Lester: The Official Biography

by Dick Francis

  Riding any horse the way Lester did, it should be said, presupposes the jockey also had Lester's nerve and acute sense of timing besides being able to read a horse's mind.

  Next time out one week later, Lester and Sir Ivor were beaten in the one and a quarter mile Eclipse. Lester thinks it was probably a mistake to run there, even though it was the horse's best distance, as the ground was very hard. The colt wasn't a hundred per cent happy and wasn't moving very well. In addition, he was taking on Royal Palace and Taj Dewan, both four-year-olds. Royal Palace (Derby winner the previous year) won by a short head from Taj Dewan, with Lester, unable to catch them, three quarters of a length third.

  The Eclipse jarred Sir Ivor badly and it was touch and go whether he ever raced again. It took Vincent from July to October to get him right, barely in time for the Arc de Triomphe. Two weeks before the Arc, he ran in the Prix du Prince d'Orange, finishing an encouraging second and looking fit and ready for the bigger prize. In the mile-and-a-half Arc itself, Lester says Sir Ivor ran very well, but he couldn't make any impression at the end and came second by four lengths to Vaguely Noble who was, after all, bred to be a true mile-and-a-half horse.

  Back to himself in every way, Sir Ivor went next to Newmarket and won the Champion Stakes at a canter, incidentally beating Taj Dewan out of sight.

  After that, Vincent sent him to America to run in the Washington International at Laurel racecourse, which is situated halfway between Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington DC. The weather was terrible, the going like a bog. No one knew how Sir Ivor was going to run a mile and a half in such conditions as he barely made it in good.

  Lester rode him exactly as he had in the Two Thousand Guineas and the Derby, tucking him in tight in about fifth place and biding his time. It wasn't until the last hundred yards that he asked him to go, and then Sir Ivor gave it all, sweeping past the leaders and winning by three quarters of a length in the last few strides. Fifty yards past the post, he had stopped. He and Lester were covered with mud and the colt was exhausted. "I've never seen a horse so tired after a race," Lester says. "He'd given everything. He was the best horse I'd ever ridden."

  The American racing press were crushingly critical of tactics they didn't understand.

  American jockeys don't ride waiting races. Lester was accused of having almost thrown away the prize, and no one paid attention when he tried to explain that that was the only way the horse could win. Not until the following year when he went back and won in the same way on another horse, Karabas, did they begin to understand and respect him.

  Sir Ivor's great career was at an end, but his marvellous power is on record for posterity. A film was made that year, at first intended merely to publicise racing, but later focussing on and following the fortunes of the winner of the Guineas and the Derby. Lovingly photographed and called simply "The Year of Sir Ivor", it was shown to public acclaim by the BBC.

  The year of Sir Ivor was also, for Lester, the year of Petingo. Once his friend Marcus Lemos and his father-in-law Sam Armstrong had forgiven him for choosing to beat them in the Two Thousand Guineas, they put him back pretty rapidly on the stable's best. Ten days before Sir Ivor's Derby, Lester rode Petingo in the Prix Lupin at Longchamp, regrettably without results. Next time out, however, in the St James's Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, he led for the whole mile to win comfortably, and six weeks later produced a repeat performance in the richly-endowed Sussex Stakes at Goodwood. In his final race for the year, he finished second, hard ridden, and was retired to go to stud.

  In the 1968 summing-up statistics, Petingo finished eighth on the table of leading winners. Sir Ivor came first, Royal Palace second, Ribero third. Lester again kept his championship, followed by Sandy Barclay, who had replaced George Moore as Noel Murless's stable jockey. Noel Murless was leading trainer, with Vincent O'Brien (British stake money only) runner-up, Fulke Johnson Houghton third and Sam Armstrong sixth. Raymond Guest headed the owners, H. J. Joel (owner of Royal Palace) came second, Charles Engelhard third, Marcus Lemos tenth.

  Lester had won the Two Thousand Guineas, the Derby and the St. Leger (on Ribero), the Irish Derby, the Cesarewitch, the Dewhurst, the Champion Stakes and the Washington International.

  It hadn't been a bad year, all in all, for a freelance.

  -

  14 Nijinsky

  IN the year between Sir Ivor and Nijinsky there were no Classic wins for Lester, but 1969 had its compensations, one of which was the bay mare Park Top.

  Lester had begun riding for Bernard van Cutsem, who had moved his horses into Lord Derby's Stanley House stables and was training for his friends, among them the Duke of Devonshire and Lord Derby himself. Bernard van Cutsem was one of the old and now rare breed of trainers, those who were independently rich and who trained for the satisfaction of the occupation rather than from a need to make a living.

  Bernard van Cutsem had his eye on young Willie Carson who had recently finished his apprenticeship with Sam Armstrong and was riding first jockey for Lord Derby.

  Van Cutsem intended Willie to be his full stable jockey when he was more experienced, but meanwhile he gave some rides to Willie and engaged Lester for the rest. Lester thus rode for the stable for only two or three summers, one of which was Park Top's five-year-old season.

  Owned by the Duke of Devonshire, she hadn't run at two, and Lester hadn't ridden her either at three or four when she had won several times. His first acquaintance with her was in a small race in France in May 1969, which she won very easily.

  Lester was impressed. She looked like an old gelding, she was modestly bred and she had cost about £500 as a yearling, but she never fussed, she was a beautiful ride and she understood exactly what was required. Very much like Sir Ivor, she needed to be ridden from far back so as to come with a great burst of speed at the end. Like him, she would pull herself up when she'd reached the front.

  Lester rode her in the Coronation Cup at Epsom and won with a rush in the last few yards by three-quarters of a length, making it all look easy. It was Park Top's biggest win to date, and it was decided she should run next in the Eclipse. Lester had prior obligations for the Eclipse, in the shape of his Derby mount Ribofilio, owned by Charles Engelhard and trained by Fulke Johnson Houghton, so Geoff Lewis was engaged for Park Top.

  A week before the Eclipse, Ribofilio started coughing and had to be withdrawn, leaving Lester without a ride. Ruefully he agreed to partner the five-year-old Wolver Hollow which he had ridden once before but not to much effect. The horse had had a middling-successful career which was drawing to a close.

  Sir Cecil Boyd Rochfort had trained Wolver Hollow originally, and the horse's owner, Mrs. C. O. Iselin, American and very old, was leaving him to the trainer in her will. Henry Cecil, Cecil Boyd Rochfort's stepson, had taken over the licence by 1969, and although Wolver Hollow had been entered in the Eclipse he was also entered in a handicap on the same day, a race in which he had far more chance. It was Cecil Boyd Rochfort himself who chose the Eclipse against his stepson's preference for the handicap: and so Lester got his mount.

  The only chance he had, he thought, was to ride Wolver Hollow to stay the distance, which meant from the rear of the field, conserving energy. Accordingly he set off right at the back, behind even Park Top, who had also of course to be ridden from behind. The pair of them came round into the Sandown straight last and second last, and the horses in front all swung slightly wide, pulling out to challenge each other.

  Geoff Lewis went up fast on their inside, with Lester following: and Geoff, realising he was reaching the front too soon, eased back a shade and in doing so came off the rails.

  "I nipped through on the inside of him," Lester says. "Caught him unawares." Lester sympathised with Geoff's dilemma and thought he'd had bad luck. But Lester on Wolver Hollow was through and away, snatching the seemingly impossible victory by an easy looking two and a half lengths. Park Top, her effort spent too early, just couldn't quicken at the end.

  Mrs. Iselin, happy, die
d soon after. Cecil Boyd Rochfort retired Wolver Hollow and sent him to stud, where he proved to be worth a fortune. Bernard van Cutsem put Lester back on Park Top for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, run two weeks after the Eclipse. Lester set out of course to win at the last possible second, but slightly to his horror found himself in the same position as Geoff Lewis in the Eclipse. The field of twelve swung wide coming round the last bend, the gaps opened up, and Park Top went up the straight with a free run on the rails.

  Lester says, "I was up behind the leaders, running away. I was there too early but I had to go through with it, it was no good stopping. I was in front a whole furlong out.

  She did pull up a bit over the last hundred yards, but she was so much the best horse that she still won."

  Next time out she won a nice race at Longchamp and then went to the same track for the Prix de 1'Arc de Triomphe. Lester rode to the winning formula, but on this occasion without success. Coming into the straight well back, he judged he had things set up right for beating them all. Then out of the pack sprinted Levmoss, slipping them unexpectedly and setting up a three- to four-length lead. Park Top had that much further to make up, and just failed to reach the front by half a length.

  "Levmoss!" Lester exclaims disgustedly. "A 50-1 shot. He won the Ascot Gold Cup which is for long distance stayers, and then he goes and wins the Arc." .

  Lester all the same had his compensations that day. He might have been second in the big one, but he won four of the other Longchamp races, cheered so hard by the French crowd one could have heard them on the far side of Paris.

  Park Top ran once more that year, in the Champion Stakes at Newmarket, but when Lester asked her to fly, she couldn't produce. "Nothing happened," Lester says: and she finished second to an unfamiliar three-year-old from France.

  The following year at six she won early in France but after coming second in the Coronation Cup at Epsom had some trouble with her fetlocks. She ran twice more towards the end of the season, but by then she had had enough.

  It was in 1969 that Karabas turned into a really good racehorse, Lester winning five useful events on him for Lord Iveagh and Bernard van Cutsem on his way to the critic-silencing display in the Washington International. One of the American writers, praising that win, capitulated totally to say, "In our opinion, Lester, because of his great strength, skill, intelligence and courage, is the world's greatest jockey." All a good deal different from before the race, when another writer had published his opinion that with Lester Piggott on his back, Karabas was running under a 10-lb. penalty.

  A disappointment of the year was Ribofilio, of which much had been expected in the way of classics. Owned by Charles Engelhard and trained by Fulke Johnson Houghton, he was sadly tailed off pulling up in the Two Thousand Guineas, fifth in the Epsom Derby and second in the Irish Sweeps Derby, each time starting favourite.

  Apart from his very first outing, when he won a threehorse Guineas trial with Joe Mercer, his only visit to the winner's enclosure was at Goodwood where he won a two-horse race with Lester at 7-1 on.

  In 1969, Lester rode again a few times for Noel Murless (Sandy Barclay having hurt his shoulder) their joint winner, Paddle Boat, being greeted by huge cheers from an approving crowd. Noel and Lester had never actually quarrelled and retained affection and respect for each other always.

  On the down side, the first day of Royal Ascot brought Lester a suspension that was described by the Press, owners and public alike as "staggering", "too severe", "unjustified" and "pointless". This was the time that Geoff Lewis was "severely cautioned for giving false evidence", to the effect that Lester had not materially interfered with his (Geoff's) winner. In the very last flat-out fifty yards of the St.

  James's Palace Stakes, Lester's horse had closed on and touched the rump of Geoff's, and the Stewards lodged an objection.

  Lester's supposed and contended "crime" was to swerve unexpectedly on Habitat and perhaps prevent Geoff on Right Tack (out of Polly Macaw!) from winning by as far as he might otherwise have done. "What Habitat did," Lester said, "was to try to bite Right Tack. He lunged at him in a split second. Horses aren't angels, and I had no possibility of pulling him off. It didn't affect the outcome of the race."

  Habitat's attempt at biting Right Tack got Lester suspended for seven days, Polly Macaw and her offspring thus completing a double (see page 145), and Geoff Lewis was furious at being officially called a liar.

  Lester's suspension was announced on the Wednesday morning as starting on Friday, the last day of the Royal meeting. Lester went straight out and won Wednesday's Royal Hunt Cup on Kamundu to thunderous applause, the crowd loudly expressing its disgust. Habitat, presumably without biting anybody, won four races for Lester during the season, ending on the four-in-a-day triumph at Longchamp.

  In the dying fall of the year, halfway through October, the shape of things to come in 1970 was unwrapped at Newmarket. Nijinsky, already an unbeaten star in Ireland, four times a two-yearold winner with Liam Ward, came over for the Dewhurst Stakes.

  Lester rode. Starting at 3-1 on, Nijinsky took the lead inside the final furlong, quickened from there and won smoothly by three lengths: and a whole brave new world could clearly be seen on the horizon.

  Nijinsky was bred in Canada by the famed E. P. Taylor, owner of Nijinsky's sire, Northern Dancer. The well-grown bay was sold as a yearling to Charlie Engelhard for $84,000. The new owner, a commodity tycoon dealing in platinum, decided he should be trained in Ireland by Vincent O'Brien; in England, of course, his horses were mostly trained by Fulke Johnson Houghton at Blewbury. Lester's companionship with Charlie Engelhard, already strong, was about to be deeply strengthened.

  The American had come into racing fairly late in life, Lester riding his first ever winner, and also, it turned out later, his last. "He was," says Lester, "a marvellous owner, one of the very best, a wonderful man. He started with only three or four horses and then bought several yearlings by Ribot and had great success."

  Nijinsky was a great big horse, which was surprising as the fabled Northern Dancer is small. Nijinsky was the first to bear witness to the extraordinarily prolific prize-winning blood lines carried by his Canadian sire. Even at twenty-two, Northern Dancer is still siring top-class winners; a sturdy, punchy, glossy character cantering nonchalantly to greet visitors in his white railed paddock on the Taylors' more southerly stud farm in Maryland.

  Unlike many big horses, Nijinsky was handy to ride and could move himself collectedly round a small track or a downhill turn like Tattenham Corner. He would fuss and sweat before races, being highly strung, but was fairly sensible and would do what his jockey asked. Lester thought him not very clever but very well trained: if he'd been with anyone but Vincent he might not have excelled.

  First time out in 1970 he won in Ireland, ridden by Liam Ward, and next came over for the Two Thousand Guineas. There, in majestic style, he fulfilled all the prophesies, making it look easy. With his great size and his smooth groundgobbling action he seemed a breed apart, and Lester, Vincent, Charlie Engelhard and a delighted E. P. Taylor began to look forward with confidence to the Derby.

  Two days after the Two Thousand Guineas, Lester completed the classic double by winning his first One Thousand Guineas on Humble Duty, owned by Jean, Lady Ashcombe and trained by Peter Walwyn. Lester was deputising for Duncan Keith, away ill from too much weight and water reduction, and not for the first or last time coaxed a chance ride to an easy-seeming major win.

  Four days before the Derby, Lester himself came near to fainting from dehydration, having wasted down to 8 st. 4 lb., his limit. After a tremendously strenuous week's travelling, riding in France and Ireland as well as in England in a heat wave, he forgot to drink his customary half-glass of water between races, a precaution of his when doing very light.

  Riding Gem Stone hard for two furlongs, he began to ease up in the last hundred yards of the fourth race at Newmarket, knowing anyway he couldn't win as he was eight lengths behind the
leader. The Stewards called him in, as so often, for an explanation. Lester, drooping with fatigue, told them he'd stopped riding because he felt tired and unwell, which they thought a reasonable answer. They despatched him to the doctor who said Lester could go on riding but, after one more unsuccessful circuit, he gave it up and went home to rest. Such was the resilience of his iron body that next day he flew to Paris and lost by a nose at Longchamp on Karabas. By Sunday evening he was home, feeling fit, but saying he might just take it easy until Wednesday.

  As for Sir Ivor two years earlier, Derby day dawned sweet, fair and sunny, and again everything went well. In a small field of eleven, Nijinsky lay about sixth until two furlongs out. Then Lester took him without pressure into the lead and sped inexorably further and further away, with the good French horse Gyr puffing in his wake. The official distances between the first six horses were two and a half lengths, three lengths, half a length, two and a half lengths, ten lengths: a procession.