Lester Piggott, 85, recently made headlines as an inaugural inductee of Qipco British Champions Series Hall of Fame, created to celebrate the modern history of Flat racing in Britain. Of course, Piggott won the English Triple Crown – that is, the 2,000 Guineas, Derby and St. Leger – on Nijinsky in 1970 but, all told, rode a record nine Derby winners and 4,493 winners in total.
Piggott rode his first winner, a three-year-old filly named The Chase, trained by his father, Keith, in the Wigan Lane Selling Handicap at Haydock on August 18, 1948, as a twelve-year-old boy. It would be over a year until he rode his second winner but, by 1950, Piggott had ridden out his claim and the first of his record 116 winners at Royal Ascot.
Piggott would go on to become champion jockey 11 times between between 1960 and 1982 before retiring, the first time, in 1985. He susbequently plead guilty to tax evasion and was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, of which he served a year and a day, before making an unexpected return to the saddle in 1990. He rode his last winner, Palacegate Jack, trained by Jack Berry, in the King’s Regiment Cup, a conditions stakes race, at Haydock on October 5, 1994, just a month shy of his fifty-ninth birthday.