Lester Piggott?

I work with this Irish guy from the town of Sligo, Ireland. It’s located in the northwest corner of the country. We work at the same place, but in different departments so we are more acquaintances than buddies. His name is McCarthy, and that’s what we refer to him as, he’s McCarthy. The other day we were talking and I weaseled the conversation around to horse racing. And he winked those blue Irish eyes at me and says, “Have I told you me Lester Piggott story?”

“Go ahead McCarthy, tell me your horse story.” McCarthy nudges me in the ribs as if we were in some old time movie. “Me brother Sean rings me and says, ‘Lester Piggott is only racing one horse on today’s card it has to mean that this horse is a winner or Lester wouldn’t be on him.’ This was after the tax evasion prison term…” At this point, I had to interrupt him and ask, “Who is Lester Piggott?”

“You’ve got to be kidding me laddy, you don’t know about Lester Piggott?" And he told me… he is known as the Long Fellow due to his 5’8” frame, Piggott won the Epsom Derby NINE times. “Why he’s the greatest flat track jockey of all time he is,” McCarthy said. He won his first Derby in 1954 as an 18 year old. And he won eight more, his last in 1983. He had 4,493 wins in his career and was named British Flat Track Champion 11 times. And he won the 1990 Breeders’ Cup Mile on Royal Academy. His resume is long and full of top flight victories.

“Oh he struggled he did with his weight. He was fighting to be 8 stones most of his career.” I didn’t ask what a stone was out of fear that McCarthy would tell me - I wanted to get home that night. I figured that I must go 22 stones and a few pebbles if a jockey weighs eight.

Lester Piggott was the greatest jockey of Great Britain and he famously got in trouble with England’s Internal Revenue Service and served 366 days on a three year sentence for tax fraud. McCarthy’s story had me on the edge of my seat, but what about the phone call between brother Sean, I asked?

“Well I put Ten Quid (?) on him and I won 600 Pounds, it’s the only bet that I’ve made in me life,” McCarthy nudged me again as if I understood what a quid and a pound were. A quid is worth $16.50 bucks and 600 pounds is worth 990 dollars by today’s terms. So I figure that McCarthy did pretty well with his Lester Piggott story. 

But something bothers me, who is the colony’s top jockey? Let me know what you think. Who’s your vote for all time jockey of the United States? It’s hard to beat Laffit Pincay’s 9,530 victories, but you tell me who you think is the best jockey of all time. I’m headed to the Wood Memorial in the first week of April so I’ll talk to you after that sports fans. Riders Up!