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Betfair Great Posts
- Lester Piggot stories
orioles 27 Dec 00:23
A few ....
My favourite was told by Richard Fox. He
turned up at Piggott's house one day looking for some digs and
summoned up all his courage to knock on the great man's door.
Piggott answered and asked, 'What d'you want?'
Foxy replied, 'Can I stay here?'
Piggott answered, 'If you like.' and shut the
door in Foxy's face. Priceless.
After riding a winner for one of the
Easterby brothers Lester turned to the trainer and said
"Where's my present?" The trainer replied "I'm only a
poor farmer, I can't afford to give you a present" Lester
retorted with "Give me a sack of potatoes then!"
Peter Walwyn told of the time he gave
Piggott explicit instructions to hold a fancied horse up for a late
run. Seems he couldn't attend the meeting but found out later that
Piggott had won the race - making all from start to finish.
There was the when he dropped his whip
and just grabbed the whip of the French jockey next to him at the
time. He went on to win the race. When called in by the stewards he
said, 'I thought he was finished with it'.
My favourite is when Lester was asked by
a US racing reporter whether winning at the Breeders' Cup on Royal
Academy was his greatest achievement in racing, Lester replied,
"I've won 9 ******* Derbys!?
A good jockey doesn't need orders and a
bad jockey couldn't carry them out anyway; so it's best not to give
them any - Lester Piggott
After winning the Derby aged just 18-Why
all the fuss? After all, the Derby is just another race - Lester
Piggott (1954)
In a perfect world, I would have Lester
ride for me in all the big races, but in none of the Trials -
Vincent O'Brien
Jeremy Tree (trainer): I've got to speak
to my old school, Lester, and tell them all I know about racing.
What should I tell them?
Lester Piggott: Tell 'em you've got the flu.
Lester relishes every crisp fiver like
some rare jewel, for money is his staff of life and he ekes it out
as sparingly as a man faced with 50 years of unpensionable
retirement - Bill Rickaby
Never catch a loose horse. You could end
up holding the ******* thing all day - Lester Piggott
On a horse that consistently hung left -
The best thing you can do is put a bit of lead in his right ear, to
act as a counterbalance ... with a shotgun.
On the unsuitability of female jockeys
-Their bottoms are the wrong shape.
People ask me why I ride with my bottom
in the air. Well, I've got to put it somewhere.
When Sir Ivor won, the media asked him at
which stage did he know he had the race won? ?About 3 weeks ago?
A famous jockey who was short of change
said "lend me a quid Lester?" The long fellow ignored him
and kept walking to the car park. "C?mon mate, lend me a couple
of quid " Lester stopped and said "it was only a *******
quid a minute ago!?
After getting beat on a 9y/old maiden the
owner asked Lester what he thought of the horse. "He might come
on for the run and will be better with age"
A trainer was running a horse over a
distance it had never tried before, he asked Lester?s opinion and
the great man told him it wouldn?t stay. The trainer then proceeded
to tell him, ?Hold the horse up to get the trip.? Lester bolted from
the stalls and tried to make all, got collared inside the final
furlong and lost the race, as he got off the horse after the race,
he turned to the trainer, ?told ya?
After the O'Brien era did he not ride
against them in a big race, but eventually he did and just got up on
the line. On unsaddling, he turned to Vincent and said "did you
miss me then?"
Rode one for a northern trainer with a
handful of horses. Got beat. Trainer gave him and an earful and told
him, 'You'll never ride for me again.'
Lester; 'Well, that?s me ****** then.'
Robert Edmondson carved Lester up coming
out of the stalls, one day at Doncaster, in the days before scout
cameras. Lester finished 2nd to Edmondson. So he comes in to the
weighing room and tells the Stipe (Steward) he wants to object.
Stipe; ?On what grounds are you objecting,
Piggott?'
Lester; 'Attempted ******* murder?
Lester came down to Paul Smyth?s once,
ostensibly to ride out Happy Hunter. He pulled into the yard, the
head lad came running out with the tack. "Don?t need that, just
walk him up and down a few times" said Lester.
He watched him walk then said "enter him
in the Norwegian St Leger, I'll ride it, and it'll win.? Jumped in
his car and drove off.
They did and it won.
Brian Jago broke his leg, was in Epsom Hospital
first night Lester walked in. Brian was touched. Lester's first
question, "I?ve rung up and got the ride on Tom Cribb while you
are injured, what?s he like?"
There's the one about the stalls handler who
was told to ask about his fiver tip if Lester won. If he doesn?t
respond he was told, speak into the other ear, he's deaf. Handler
says about the fiver, no response, speaks into the other ear, tries
his luck, ?what about the tenner?? Lester replies "try the £5
ear"
When he saw Yves St Martin at Longchamp in a
pac-a-mac, Lester turns to someone, "look at that **** in a
French letter"
Did Lester ever go through the card? The
nearest I can remember was at Pontefract is 1963 - if my memory
serves me right he rode every winner but one which was 2nd at 11/10
and I led it up.
Apart from Mr. Dettori at Ascot, the only
instance that I can remember, post war, of a jockey going through
the card was A.J.Russell up North somewhere. If Lester could have
ridden at 8 stone, there is practically no limit to the number of
winners he would have had.
I remember Alec Russell, it was one of the
Scottish tracks maybe Bogside, we had been told to back one of his
and yes you've guessed it, it was in the last, we had stayed out of
the bookies so we wouldn't go skint waiting, and then they told us
Alec had ridden all five winners, it of course won about 7/2
Riding work one day we had a good sprinter and
the old man said to me just follow the two year olds up and let him
join them if he wants, Lester was riding one of them and I couldn?t
resist just cruising up and doing him a neck hard held, Lester
thought it was a two year old we had which looked very much like him
and when I told the old man this he said, ?don't enlighten him I
want him to ride it when it runs.? Lester did and it won.
Lester rode one for a great trainer I rode for,
called Kevin Curtain, at Flemington
over the Cups Carnival in the jockeys
international invitation race. Kev thought it could win. The horse
finished about 8th.
Asked what went wrong, Lester said, ?Needs more
ground?
Kev, ?how much??
Lester, ?a 100 acre paddock!?
While travelling in a chopper with fellow jocks
to a meeting abroad, somewhere in South America I think it was,
Lester notices a raging fire on an oil rig. ?Go down and have a
look? says the great man to the pilot. They took a look, ?It?s ok,
it's not one of mine? says Lester.
Lester cadges a lift from a pm meeting to a
night meeting with another jockey. Lester asks him to stop at a shop
on the way and he buys himself an ice cream. On returning to the car
the other jock says ?You might have bought me one." To which
Lester replies ?Sorry. I didn't know you liked ice cream."
How Frankie has fathered 5 children after what
Lester did to him at Goodwood one day I will never know, Frankie had
been giving Lester a bit of lip, so during a race Lester came
upsides Frankie and gave Frankie?s balls a nice squeeze!
Apparently he was riding a horse for a lady
that breed rare dogs, she told him that if he won the race she would
give him one of here rare dogs. To which he replied "I would
rather get a monkey"
Heard another one of some stable hand that was
looking after a horse that Lester came to ride to see if it would be
his Derby mount. The stable hand said "don't forget me when
this wins the Derby". After it won the Derby, in the winner?s
enclosure, the stable hand again said to him "remember
me?" Lester ignored him. 5 weeks later the stable hand got a
cheque in the mail for £100.
I overheard Joe Sime telling of a time when an
owner had laid on a plane after the afternoon meeting to make sure
he could take up his mount at Scottish evening meeting. LP kindly
offered several other jocks a lift in 'his' plane. They all thanked
Lester profusely and took up his kind offer. Several weeks later
they all got a bill through the post from the great man
He once rode a horse to finish 3rd, after it
had hung quite badly throughout the final two furlongs. In the
unsaddling enclosure was the trainer, together with the elderly
owner and his wife, who were from the polite, genteel set. The three
of them bent down to hear the verdict on the horse as Piggott was
undoing the girth strap. Lester half looked up and mumbled "the
'orse is a ****".
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