Choice’.

He had legions of followers and did more than anybody to take the popularity of racing to another level – well beyond its narrow classbased origins.

In 1980 he was appointed stable jockey to

Henry Cecil, the champion trainer. Their association was instantly successful and Piggott was champion jockey in 1981 and 1982. In 1984, Cecil and Piggott parted and he retired as a jockey at the end of the 1985 season and became a trainer. At his peak, his Eve Lodge stables housed 97 horses.

But his habit of finding controversy resurfaced when in 1987 he was convicted of tax fraud (evading £3.25million) and jailed for three years. He served 366 days and was stripped of the OBE.

After leaving prison, he resumed his career as a jockey and in 1990, at the age of 54, he famously won the Breeders’ Cup Mile on Royal Academy within 10 days of his return. He rode another Classic winner, Rodrigo de Triano, in the 2,000 Guineas in 1992. His last win was in October 1994 at the age of 58 and he retired for good in 1995.

Piggott waged a constant battle with his weight and for breakfast he was said to have “a cigar and a cough”. He was married for more than 50 years to Susan and in his latter years lived in Geneva.

Piggott would be ruthless in his quest for winners and to get on the best horses. And for a man who put his body through hell to ride at the top level, it was truly remarkable that he lived to the age of 86.