Fall From Grace of a Man Who Rode His Luck Too Far

Lester Piggott has been hounded by controversy and is out of the saddle since he began riding over forty years ago.

Eleven times champion jockey, Piggott gained a record twenty-nine classic wins before retiring to take up training. He rode his first Derby winner, Never Say Die, at the age of eighteen.

However, the exceptionally talented youngster showed an in­creasing tendency to recklessness and, a fortnight after his Derby win, he was suspended for the rest of the season, as a result of his riding of the same horse at Royal Ascot. The stewards of the Jockey Club, racing's ruling body, told him that «in spite of continuous warnings he continued to show complete disregard for the rules and the safety of other jockeys».

Piggott's unique empathy with high-strung thoroughbreds led him to be recognised as the world's best jockey, and the most sought after. But, not even his greatest admirers would say he was the ea­siest man to get on with, and his association with two top trainers, Sir Noel Murless and Vincent O'Brien, for whom he rode many of his biggest winners, ended in deep bitterness.

As a freelance in the autumn of his professional life, he was fre­quently criticized for «jocking off» other riders. That is to say, he would use his reputation and his relationship with leading owners and trainers to get himself a coveted ride in a big race at the expense of a colleague.

A prime example was his eleventh-hour substitution for the great Australian jockey, Bill Williamson, on Roberto, before the 1972 Derby. The racing world showed what it thought of Piggott's beha­viour when his victory, one of a record nine Derby wins, was greeted with an unprecedented silence.

Such ruthlessness may have contributed to his unpopularity within the sport itself, but his singular will to win at all costs undoub­tedly helped him to become Britain's highest paid sportsman. His personal fortune was estimated at £20 million, at least.

Off the track, Piggott's indiscretions have often cost him dear in fi­nancial terms and kudos. In 1968, he was fined £750 for attempting to export currency. Later, he was fined £1000 for possessing guns and ammunition without a licence. Along with England's current leading jockey, Steve Cauthen, he also lost nearly £100,000 when they invested in a scheme intended to reap large profits on the world oil market.

Piggott received an OBE* in 1975, but the revelation of his tax and VAT* offences are thought to have cost him a knighthood. His conviction and his jail sentence meant the loss of his trainer's li­cence, although his wife, Susan, was allowed to take over the run-nine of his Newmarket stables.

Piggott could face further disciplinary measures by the Jockey Club over allegations in The People newspaper that he bet against himself in races.

The constant brushes with authority, together with Piggott's «loner» image, served to imbue him with something of a film star quality in the eyes of the public. His gaunt, deeply-etched face was ravaged by continual excesses of dieting to keep his body weight down to at least a stone below its natural minimum.

His natural reticence, almost certainly born out of the fact that he had a speech impediment and was partly deaf, made Piggott ap­pear aloof and certainly did nothing to dispel this perception of him.

Once, after riding a typically brilliant race to get home in front on a favourite, 'Old Stoneface', he remained as impassive as ever as the crowd cheered him. The trainer suggested that he might at least con­sider giving them a smile. To which Piggott replied: «Why should I? They'd be throwing things at me if I lost».

Most informed judges believe that he was certainly the greatest post-was rider, if not the best ever. At the same time, many of them questioned his unique riding style, perched high above his mount with his bottom thrust in the air. Clad in flamboyant jockeys' silks he looked like one of those exotic African birds that cheekily hitch a ride on the back of a hippo.

Piggott could be unbelievably subtle on a horse, brings irn with a perfectly timed run to pop his nose in front on the line and thus give him as easy a race as possible. Conversely, there was no stronger finisher in the game. You could almost hear the merciless cracking of his whip up in the grandstand as he drove Roberto to the narrowest of Derby wins.

The accumulation of Piggott stories, many of them apocryphal, would fill several bookshelves. A good many concern his muchpubli-cised meanness and obsession with all things financial. Of all stories, a personal favourite is the incident that occurred when Piggott was rid­ing in a race at Deauville. He dropped his whip at a crucial moment, but leaned across and grabbed the whip of a fellow rider. Piggott duly won the race and in that famous nasal monotone said of the incident afterwards: «Well, he had no chance of winning anyway!»

That, in a nutshell, was Piggott - unique, outrageous, a one-off.

(John Karter, The Independent)

* OBE: Order of the British Empire (an honour awarded by the Queen)

* VAT: Value Added Tax