There was a time when Lester Piggott was as famous in this country as George Best, Pele and Muhammad Ali.
He was reverentially namechecked in songs by Van Morrisson and Chas ‘n’ Dave and soaps like The Archers, was mentioned in a PG Wodehouse story, granted his own Spitting Image puppet and after he was jailed for tax evasion and stripped of his OBE became the butt of a thousand savage jokes.
But it was his extraordinary ability to win horse races on the Flat, and his distinctive style of riding with his bottom in the air, that the shy and complex genius will be remembered for. Because the nine times Derby winner and 11 times Champion Jockey was viewed by many in the know as the greatest jockey of all time.
Newspapers labelled him The Housewives' Choice due to his legions of followers, many women, who would lay a casual bet without any great knowledge of racing. Hence he did much to spread the appeal of the elitist Sport of Kings beyond its narrow, class-based origins.
During his 42-year career he won 4,493 races including 30 British classics. He rode the legendary Nijinsky to a Triple Crown (the 2,000 Guineas, Derby and St Leger) in 1970 and won the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe on Rheingold and Alleged (twice).
Piggott also authored one of sport’s greatest comebacks by leaping back into the saddle after being released from serving a year in prison, at the age of 54, to win the prestigious US Breeders' Cup Mile.
Few sportsmen have been as dedicated to winning as the man they called The Long Fellow due to being relatively tall at 5’8” for a Flat Jockey. It was because of that height that he waged war against his own body by constantly starving himself so he could ride at 30 pounds less than his natural weight. An anecdote that did the rounds was that his breakfast consisted of a cigar and a cough.
The limelight-shunning enigma was caricatured as a dour, monosyllabic introvert. That was partly down to being born partially deaf which gave him a speech impediment and made him keep his public utterances to a minimum. When trainer Jeremy Tree once asked him: "I've got to speak to my old school, Eton, and tell them all I know about racing. What shall I say?" Piggott replied: "Tell them you have flu."
But those who knew him spoke of his dry wit. Legend has it that when he was asked by a stable boy for a £5 gratuity, he motioned the lad to talk to his “good ear” at which he upped the request to £10. Pigott told him to "try the other ear again".
His controversial private life meant he was regularly in the headlines. In 1987 he was sentenced to three years in prison, serving a year, for failing to declare income of £3.25 million. Despite a personal wealth of £20 million he was accused of using different names to channel earnings to secret bank accounts in Switzerland, the Bahamas, Singapore and the Cayman Islands.
At the time it was the biggest individual income tax-dodging case ever brought in Britain and the sentence was the highest to be passed for a personal tax fraud. Overnight he turned from National Treasure to villain and was stripped of his OBE.
He also had a colourful private life. In 2012 he left his wife of 52 years, Susan, to live on the banks of Lake Geneva with his mistress Lady Barbara FitzGerald who was 22 years his junior. They remained married until his death. When he was asked by a journalist if he was contemplating divorcing Susan and marrying Barbara he replied: “Never thought about it.”
Piggott had two daughters with Susan and a son from his former secretary, Anna Ludlow. When Susan was asked about his leaving her she replied: “I’ve known Barbara for years and she is a very nice person. We are all still friends and that goes for all the family. There are no hard feelings. Put it this way, at 72 you feel very differently about things than you do at 25.”
Lester Keith Piggott was born on Bonfire Night 1935 in Wantage, Oxfordshire, to a family that could trace its roots as jockeys and trainers back to the 18th century. His grandfather Ernest rode three Grand National winners and owned a stable in Letcombe Regis and his father (also Ernest) trained a National winner and owned a stable in Lambourn, Berkshire, where Lester lived until 1954.
His dad was notoriously tough. When Lester was asked if he ever praised him for his remarkable career he answered: “Not really. He only talked about it when I did something wrong. That was the best way.”
He began racing horses from his father's stable when he was ten and won his first race in 1948, aged 12, on a horse called The Chase at Haydock Park. Afterwards his mother Iris said: “He is quite a good rider, but will never be as good as his father. Don’t make a fuss. Lester is a very ordinary boy.” But her son was widely viewed as a generational talent while still in his teens. He rode his first Derby winner, Never Say Die in 1954 aged 18, 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).
Piggott was often banned. At 18 he was suspended for six months after the racing authorities decided his father, Keith, had persuaded him to endanger other jockeys. And he was severely criticised by animal rights’ groups for his excessive use of the whip, most infamously on Roberto in the 1972 Derby.
He retired as a jockey in 1985 to become a trainer. His Eve Lodge stables in Newmarket, Suffolk, housed 97 horses and sent out 34 winners. But his world fell apart when he was convicted of tax fraud and served 366 days in prison.
He resumed his career as a jockey in 1990 and won the Breeders’ Cup Mile on Royal Academy within ten days of his return. He rode another Classic winner, Rodrigo de Triano, in the 1992 2000 Guineas. His last win in Britain was in October 1994 and he officially retired in 1995.
Piggott married Susan Armstrong, whose father and brother were racehorse trainers, in 1960. Their daughter Maureen became an equestrian eventer and Tracy a jockey and sports presenter on Irish television station RTE. His son Jamie also became a jockey .
In May 2007 Piggott was admitted to intensive care in a Swiss hospital following a recurrence of a previous heart problem but made a swift recovery. As a sign of the esteem he is held in by his peers, in 1990 The Professional Jockeys Association set up an annual awards event and named them The Lesters.
Last year, along with the legendary horse Frankel, Piggott was in the first draft of inductees into the British Champions Series Hall of Fame, which celebrates the modern greats of flat racing. And none were greater or more talked about than the enigma known fondly as The Housewives’ Choice.
