Glossary entry for
Piggott, Lester

Lester Piggot was arguably the most famous English jockey of all time. He rode his first winner at age 12 in 1948, was a champion jockey in England 11 times and won the nation's most prestigious flat race, the Derby, a record nine times between 1954 and 1983. He retired in 1995, aged 59.

Known as Old Stoneface because he rarely showed emotion, and uncommunicative largely because of a speech impediment, he was jailed in 1985 for a year for failing to accurately declare tax on about $4.8 million in earnings.

The scandal meant that the honor bestowed on him by Queen Elizabeth II in 1975, the Order of the British Empire (OBE), was taken away.

Without the jail sentence and tax fraud investigation, he almost certainly would have become Sir Lester Piggott.

Contributed by cjones@HALNET.COM

More information available at:

Van references in:

  • "In The Days Before Rock and Roll" (on Enlightenment)



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