Lester Piggott was born in 1935, the son of Keith Piggott, who was a successful national hunt jockey and a Grand National trainer. Keith's father before him, Ernest Piggott was a champion jockey and won the Grand National three times and founded one great horseracing dynasty and joined it with another when he married Margaret Cannon, a descendant of Sam Day, three times winner of the Derby and sister of jockeys Mornington and Kempton Cannon. This of course all adds up to a pretty impressive introduction to the world of horseracing, and it can most definitely be stated that Lester has horseracing in his blood, and it was of course natural for Lester to have started horseriding from a very early age. He rode his first race winner at the Chase at Haydock Park at the age of 12 and rode his first Epsom Derby winner, Never Say Die in 1954 at the age of 18 ? they youngest person to ever win the event.
Piggott was nicknamed 'The Long Fellow' due to his exceptionally tall height for a jockey of 5 foot 8 inches, and is recognized both for being the finest flat racing jockey of his generation, but also as the Epsom Derby champion, having won the race a total of nine times. After winning the Epsom Derby he got together with trainers Vincent O Brien and Henry Cecil, and won the Derby again in 1957 on Crepello.
Piggott has won almost every race you could name in Western Europe, winning 5,300 times in more than 30 countries and has been victorious at the Ascot Gold cup 11 times, as well as being Champion jockey 11 times.
In 1985 he retired from horseracing for the first time, venturing away from being a jockey to try his hand as a racehorse trainer. In this he was also successful until he had a disaster in 1987 by ending up in prison due to tax evasion. As well as his three year prison sentence he also had to deal with the shame of being stripped of his OBE.
He returned to horseracing with his head held high in 1990 and had won a race within 10 days of being released from jail. In 1992 he won another Classic, the 2,000 Guineas on Rodrigo de Triano bringing his British Classic total to 30. With so many races won and being a jockey of such distinction it is hard to pinpoint was Piggott's greatest achievement is, but some would argue that winning the Epsom Derby 8 times, in 3 consecutive decades would be at the top of the achievement list!
He retired in 1995 but did take part in a special race at the Melbourne Cup meeting in 2001. He has had some health problems but was seen out and about at the Ascot in 2007 as well as the Epsom Derby, where in an interview with the BBC he tipped the winner!
