Lester Piggott: at 75 still the Derby's lord of the reins | Sport | The Guardian The Observer Lester Piggott: at 75 still the Derby's lord of the reins The Epsom legend shares his views on modern-day racing and looks back at his illustrious past on the 60th anniversary of his first Derby ride Lester Piggott, the 30-times champion jockey, at the Park Lane Hilton earlier this month. Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Observer Sunday 29 May 2011 03.00 EDT First published on Sunday 29 May 2011 03.00 EDT Share on Messenger Close As the eye picks out Lester Piggott approaching, the mind relocates to Tattenham Corner, where the sharp angles of his frame would coast down the hill at the back of the Derby field, waiting to swoop, ready to assert his ownership of the world's most illustrious Flat race. Piggott is only gliding across a hotel foyer, but the association with Epsom is still instant.

In the handshake, his fingers are curled from all the reins he held to steer home 30 Classic winners and nine Derby champions. His face bears softened versions of the creases that scored his features when he was the famished, hardened lord of the weighing-room. And in his eyes now is more of the softness that was so rarely visible behind the mask of the ruthless pilot. In the golden age of sports personalities – Muhammad Ali, Pelé – Piggott acquired charisma by turning his face away from noise and celebrity. He had no use for the tumble of words with which others described their activities. His silence was his calling card. The cold glint in his eye thrilled punters and terrified his rivals. All emotion was excised from the business of winning races. At Epsom, nothing before or since has matched the glamour of him sweeping into the home straight and picking off the leaders on the best horse in a Derby. Saturday brings the 60th anniversary of his first Derby ride, on Zucchero, who finished 13th in 1951.

He conquered Epsom's undulations and cambers for the first time three years later on Never Say Die and farmed the great mile-and-a-half fiesta, winning also on Crepello, St Paddy, Sir Ivor, Nijinsky, Roberto, Empery, The Minstrel and Teenoso, the last of his successful Derby mounts, in 1983. He has a tip for us. Piggott first rode for the Queen at Newmarket in 1955 and as our conversation turns to the monarch's Carlton House, favourite for this year's Investec Derby, he says: "It'll probably win, too. He's the obvious one." In his official biography, written with Dick Francis, Piggott picked out his greatest dislike as "people who talk too much", so there is nothing to be gained in his presence from journalistic babble. The trainer Jeremy Tree once asked him: "I've got to speak to my old school, Lester, all the boys at Eton, and tell them all I know about racing.

What shall I say?" After a pause, Piggott replied: "Tell 'em you have flu." With his partial deafness and speech impediment, he said he learned to "lip read and watch people's faces," which he still does, intently. He weighs each question carefully and then measures out an answer like a jockey just loosening the reins. He thinks, for example, that Frankie Dettori is the finest of the modern jockeys, and that today's whip is "rubbish" and much less painful to horses than the public understands: "I think today Dettori is still the best. There's a handful of really good jockeys but I think Dettori is the one. Beautiful balance on a horse. Of course, Ryan Moore's good and Kieren Fallon's good but if you really come down to it Frankie's still the best." In his time Piggott was a famously vigorous coercer of horses but was also known for his artistry and his super-human judgment of pace, which looked bred into him through a long ancestry of jockeys and trainers. "I never hit them unless they were answering it. If they were going forward you knew they were responding.

But there were a lot of horses I rode I never hit at all because they didn't like it." A quick statistical blizzard: Piggott's 30 Classic wins from 1954-1992 will probably never be surpassed. Since 1900, Willie Carson comes next, way back on 17. Piggott was 12 when he rode his first winner and 18 when he accompanied Never Say Die at Epsom. Back then he was an enfant terrible, often in trouble with the stewards. He was champion jockey 11 times and rode 4,493 Flat winners as well as 20 over hurdles, including one at the Cheltenham Festival in 1954. He rode Nijinsky to a Triple Crown (the 2,000 Guineas, Derby and St Leger) in 1970 and won the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe on Rheingold and Alleged (twice).

When Vincent O'Brien, the great Irish trainer, talked him out of retirement he won the 1990 Breeders' Cup Mile on Royal Academy and the 2,000 Guineas with Rodrigo de Triano. Working as an ambassador for the Qipco British Champions Series, Piggott granted the Observer a rare interview, and talked with the soft wit his closest friends and admirers always said was there. "People ask me why I ride with my bottom in the air. Well, I've got to put it somewhere," he once said. The Long Fellow's style in the saddle expressed his journey across Britain's racecourses. The raised rear might as well have been a shark's fin. There is a bit of fuss around him this week. "There's always some anniversary, isn't there. It's 60 years since I first rode in the Derby, you know?" he says. The question mark at the end of the sentence is a familiar racing habit used also by Henry Cecil, trainer of Frankel, brilliant winner of the 2,000 Guineas and an old Piggott ally.

Frankel was never going to be a Derby horse, Piggott insists: "No, he's too fast, isn't he? He ran the first five furlongs of the Guineas in about 58 seconds. Henry's got some other good ones. He trains in a very simple way and makes it look so easy. He has a good staff and a lot of people helping him. The old way. He trains like he did 30 years ago." "The old way" is being swept away in racing's quest for modernisation and Piggott is happy to go along with it, to a point. "With the whip they have today they couldn't hurt a horse much. It's impossible. The whips are rubbish," he says. "It's all right people saying they shouldn't have whips but the ones they use today are hardly any good anyway. They're just half-and-half. The jockey had to have a whip because otherwise the horse used to go all over the place." He laughs at the thought of half-a-ton of horse without a tiller. "Most horses hang one way or the other so you need something to correct them. The whip then was more of a whip.

Today they're nothing like that. But, you know, I can see from the public point of view – at the end of a three-mile steeplechase it doesn't look good when they're whacking them. But not on the Flat." He also regrets the rise in fixtures that serve only as betting shop fodder: "Except for the big meetings racing's become a weekend thing. The week-day racing is rubbish, isn't it? It's a lot of handicaps. People still bet on it, but it's mediocre. They went too much towards mediocrity. There's too much racing and too much mediocrity. But the sport has come through all these bad times and survived." At 75 he no longer rides but still enjoys a punt. "We always have a bet in the bigger races. It wouldn't be any fun otherwise, would it?" Money was Piggott's other great love, and his downfall, when he was sentenced in 1987 to three years in prison for failing to declare income of £3.25m to the Inland Revenue in the biggest tax-evasion case of its time. He served a year, was stripped of his OBE and saw his blossoming training career ruined.

"I liked training a lot but it was a bad time for me, really, and I didn't continue," he says. In 2007 he found himself in intensive care in a Swiss hospital with heart trouble: an affront to a man who has probably never eaten a Mars bar or sausage roll: "I don't know why it happened really. It's a funny thing. You wouldn't think I would get it because I was very fit but it can happen to anybody. It was just a blocked artery." There is a placidity about him that speaks of an inner calm. But when I open his biography and show him some of the pictures he looks uncomfortable, as if to look back is too painful. "I'm quite busy, but it's not quite the same, really," he says at one point. People expect him to join them on the their nostalgia trips but he has to occupy the present, without riding, minus the thrill of the chase. The Derby defined him because he mastered nature around Epsom and usually found his way on to the best animal, sometimes at another jockey's expense: "Of course there are bigger races later in the year now but the Derby still holds up.

Look at last year [Workforce]: the winner was a great horse who won the Arc. So it holds up. The horse that wins the Derby has got to be able to do a lot of things. "Where Sea The Stars [2009] was so good was that he was able to go through the gears. So few horses can do that. And he was a bit lazy, so we really never knew what he could do. To win the Arc so easily was fantastic. "I thought Sir Ivor [1968] was probably the best of mine. He had this speed. He wasn't a mile-and-a-half horse but he had this terrific turn of foot. They were all great but I think he was the best. It depends a lot on the horse but it's a very tricky race. It was always the big thing. It was the thing. So you had to put a lot of thought into it. I was riding good horses. That helped." Sometimes another jockey's good horse? "Not really. The intention was to get on the best one. That's why you're a jockey – to get on the best horse.

The only controversy was Roberto [who was to be ridden by Bill Williamson, in 1972] – and that was the owner. He left it a bit late, but it was his idea." A good idea, too, because John Galbreath saw the truth that still radiates from this mellow, shrewd-eyed horseman, with his winning energy and his poise. Around Epsom, with the right partner, Piggott would break the hearts of the opposition. Piggott's Derby love affair 1951 Zucchero Piggott's first Derby, when he was just 15, was on a temperamental character who planted and refused to budge until the remainder of the field were almost out of sight. What did Piggott learn from this experience? "Not to get left at the start" 1952 Gay Time After winning well at Salisbury just seven days before the big race, PiggottPiggott considered his mount 'a certainty', but Charlie Smirke was in no mood to be upstaged and gave his young rival a famously hard time on the track.

Smirke's mount, Tulyar, held off Gay Time by three-quarters of a length and Piggott was eventually unseated after the line 1954 Never Say Die The first of Piggott's nine successes in the race came aboard a 33-1 chance. The papers were in a frenzy about the youngest rider ever to win the race ever winner but, rather than stay out to celebrate, he was driven home by his parents where he to spend the evening mowing the lawn 1957 Crepello A heavily backed favourite, Piggott's winning ride cemented his reputation with punters and the press as being the best around. As he returned to the winner's enclosure, celebrity hairdresser 'Teasy Weasy' Raymond burst through the crowds to thrust a gold watch into the hands of the jockey as a thank-you present, while the horse's owner, Victor Sassoon gave Piggott his car, a Lincoln Continental limousine 1968 Sir Ivor Any regrets the rider might have had about his split with Noel Murless did not last long.

Sir Ivor became the first of four winners Piggott would partner for Vincent O'Brien, eight years after his previous Derby win on St Paddy Piggott found Sir Ivor an easy ride – "it was as if he knew what he was supposed to do" 1970 Nijinsky Probably Piggott's most popular and famous winning ride in the race, the outstanding Nijinksy went on to become the first horse since Bahram in 1935 to win the Triple Crown. An iconic victory in the Derby, which took his record to eight from eight, was achieved in effortless fashion from French colts Gyr and Stintino 1972 Roberto Piggott had to be at his very strongest to force the winner home from Rheingold, who might have won but for continually bumping into his rival.

Short of room for manoeuvre, it took a ride of astonishing power and determination to secure a short-head verdict in a photograph which took the judge what seemed like hours to resolve 1976 Empery A seventh Derby win made Piggott the winningmost successful rider in the history of the race, but punters could have been forgiven for being surprised by the 10-1 success over hot favourite Wollow. Piggott repeated the success on The Minstrel the following year 1983 Teenoso The last of Piggott's wins, gained in the most testing conditions many could ever remember at the track.

Trainer Geoff Wragg, in his first season with a licence, was given a dream start to his career and the horse proved the win to be no fluke when winning the King George the following year 1994 Khamaseen Having returned to the sport after serving a prison sentence for tax evasion, Piggott was a 58-year-old grandfather when he finished fifth behind Erhaab, closing a chapter in the history of the Derby as he rode in the race for the 38th and final time Lester Piggott: I could have won more Derbies - Telegraph Horse Racing Lester Piggott: I could have won more Derbies Epsom legend may have won a record nine Derbies but he believes it could easily have been more Going strong: Lester Piggott, 79, still believes the Derby is the greatest horse race in the world Photo: REX FEATURES By Marcus Armytage 5:06PM BST 03 Jun 2015 Lester Piggott, 79, will be at Epsom, his spiritual home, on Saturday for the Investec Derby, a race he rode in 36 times and won nine times, a record which no jockey

 will get near any time soon.

Piggott’s visits to England from his home on the shore of Lake Geneva in Switzerland, where his doctor had suggested he go for the air after two heart attacks, are few and far between. But he follows British racing on television and keeps in touch with Joe Mercer and Jimmy Lindley, weighing-room colleagues who started out as apprentices with him in the early 1950s. No one else in the 235-year history of the Derby has mastered the tricky contours of Tattenham Hill as well as Piggott, and the sight of his famous cocked rear end just behind the leaders, three off the rail, as the field swept into the straight was enough to send shudders through the trainers of all the other runners watching from the stands. He had an uncanny knack of imposing his will on horses and in at least two of his Derby victories, on Roberto, who beat Rheingold by a short head in 1972, and The Minstrel (1977), who wore down Hot Grove in the last 25 yards to win by a neck, Derby history might well have been different had the jockeys been switched – and one of them was Willie Carson.

In that era, the Derby came to revolve around one thing; what would Lester ride, which is all the more remarkable considering his then indifference to the media made Ryan Moore look like the patron saint of public-relations workers. “I could have ridden two or three more Derby winners had things panned out slightly differently,” said Piggott, who turns 80 in November and is now more than happy to do his bit for the Derby as an ambassador for Investec. “If I’d stayed with Vincent O’Brien a bit longer, or if I’d stayed with Noel Murless longer. It could easily have happened.” He even reckons his first ride in the race, as a precocious 15-year-old on Zucchero in 1951, was one that got away. “Zucchero was a very good horse, but he was temperamental and difficult to get to line up. There were 33 runners, starting stalls didn’t come in until 1967. Ken Cundell, his trainer, had to lead him in. He got left and finished down the field behind Arctic Prince.

But when they met in the King George, Zucchero was second and the Derby winner was six lengths behind him and he also went back to Epsom and won the Coronation Cup in 1953. Life became a lot easier with stalls.” In 1954, Piggott, then 18, won his first Derby on Never Say Die – “I’d been second before, but the first always stays with you” – and almost three decades later his last on Teenoso, in 1983. In a golden 10-year spell from 1968 he won it five times, four of them for Vincent O’Brien, and he believes it is no coincidence that another five Derby winners have emanated from Ballydoyle since Aidan O’Brien took over. “Apart from the fact that they were all bred to win the Derby, Ballydoyle has a Derby gallop which replicates Tattenham Corner. I think that’s a big advantage. Even Vincent’s ordinary horses, which you never heard of again, finished placed. When they come to Epsom they adapt so easily. I don’t think the gallop was built specially, it was just how the land was.

It was luck really, because when he bought the place he was thinking about Cheltenham rather than Epsom.” In what Frankie Dettori might see as a boost for his chances on Golden Horn this year, Piggott said that there was often a doubt about O’Brien’s colts getting the trip. “In the Derby, it helps if a horse has a bit of toe and you have to squeeze a mile and a half out of a mile-and-a-quarter horse.” He still reckons it pays to be “up with the pace”. “Obviously it depends on the horse, and some can’t keep up, but it’s nice to be just behind the leaders off the bend. Sir Ivor was back a bit, and halfway up the straight I was wondering if I’d win, but I was riding him to get the trip.” Surprisingly, the three best horses Piggott has seen include only one Derby winner and none that he rode. “Sea-Bird, Ribot and Frankel were the best – in that order,” he said.

“I was beaten two lengths by Sea-Bird into second on Meadow Court in 1965 and Pat Glennon, his jockey, said before the race all he was worried about was being able to pull up the horse before the road [by the old parade ring]. In the race, he started pulling up about a furlong and a half out – that’s how good he was. Ribot was exceptional. He was unbeaten and won two Arcs. We all saw what Frankel did.” Many things about British racing are different from Piggott’s era. One of the most obvious is the size of jockeys. Piggott was not known as the Long Fellow without good reason, at 5ft 8in he was one of the tallest and he could ride at 8st 5lb. Now the likes of Richard Hughes and James Doyle would dwarf him. “George Baker,” he said, “is a good jockey, but he’s about 7ft tall. I had to work hard at the weight but jockeys nowadays can ride 100 winners a year and not be a pound less than 9st.

I didn’t eat much and there were days when you didn’t feel great on it. A lot of things are better now. I think modern jockeys are pretty good. Ryan Moore’s the best, Frankie’s still got it. You could pick out five who are better than the rest.” But one thing Piggott insists has not changed is the Derby’s position as the world’s most important Flat race. “It’s still the greatest race. It is a hard test and I don’t think you find that anywhere else. “Epsom is not how you’d design a racecourse, but it’s got something no other track has. No one ever remembers who won the big races in Singapore or Dubai, but they always know what won the Derby.”] Piggott on his nine wins in the Derby 1. NEVER SAY DIE (1954) He was a left-handed horse and not nearly so good when he raced right. 2. CREPELLO (1957) One of the two best horses I won the Derby on. He took the 2,000 Guineas but had bad legs and was hard for Sir Noel Murless to keep sound.

He broke down when training for the St Leger and never ran again. 3. ST PADDY (1960) He was good and we knew that before he ran at York first time out as a two-year-old. But he ran away with me on the way to the post and had a race before he started. Next time out they put a gag on him and he won the Royal Lodge by five lengths. He was fourth in the Guineas, won the Dante and took the Derby by three lengths. 4. SIR IVOR (1968) He had spent the winter in Italy before winning the Guineas and Derby. He then got beat in his next four races, but ended up winning the Champion Stakes and Washington International. I know he got beaten a few times, but of all my Derby winners he had the most brilliance about him. 5. NIJINSKY (1970) He was the last horse to win the Triple Crown with the Irish Derby and King George thrown in for good measure, but I never thought it was a great year. 6. ROBERTO (1972). His win was overshadowed by controversy.

Bill Williamson won the Guineas on him but was injured and I got on him. I couldn’t see him being beaten in the Irish Derby next time, but he only beat two home. 7. EMPERY (1976) Horse racing: Lester Piggott, king of the Derby | Sport | The Guardian King of the Derby Clare Balding The great Lester Piggott was the best jockey in the world for decades. He rode his first winner aged 12, his first Derby at 18 and went on to win racing's most famous Classic nine times, a record that will surely never be beaten. Fifty years after that first Epsom success, Lester, famed for his wry sense of humour, a love of money that landed him in jail, his troubled relationships and his astute judgment of horses, talks about his long and eventful life in racing... but not in long sentences Saturday 29 May 2004 19.30 EDT First published on Saturday 29 May 2004 19.30 EDT Share on Messenger Close What is the key quality that a horse must possess if it is to win the Derby?

Is it impeccable breeding, stamina, a calm temperament, an ability to quicken up in a matter of strides, the preparation of the trainer, the skill of the jockey or the quality of his form leading up to the race? All of these things matter, but, according to the man who has won more Derbys than anyone else, there is a one-word answer. Lester Piggott thinks, but not for long, before muttering: 'Balance.' A meeting with Lester in the run-up to the Derby is akin to being granted an audience with the Dalai Lama in an attempt to discover the meaning of life. The answer is often shorter than expected. In Lester's case (it is impossible to refer to him as Piggott, for he supersedes the surname epithet), the answer to the eternal conundrum is, and always will be, balance. 'It doesn't matter how big the horse is, you can tell if it's going to act around Epsom,' he says. But how do you know? Do you have to gallop them down a hill? Do you have to ride them in a race? Do you have to feel how they handle a left-hand bend? Do you? Do you?

Lester looks mildly amused. The man with all the answers but neither the will nor the capability to explain. 'You just know,' he says. 'A lot of them you can tell just by looking.' Of course you can. Silly me. Lester is not big on words. Nor on giving an opinion, even though he is asked for one on everything from breeding to bread by everyone he meets. His partial deafness and the speech impediment that muffles his voice have contributed to his lack of ostentation although, in truth, his character would have impeded any effort at gregariousness. It suits him just fine not to be the greatest interviewee in the world; and Lester makes himself perfectly understandable when he wants to be understood. The reason that balance is so crucial to success in the Derby is the nature of the course. From the mile-and-a-half start, Epsom climbs to a height of 500 feet above sea level between the seven- furlong marker and the six, from where it sweeps violently downhill and left-handed into Tattenham Corner. Any horse struggling to maintain its pace or being asked to quicken feels as if its legs are being taken from underneath it.

Over the next three furlongs, the course drops 90ft, but the gradient becomes more gradual with half a mile to run. As the horses enter the straight, the camber (the course slopes away from the Grandstand to the far rail) accentuates any tiring and any tendency to hang to the left. According to trainer David Elsworth, Epsom is no better than a funfair ride. For Lester, Epsom was a problem to be solved and no one in the history of racing has cracked it more often and with more assurance than L Piggott. The old sage will be 69 this year. He is alert, polite and reserved. It is 50 years since he first won the Derby on Never Say Die, the first of an unprecedented nine victories. His first Derby ride, in 1951 at the age of 15, was an inauspicious start. Lester was on board a talented but temperamental horse called Zucchero, who planted himself at the start and refused to go forward until the rest of the field were granted an unassailable advantage. What did the young jockey learn from his first experience of the Derby?

'Not to get left at the start.' Three years later, and having been suspended for six months for dangerous riding along the way, he became the youngest jockey to win the race, on the 33-1 shot Never Say Die. He had picked the horse as his Derby mount when he was 100-1, purely because of his physical conformation. Even then, he could tell just by looking. As wild celebrations of Classic success go, Lester's was unimpressive. He went home to mow the lawn. 'It was a bit unexpected, really,' he says. 'The owner wasn't there and there was nothing going on. I never thought to celebrate. It was very different in those days and there was always a big race the next day, so I just got on with it.' Looking at the photographs of Lester's Derby rides, it becomes evident that there is a pattern. At Tattenham Corner, he is nearly always in the same place: about sixth and one horse off the inside rail. 'That's the place to be, if you can be,' he explains. 'It means you can go when you like. If you don't have to make up ground coming down the hill, it helps.

A lot of times you think you'd love to be there, but your horse can't do it, so there's no point trying.' Did anyone help Lester along the way, or advise him when he arrived at his Derby-winning formula? 'No, not really,' he replies. Right. Silly me. Again. The modern world of sporting celebrity is anathema to men of Lester's generation and attitude. The mere idea of him being photographed lying on a fluffy rug in front of the fire or turning up at glitzy showbiz parties in a sarong is comical. His verdict on professional sportsmen and women turning into public property is abrupt and simple. 'It's not a good thing,' he says, although he does acknowledge that in today's world it comes with the job. 'Times are different now. We didn't have to do publicity, so it didn't matter.' With experience comes sagacity and there have been few who gained experience as young as Lester. 'You have to remember that I rode my first winner at 12, so by the time I won the Derby I was a veteran.

I'd been riding in races for six years.' Despite his disapproval of over-exposure in the media, the best jockey riding today in his estimation happens to be the most famous. If Lester had a runner in the Derby, he would want only one jockey to ride it: 'Frankie.' His tone is assured. This was not some glib comment trotted out for the sake of column inches. He had thought about it before and he means it. Dettori is yet to win the Derby, but that matters not, according to the one who knows. 'It's just unfortunate that he's never won it. He will do some time. I told him to ride Shaamit [the 1996 winner trained by Piggott's son-in-law, William Haggas], but he couldn't at the time. He knew he'd made a mistake and don't forget that he could have ridden Lammtarra [winner in 1995]. He's the best at the moment.

There are a few who are good, but I think he's the best.' This unexpected flow of dialogue leads me to ask whether the judgment of a jockey in picking the right horse to ride - if he is lucky enough to be in a position to choose - is as important as his judgment in the race itself. Lester was renowned as a great judge and as a ruthless colleague. If he thought a certain horse could win a big race, he would ensure that the owner knew he was available and willing to replace its regular rider. 'It's got to come your way,' is his assessment of picking Derby rides. 'There are other horses I could have ridden, like Royal Palace [winner in 1967, the year after Piggott had left his trainer Noel Murless], but equally I would not have been on the horses I was on if I hadn't done it the way I did.' Piggott and Murless, the most fearsome combination in British racing, parted company in 1966 after Lester chose to ride a filly for Vincent O'Brien in the Oaks rather than a filly trained by Murless.

Lester argues that since he had no formal contract to ride for Murless, there could have been no breach of contract. In the newly published Lester's Derbys, he admits to being 'sad' about leaving Murless after 12 years but says: 'I never thought I was doing the wrong thing.' The filly that had caused the ruck duly won the Oaks and in 1968 Piggott got the leg-up on Sir Ivor, the first of four Derby winners that he rode for O'Brien (the others being Nijinsky, Roberto and The Minstrel). He had, naturally, done the right thing. Murless and O'Brien were the best trainers he ever knew. O'Brien more technical, to the point of being fastidious, but both, in Lester's view, 'exceptional'. Ask him to rank today's trainers and he is reluctant, saying that there are too many of them to evaluate them properly (whether that means too many good ones or just too many is unclear). 'It's hard when you're not riding,' he says.

'It's hard if to say if they're any good and mean it when you don't really know.' After about half an hour, I had worked it out - Lester does not say anything he does not mean, which leads to his sometimes saying very little. His wry sense of humour contributes to the most wonderful one-liners. For example, talking about the week before Nijinsky's Derby in 1970 that he details in the book. He had been riding in Paris on the Sunday, Sandown on Monday, then flew back to Paris on Monday evening to gallop a horse, then back to Sandown for racing on Tuesday, then to Ireland late on Tuesday night to give Nijinsky his final bit of work on Wednesday morning, then to Brighton for the afternoon, followed by Paris again on Thursday, Newbury on Friday and Newmarket on Saturday. Lester was so tired he could barely walk and, standing on the scales, realised that he had lost half a stone and was down to 7st 12lb. Bear in mind that Lester Piggott stands at more than 5ft 7in, which is tall for a jockey, and such dramatic weight loss would have sapped his energy to a dangerous degree.

Lester's summing up of the situation? 'Well, it was hot.' Nowadays he still looks lean and hungry, despite weighing 20lb more than he did in his riding days. 'I still don't eat much,' he says. 'Once you get into that way of not eating, it's hard to change.' Lester's favourite food is ice cream, something that would have done him well in that hot summer of 1970. Had he been a naturally lighter man, as was his great adversary Willie Carson, Lester might have won more than his 11 jockeys' championships, but records and statistics matter little to him. 'I always thought I was a jockey doing a job of work,' he says, expanding on his Epsom record. 'That's why I have never thought I was exceptional.

It was unbelievable to win all those Derbys, but it was a job of work.' The one statistic that did matter was to reach seven Derby winners, with Empery in 1976, and so set a record, beating the six victories of Jem Robinson between 1817 and 1836 and of Steve Donoghue between 1915 and 1925. 'I always thought Steve Donoghue's record was fantastic. That was special, so to break it was....' He pauses while he considers the correct adjective, 'Nice.' Understated to the last, unlike the journalists who have written about him over the past half a century. I refer him to some of the more lyrical prose written in his honour, for instance this assessment, as chronicled by Tony Morris, after what was to be his final Derby win, on Teenoso. Lester was 'the supreme artist plying his craft from the saddle, his genius as sublime as that of a Rembrandt or a Beethoven, and his accomplishments on the same plane. In the sporting world there has been nobody to match him in his lifetime....

George Best bestrode his sphere like a colossus for a season, Garry Sobers for perhaps five, but for the best part of three decades - truly the best part for us who know - Lester has been the pre-eminent leader of his field.' If you thought Lester might appreciate being reminded of such extensive praise, you would be wrong. He laughs out loud and says: 'Well, they can write what they want.' Lester had laughed during that Derby as well, so easily was he travelling on Teenoso. A wonderful photo in Lester's Derbys shows Lester swinging off Teenoso as the runners make the final turn out of Tattenham Corner. He is farther forward than usual and looking sideways at Brian Rouse on board Neorion. So, what was he saying? 'Look at this, I'm only doing half-speed.' He does not recall Rouse's response, although it probably ended with 'off'. Teenoso galloped away on the softest ground Lester ever encountered in a Derby to win by three lengths. It could have been 30.

Did he get more satisfaction out of a long winning margin or out of a hard-fought, narrow success such as those on Roberto (who won by a short head) and The Minstrel (a neck)? 'To win the Derby is always special,' he explains, 'whether you win by a nose or by ten lengths. It doesn't matter how far because a short head is as good as a mile, as long as you win.' He is equally clear in his assessment of himself as a jockey. When was he, over his 47-year career, at his best? '1960.' Why? 'Because I just couldn't get beat.' He might be taking the mickey, being deliberately precise because there is no accurate answer to the question. Then again, he has spent his lifetime not saying things unless he means them, so you have to take his word for it. The year 1960 was when he won his first jockeys' championship and the year in which he won the Derby on St Paddy. In truth, though, he could 'get beat' and duly did in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes on board the hot favourite, Petite Etoile.

On a happier note, 1960 was the year that he married Susan Armstrong, with whom he had two daughters, Maureen (now Haggas) and Tracey. The Piggotts are still married, despite a few hiccups along the way - Lester's alliance with Anna Ludlow produced a son, Jamie, who is now 10 - but as is racing's way, everyone accepts the situation as relatively normal and gets on with it. Jamie rides a bit, but beyond that information, his father offers little more. Lester's life now is tranquil compared to the chaos of his heyday, but he still 'gets about to different places' and goes out on the gallops occasionally. He has not ridden this year, but does not sound as if he never will again. He keeps tabs on the runners from his son-in-law's yard, as well as those from his own yard, which is leased to James Toller. Last weekend, Toller won his first Classic with Bachelor Duke in the Irish 2,000 Guineas. The horse was carrying the colours of the late Duke of Devonshire, who died this month.

Piggott had ridden many times for the Duke, notably on the brilliant mare Park Top, on whom he was narrowly beaten in the 1967 Arc de Triomphe (and still blames himself for her defeat). 'The old Duke had gone so many years without a good one,' he says. 'It was a real shame he wasn't around.' That was as close as he was going to get to any sentimentality, but he is more expansive about the horse itself. 'I hope he goes on and improves. He might even be as good as Haafhd [who won the English 2,000 Guineas]. He looked beaten, but when Seb [Sanders] walloped him, he didn't half pick up. Now that's a good sign.' Did Lester back Bachelor Duke? A huge smile spreads across his lined face and the answer is clear. He undoubtedly would have got better odds than the 12-1 starting price. Which brings us neatly to the money thing. Lester has always had the reputation of a mercenary, a man for whom money is the only reason for doing anything.

When talking about the Derby's place in the pecking order of importance for today's jockeys, the value of it is never far from his mind, 'There are so many big races now, but it's still the race,' he says, before adding: 'It's worth a lot of money, you know.' He wishes it had been worth as much in his day, that is clear. If he were riding now, would he like to ride for Aidan O'Brien and the team at Ballydoyle or for Sheikh Mohammed and Godolphin? He thinks for a moment, the various elements going through his mind - quality of horses, facilities at each training centre, the type of races that they contest, the way the horses run, the prospect of a winter in Dubai or a winter at home. 'Well it's a toss of a coin really. Money doesn't come into it....' He pauses and I think I must have got him all wrong, that the thrill of riding good horses really was worth more than the amount by which they could enhance your bank account. Then he says: 'They're both worth about the same.' You should not be surprised.

After all, this was the man whose fondness for money landed him in jail in 1985 for tax evasion. He served a little more than a year of a three-year sentence. He read the Racing Post every day and made friends with those fellow inmates who shared an interest in the sport. Occasionally he still sees some of them. For most, going to prison would be one of the most terrifying experiences of anyone's life. Stepping into an unknown environment, far away from home, surrounded by convicted criminals. 'No, it wasn't frightening,' decrees the great sage, 'just a waste of time.' Equally a waste of time, in Lester's mind, is any great sense of guilt or regret for the mistakes he may have made along the way. 'You can't do much about it,' he says, leaving the rest of the sentence unfinished. The major downside to his prison sentence was the stripping of his OBE. There have been various campaigns over the years to persuade the powers that be to think again, but to no avail. 'It's silly, really,' Lester says, 'but they never go back.

They won't give it back to me now.' It is hard to tell how much that hurts or humiliates him, but probably rather more than he would care to admit. One message comes through loud and clear: Lester Piggott does not have time to feel remorse or sadness for the things he cannot change. He does not waste his time wondering how much he misses race-riding because 'it's gone'. 'I like to think that only at Derby time they remember me. When you finish, you're not entirely forgotten, but that's it. You have to accept it. It's over.' With this year's Derby less than a week away, he has taken an interest in the main contenders and will 'probably' have a bet. 'I think it's difficult this year,' is his considered assessment. 'I like the favourite, Yeats. He's done everything asked of him, but a lot of good judges won't have him. Of the others, they're only there with a chance. North Light is a good horse, but he's not exceptional, but then neither are any of the others. 'Snow Ridge has a chance. The talk in Newmarket is that he's been working well.

American Post didn't move great in France that day [in the French 2,000 Guineas]. I think the weather will play a part, but it's not clear right now.' What is clear is that he knows the form of each horse, has watched them closely and maintains his renowned good judgment, but trying to persuade him to share it is like coaxing a reluctant racehorse. He is saved from being forced into a premature judgment by his mobile phone, which rings to a surprisingly funky tune. Remarkable and unpredictable to the end, Lester politely takes his leave. LESTER PIGGOTT'S EPSOM DERBY WINNERS Never Say Die, Crepello, St. Paddy, Sir Ivor, Nijinsky, Roberto, Empery, The Minstrel and Teenoso. Edition of 250 Approximate images size (cms): 56 x 43 This print is also available as an edition of 50 on Fine Art Canvas Approximate images size (cms): 66 x 50 The image size quoted is approximate. If you are purchasing an unframed print please do not order a mount or frame until you have taken delivery.

To Order a Framed Print Simply choose any of the framed print options from the drop-down menu below, then 'Add to cart'. If you prefer to order by telephone or if you have any questions please call 0191 384 5343. Code: LESTER PIGGOTT'S EPSOM DERBY WINNERS Never Say Die, Crepello, St. Paddy, Sir Ivor, Nijinsky, Roberto, Empery, The Minstrel and Teenoso. Edition of 250 Approximate images size (cms): 56 x 43 This print is also available as an edition of 50 on Fine Art Canvas Approximate images size (cms): 66 x 50 The image size quoted is approximate. If you are purchasing an unframed print please do not order a mount or frame until you have taken delivery. To Order a Framed Print Simply choose any of the framed print options from the drop-down menu below, then 'Add to cart'. If you prefer to order by telephone or if you have any questions please call 0191 384 5343. Code:

Question: What was Lester Piggott's last Derby winner?
Answer: TEENOSO