Grief has gripped the world of horse racing. Early last Sunday he died in a hospital in Geneva (Switzerland) on English Lester Piggottthe greatest horse racing jockey of all time. At 86 years of age, he leaves behind a legendary career packed with unforgettable triumphs, incredible records and surprising anecdotes. A jockey, which as described by the philosopher and writer Fernando Saveter“I was predestined to immortality & rdquor ;.
Piggott was an iconic person in the sports world. Revered and admired at the racetracks, he won so many races in his almost 50 years of competition, up to 4,493, that there would be a lack of paper to be able to print and review them one by one. Among them, a lot of Derbies, Guineas and Ascots since in 1948, at the age of 12, he decided to get on a racehorse, until one day he ended his track record in 1995, at the age of 59 .
a tall rider
Born in Newmarket, the cradle of English horse racing, into a family that had three generations involved in the world of racing through his paternal line, he was always characterized by his unalterable serious face and his exaggerated height, hence his nickname of “The Long Fellow”, up to 1.73 meters, a height that did not prevent him from being the best jockey of all time. He was the great rider of the post-war period, with triumphs wherever he competed, including at the La Zarzuela racecourse, where he attended on occasion to the delight of the Spanish fans.
Piggott, who was never short of money, did not escape lovers of black literature from the world of horse racing. He was imprisoned in 1985 for defrauding 650 million pesetas and stripped of all decorations and titles granted by the Queen of England, Elizabeth II. His response was to go back to racing and win, a verb he combined with a ferocity that none of his rivals could match. “I wouldn’t say we were friends when you have a person who is like a thorn in your side. It is very difficult to have love for someone who is beating you all the time & rdquor ;, Jockey Willie Carson told Sky Sports Racing, one of his great rivals at the time.
very personal style
Related news
His image, like that of a “centaur & rdquor; as the chroniclers of her time described, of few words and always wrapped in the white smoke of her cigars, which she used to lose her hunger and thus give weight on the scale, she was associated with the delicacy with which she treated the horse on the track and its peculiar way of riding, with the shorter stirrup and that generated a new style of driving. That is why everyone copied him, although for the Italian jockey Frankie Dettori, the current clone of him on the racetracks, “We have always tried to aspire to be like him, but none of us have been able to do it”.
Above all, this Fangio, Cassius Clay either Maradona of the equestrian world, he was also a great friend of the British royal family. Despite the tax fraud scandal, he was always admired and entertained by Isabel II. Piggot knew her well and that is why he felt especially recognized when in 2019 the queen honored him on the day of the Epsom Derby by unveiling a statue in honor of her entire equestrian career. The ninth that adorns British racecourses and that today remembers more than ever who was the best jockey of all time.