Lester Piggott obituary

Lester Piggott, who has died aged 86, was regarded by many as the finest jockey ever to ride on British turf. His record in major races is unlikely to be surpassed. No other 20th-century jockey came close to his achievement. In all, he rode 4,493 winners in Britain and more than 850 elsewhere during a career that spanned 47 years, with major successes in France, Ireland, the US, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Wherever he travelled, he was feted in a manner unique for a jockey. However, his career was dogged by controversy, leading to a jail sentence for tax fraud in 1987 and the withdrawal of his OBE.

Born in Wantage, Oxfordshire, Lester came from a horseracing family that stretched back over six generations, including such famous names as John Day, Tom Cannon and Fred Rickaby. His grandfather, Ernie Piggott, was a champion steeplechaser who won the Grand National three times, while his father, Keith, was one of the finest National Hunt jockeys of the pre-second world war era and won the Champion Hurdle in 1939 on African’s Sister. He was later to train a Grand National winner, Ayala, in 1963. Lester’s mother, Iris (nee Rickaby), came from the Rickaby racing dynasty.

The young Lester was always determined to ride on the flat, though he was 5ft 7in, with a natural weight of 10st 7lb (67kg) in the 1950s. His inspiration was the great 19th-century jockey Fred Archer, who starved himself to keep his weight down and used brutal purgatives throughout his career before killing himself at the age of 29. Archer was nicknamed “the Tinman” because of his love of money. Money was also to be one of Piggott’s greatest motivations.

Piggott first sat on a racehorse at the age of seven. On his 12th birthday, he became apprenticed to his