Celebrated more than 5000 victories
Jockey legend Lester Piggott is dead
05/29/2022, 2:15 p.m
Over 5000 victories, plus nine statues on English racetracks: Lester Piggott is an absolute legend. He is the most successful jockey of the post-war period. Always humble, never pushy. But there is also a black spot in his vita.
He always remained modest, Lester Piggott never wanted to focus on himself. “Fame is a fleeting companion, it fades over time,” he said in 2015 in one of the few interviews he gave after retiring in 1995: “The older ones may still know me, but the younger ones will hardly know who I am. Times change.” The most successful jockey of the post-war period has now died in a Geneva hospital at the age of 86.
Even stating that Lester Piggott was a legend in his sport probably falls short. Despite his unusual height of 1.73 meters for a jockey, “the tall guy” won more than 5000 races in his career, including the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe three times in Paris. His first win was as a 12-year-old riding The Chase at Haydock in 1948, his last with Palacegate Jack just before his 59th birthday in 1994 on the same track.
An icon in the saddle.
(Photo: IMAGO/Varley Media)
Piggott also won the German Derby three times on the racecourse in Hamburg-Horn, including his unforgettable triumph in 1957 on the Erlenhofer Orsini. Piggott repeated this success in 1963 on Fanfar and four years later on Luciano. He was also successful on German runs in 1967 at the Diana Prize on the Grafenberg in Düsseldorf and in 1983 at the Europa Prize in Cologne-Weidenpesch.
Statues on Nine English Lanes
There are statues of Piggott on nine English tracks and just last week one was unveiled on Ireland’s famous track, The Curragh. There is definitely a black spot in his CV. After his first resignation in 1985, the harshness of the law caught him: Piggott was convicted of tax evasion in 1987 and sent to prison for one year. After his release – not least because of certain financial difficulties – he got back in the saddle to do what he did best. And how he still could: In 1990 at the age of 54 he won the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Royal Academy.
On Sunday, Piggott’s son-in-law William Haggas confirmed what the scene had feared for days. “Lester passed away peacefully this morning. I don’t want to say more about that at the moment, although Maureen (Piggott’s daughter, ed.) will make a statement later.” Piggott was hospitalized last weekend, so far nothing is known about the exact reasons. In 2007, his life had been hanging by a thread before, when he spent longer in intensive care because of acute heart problems.