Piggott To Stay Supreme

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32073, 22 August 1969, Page 4

Piggott To Stay Supreme

(Specially written for "The Press" by the former English jockey,

HARRY CARR)

There is still plenty of racing left in Lester Piggott. He made this clear the other day when he said: “I expect to keep on riding until I’m 40—maybe longer.”

This means that the champion intends to stay round for at least another eight years. It is good news for racing at large, although possibly not for some of his fellow jockeys. As long as Piggott continues riding I can see no one else taking over. For a while there did seem a possibility that the problems of weight would beat him at the end and force a premature retirement.

“Until I became 28 it was a tremendous battle,” he explains. “But since then my body has learnt to accept it” If Piggott went tomorrow one might reasonably expect Joe Mercer, Geoff Lewis or maybe Ron Hutchinson to take over. But on present plans, they may well go together. This has been the pattern down the years. Remember how Charlie Elliott Charlie Smirke, Harry Wragg and Sir Gordon Richards all left the scene within a few years of one another? Their going ended an era and created a vacuum which was quickly filled by Piggott. And choosing his successor is, of course, crystal gazing. Most people, 1 imagine,

would plump for Sandy Barclay and they may well be right He has, after all, made a very early and definite impact on the big races. Nor is Noel Murless the kind to pick second-raters. Barclay came to Warren Place, treading in the stillwarm foots' -ps of Sir Gordon Richards and Piggott, and I am sure the choice was not coincidental. By and large', Murless trains the best horses in England and he means to have the best men on their backs. Still, if driven to it, my own choice would be Ernie Johnson, who impresses me more and more every time I see him. HAPPY COMPROMISE

It would be hard to fault him on any count He is a fine judge of pace, he balances his horses beautifully, and he is a whip rider in the Piggott tradition (a twohanded one at that). And he can seemingly ride any kind of race, any kind of horse. No matter whether it is a fiat-out pillar-to-post affair or a long, long haul, he can be relied on to bring the good ones home.

In style he is a happy compromise between the long stirrups of the mid-fifties and the ultra-short stirrups favoured today. He also brings joy to purist hearts by so often staying on the rails and going the shortest way home. His Derby win on Blakeney immediatley comes to mind, but be has ridden equally good rail races on many less-pub-lic occasions. When Geoff Lewis took

Prince Regent clear of the pack in the Irish Sweeps Derby on the Curragh, it seems he did a little more than just win a horse race. Etienne Pollet, the man with good cause to admire him most that day, has now retained him at his stable jockey for next season. With John Sutcliffe in England and Pollet in France, Lewis will be sure of some good rides. He has already won three classics this year—the Irish Derby, the Irish Two Thousand Guineas and the English Two Thou-

sand Guineas. And with those two stables behind him he may well do so again.

1 suppose that if one has to name the three most successful trainers in Europe, year in, year out, one would pick Noel Murless, Mathet and Pollet. Pollett, like Mathet, is constantly chasing the big money prizes in Europe. And when he does have a good horse, he tends to have a very good one indeed. It is not that he is indifferent to the average animal, simply that the good ones inspire him in a way no others can. Sea Bird is an obvious example. So were Right Royal and Vaguely Noble. Never Too Late and Hula Dancer were top-class fillies, while Prince Regent may prove to be even better than we think. It would seem reasonable that a trainer with a liking for front-rank horses would have a similar liking for frontrank riders, hence the choice of Geoff Lewis. On the Curragh he underlined once again the gulf be-

tween English and French jockeys—a gulf that I believe has widened considerably in past months.

He made the riding of Prince Regent look a vety simple thing indeed. And this is perhaps the chief difference between the two countries.

There are numerous English jockeys who, put on the back of the best horse, can almost be guaranteed to bring him home, without fuss and without bother. So many of their French equivalents tend to make it all look desperately difficult.

There are, of course, glittering exceptions. Yves St Martin, for example, is a bigrace rider fit to be compared with any in the world. So, too, is Freddy Head. But so many of their top men—Roger Poincelet, for example—seem to have grown old. And as yet there are no signs of any new riders likely to replace them. Nor, for that matter, are there any new Australians breaking into Europe. Bill Pyers and Bill Williamson have both done yeoman service for Pollet, but even for them the years must be numbered.

So, understandably, the French trainers have turned more and more to England.