Lester Piggott Wins 5,000 Races with Iron Will
Lester Piggott won over 5,000 races worldwide, including 30 English Classics, with his iron will to win and consummate skill in the saddle.
He was born on November 5, 1935, in Wantage, Berkshire, into a staunch racing family, with his father Keith training a Grand National winner.
His grandfather Ernest rode to victory three times in the great steeplechase and his mother Iris was the daughter of Classic-winning jockey Fred Rickaby.
Lester Piggott's career in the saddle will never be matched, with 116 winners at Royal Ascot and 11 champion jockey titles.
He returned from an aborted retirement to achieve one of his greatest feats at the age of 54 when he scored on Royal Academy in the Breeders' Cup Mile.
Lester Piggott's career was littered with injuries, including a particularly frightening example in 1992 when he fell from the Richard Hannon senior-trained sprinter Mr Brooks.
He sustained several broken bones and a collapsed lung, which forced him to miss the next three months.
He was known for his renowned riding of a finish, when he would almost lift his horse over the line with the aid of a liberal rat-a-tat-tat application of the whip.
Lester Piggott also had no qualms about 'jocking off' his weighing-room colleagues when he spotted the opportunity to climb aboard another big-race winner.
He had a delicate touch that made him the supreme artist on horseback, as when he nudged the tiring Ribero over the line in heavy ground for a short-head victory in the 1968 St Leger.
Lester Piggott's strength was allied to a delicate touch that earned him total respect in the racing world.
He won his first race in August 1948 at the age of 12 on The Chase in the Wigan Lane Selling Handicap at Haydock Park.
The Merseyside track was the scene of his final winner, too-Palacegate Jack in October 1994, when he was approaching his 59th birthday.
Lester Piggott's career cannot be defined by statistics, impressive though they are, but by his iron will to win and consummate skill in the saddle.
He was crowned champion jockey 11 times and won 9 Derbys, with his most memorable rides including Commanche Run in the 1984 St Leger and Sir Ivor in the 1968 Derby.
Lester Piggott's iron will to win and consummate skill in the saddle earned him total respect in the racing world, despite his taciturn nature and occasional lows, including serving 366 days of a three-year prison sentence handed down in 1987 for tax evasion.