Dubai: The handshake is warm and friendly, the tactile touch giving it a firmer grip as he looks you straight in the eye.
You can tell that he’s a man who was good with his hands. So good in fact that he used them to guide some of the greatest racehorses to victory around the world, during a glittering career that has spanned 47 memorable years.
Lester Piggott has been a racing icon for as long as most of us can remember and his reputation as a rider par excellence has been well and truly documented.
He’s probably also been interviewed a few thousand times, so where do I begin?
“It’s always special to be here in the UAE and Jebel Ali Racecourse in particular,” he says in answer to my first question. “This is a lovely little racecourse. Always has been. You’re so close to the action and that’s what people want.”
Piggott famously rode four winners at the track’s first race meeting in 1991, and I asked him if he could remember anything about that day.
“Yes, I still remember that day. They were not big races then, not like now, but it was a very nice feeling to win here,” he reminisces, as cool and collected as he was when riding 4,493 career winners. “The track was [is] good and rides very consistently and suits most horses.”
Does he recall the names of the horses that he won on?
“I remember Classic Ruler, who was a favourite of the stable,” he says. “You don’t forget those sort of things. I had a couple more winners here. It was an enjoyable time.”
Piggott won the Epsom Derby a record nine times between 1954 and 1983 and added three Prix de l’Arc de Triomphes during that period.
He also won the British Jockey’s Championship a record 11 times.
Even if the question was not new I could not resist myself from asking the great man to tell me if he could he have a crack at picking his best ever win.
“Sir Ivor,” he says without blinking an eye. “I’ve said that before and I’ll say it again.
“There were other good wins, Nijinsky, but Sir Ivor was a great horse.
“He stood out because he had the best finishing speed of any horse I have seen that won the Derby. He was blessed with a great turn of foot. He was beaten a few times but it was only because the ground was too hard, but he was brilliant.”
Piggott’s other Derby triumphs came with Never Say Die (1954), Crepello (1957), St Paddy (1960), Nijinsky (1970), Roberto (1972), Empery (1976), The Minstrel (1977) and Teenoso (1983) while his Arc wins were delivered by Rheingold (1973) and Alleged (1977 & 1978).
What did he think of Frankel, whose record of nine consecutive Group 1 wins encouraged many to say that he was one of the best horses of the modern era.
“He was a good horse but he was only a miler, some of the great horses could get a mile and a half,” he says. “The best horse I’ve ever seen is Sea Bird. He was an exceptional horse.”
The French colt had eight starts and won seven of them including the 1965 Derby without having to break a sweat. The Longchamp course at Paris is notoriously hard but Sea Bird beat his rivals by six lengths in the Arc the same year, his jockey Pat Glennon even allowing himself the luxury of leaning down to pat his horse on the neck in the closing stages of the race.
Behind Piggott’s calm aura is a passionate horseman who does not hesitate to praise today’s new crop of riders.
“There are a lot of good jockeys around today, many,” he says. “Perhaps more than in the old days. They’re really good. But I wouldn’t want to comment on who’s better than the other. A lot of them are top class riders.”
What does he like about today’s jockeys, is it their style, technique, attitude, fitness?
“The racing world has changed for the better. I would probably say the techniques have improved, for the better. And of course the styles of some of them,” he says. “I would say they look much tidier now and are certainly a lot fitter. But if they’re better than the old jockey, we don’t know, do we? But they’re doing good.”
What does he tell any young rider that seeks his advice?
“To work hard, there’s no substitute for hard work,” he says. “Style and class will come later, but you first have to be prepared to put in the work. And work hard. The results will follow.”
