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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