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I’ve just read on RTV’s website that Lester Piggott is in hospital in Switzerland. Reason for admittance not disclosed. I hope it’s nothing serious and wish for a very speedy recovery.
I’ll never forget Lester’s win aboard Royal Academy in the 1990 BC Mile after coming back from retirement at the tender age of 54!…
About time to at least reinstate his OBE given the number of thieves and traitors on whom honours have been undeservedly lavished in the past couple of years.
Love this guy.
Get well soon Sir Lester.
I think he had a silver Mercedes I stepped out in front of him in a side road off Newmarket high street on 2000 Guineas day a decade and a half back. Luckily for me his reflexes were razor sharp and he smiled and waved me across safely.
I had an old mate who idolised him so, that he named his son after him.
Good to see his son in law piling up the winners to help perk him up.I hope he is OK. The last time I saw him was at Newmarket in 2007, when there was a day in his honour and the races were named after his winners in the 1000 and 2000 Guineas.
I also saw him at Epsom in 2004, when I joined the queue for him to sign my copy of the book “Lester’s Derbies”.
What he put his body through for over four decades (to rule the sport) beggars belief and would be the ultimate horror story for nutritionists the world over now and sadly could be something that is now coming back to bite him – I just hope that whatever his issues are they are something he can overcome even at the age of 86.
Shame it will stop him from coming over for the Derby this year but all fingers firmly crossed on a swift recovery that will enable him to visit the race synonymous with him at least one more time in the future.
For me not only should he have his OBE reinstated but (and this might be controversial to some) but he should get a Knighthood for his services to racing.
https://www.bloodstocknotebook.com/notes/the-fastest-man-on-four-legs
Long story but well worth a read.
“For me not only should he have his OBE reinstated but (and this might be controversial to some) but he should get a Knighthood for his services to racing.”
Great jockey, and best wishes for a speedy recovery, but no one – least of all the wealthy who can the most easily afford to pay – should evade income tax and to restore honours and/or add others would send the message tax evasion is a crime that isn’t really a crime.
When it is.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"“but underneath the saturnine visage there lurks a wit, a brilliant putter-downer of pomposity and, last but not least, the most gifted jockey the world has ever seen.”
No doubt he’d have a suitable answer for you dear boy….
What he put his body through for over four decades (to rule the sport) beggars belief and would be the ultimate horror story for nutritionists the world over now and sadly could be something that is now coming back to bite him
An apposite anecdote:
‘what did you have for breakfast Lester?’
‘a cigar and a dry retch’Those who’ve lived careful lives under the guidance of a nutritionist would be justified in saying that the care they’ve taken with their diet is the reason they’ve reached the grand old age of 86; so it’s remarkable that one who abused his body for decades has reached it too
Get well soon Stoneface
I think he’d already passed his very peak by the time I started going racing in the late 1970s – he certainly wasn’t fussed about being placed once beaten and I saw him drop his hands a few times.
It’s a game of opinions and I actually think Steve Cauthen was the marginally greater jockey overall, but Piggott was amazing and did many incredible things.
The ride on Royal Academy is rightly lauded as the veteran jockey comeback big-race ride of all time, but some of the stuff he did as a younger man I’ve seen footage of is remarkable too.
Whereas Greville Starkey had a nightmare on suspect stayer on pedigree Dancing Brave, Piggott’s waiting ride on Sir Ivor was breaktakingly audacious.
He also picked up Roberto and carried him home with a ferocity that would have earned him a lengthy whip ban today, his superb arrogance on Sagaro in his third Gold Cup in 1977 was hilarious and I was at Ascot in 1983 when I thought he gave Teenoso a ride of sheer tactical genius in the King George.
That he is still alive given his lifestyle and “diet” regime is a miracle so, whatever’s ailing him, The “Longfellow” is surely long odds on to see it off.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Going to work on a cigar and a black coffee. Where as someone like Willie Carson could have a cooked breakfast.
“I actually think Steve Cauthen was the marginally greater jockey overall…”
The only time I ever saw Cauthen beaten by a better ride was by Lester, in the 1985 Benson & Hedges Gold Cup.
Get well soon, Lester.
Cauthen was the master of riding from the front and how he adapted that clock in his head from riding on the dead flat oval US dirt tracks and applied it to all the idiosyncratic turf racecourses in the UK and Europe was insane and quite frankly hasn’t happened since he retired.
That being said Lester could do it all and could switch from giving the most strongest ride to the most sympathetic ride in a finish at the drop of a hat (Roberto/Ribero prime examples) and did it from the age of 12, even rode a Cheltenham Festival winner – no one tougher, a week before winning the 1000g on Fairy Footsteps he had his ear partially torn off and damaged ligaments in his back when being dragged under the stalls at Epsom.
Re: tax evasion/OBE, he got caught and did his time in jail – it still doesn’t detract from the fact that his services to the sport has been immense, are we sure the public would be so offended if he did receive the title specifically as there is nothing to say he can’t receive it…..or is it the fear of ‘public perception’ argument?
Lets not forget that Sir Paul McCartney received his even though he had been previously deported from Japan instead of being charged for drug smuggling (bringing in almost half a pound of marijuana). Sir Geoffrey Boycott was knighted even though he had already been convicted of domestic violence – so it would appear those in charge have no problem with them getting the honour but because money is involved in Lester’s case that somehow cross the line where we couldn’t possibly allow it to happen????
“Even rode a Cheltenham Festival winner.”
Lester’s win in the Triumph Hurdle was when the race was still run at its original venue of Hurst Park.
Agree about his OBE/lack of knighthood. Assuming he has not turned down any honours since, the decision to withhold an honour from him due to a spent conviction over thirty years old looks like the British Establishment at its most petty, mean and hypocritical.
After his conviction, even HMQ was subsequently exposed as not paying income tax. This produced one of the most memorable front covers of “Private Eye”, showing the Queen on the phone with her saying “Hello, is that Lester Piggott?”
Some great postings IMO in response to my comments.
Racing is a wonderful game of opinions and it’s the consummate judgement of pace on differing surfaces on both sides of the Atlantic that elevates Cauthen above all for me.
But it’s marginal and I can entirely understand why anyone would think Piggott was the greater jockey overall.
Regarding the tax, I could invoke the old cliche “two wrongs don’t make a right” and while there have been numerous other examples of wrongdoing being conveniently swept under the carpet further down the line, it never entirely sits comfortably with me.
That said, I have zero interest in the Honours system anyway, you’ll never see me refer to anyone as “Sir” or “OBE,” or any other gong title here or anywhere else, so I wouldn’t exactly lose any sleep over it if Piggott’s was reinstated.
Just as long as it doesn’t open the floodgates to even more tax evasion than there already is.
Tax evaders salve their consciences by talking about dodging this supposedly evil figure “the taxman.”
What they’re really dodging is contributing towards funding things like the NHS and State Education, not quite such a jolly jape when seen in that cold light of reality.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"I would put Cauthen marginally ahead as well. The most complete jockey I have ever seen.
Willie Carson, who spent most of his career riding against Piggott in his prime, rated Cauthen as the strongest jockey he ever rode against.
Cauthen was not just a front runner either. He was superb from off the pace as well, and he was never a “whip jockey”.
The “who was better? Piggott or Cauthen” debate will linger on and on; but wasn’t it just so fortunate for we turfistes that two of the most distinguished – and distinguishable – jockeys had careers that overlapped: not too much of a good thing but, by gum, plenty of a good thing
Of rides from the front, Cauthen’s terrific judgement of pace on Slip Anchor in the Derby remains a favourite:
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