Swing Trainers

Lester Keith Piggott (born 5 November 1935) is a retired English jockey, considered to be the best of his generation and one of the greatest flat jockeys of all time, with 4,493 career wins, including nine Derby victories. more...

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Career as a jockey

Piggott 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 II (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 unparallelled 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 (5'8\"/1.73 m), Lester Piggott struggled to keep his weight down and for most of his career rode at little more than 8 stone (51 kg/112 lb). 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 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 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 tax problems

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 1992. He rode his last winner in October 1994 and officially retired, this time for good, in 1995.

Read more at Wikipedia.org