TRACY Piggott is overwhelmed by the wonderful tributes to her late father: “Very many people have been in touch, it’s so kind and we are enjoying all the stories so much.”

Her earlies memories of her father’s fame and success are “probably when I was five and he won the Derby on Nijinsky. It was so exciting and, watching it on television, I put a pillow over my face, I couldn’t watch!

“Then when it came to the re-runs, I thought Dad had to get on the horse and do it all over again. It took me ages to realise that actually, no, that wasn’t so!”

Tracy and her sister Maureen rode from an early age: “My sister Maureen is four years older than me, so she always had the pony first. Charles St George, who was a family friend, got us a great pony, Bulgie, and his size lived up to his name. So we were riding from a young age. My sister went on to show jumping and cross-country and eventing, representing England.

“My father had built a training yard at home long before he retired and he rented it out to different trainers.

“I used to ride out for Bill Marshall who was training there and I remember going very fast on one big dark brown ex-racehorse, can’t remember his name, who would then stop suddenly on me and I would go flying off over his head. This was the must see highlight for everyone every morning until one morning I didn’t get run away with.”

Was she aware of her father’s fame as a child? “I didn’t know any different – it was part of life. In those days there were no agents so my mother Susan booked his rides and drove him everywhere. There were often two meetings in the day, one in the evening – the pace was frenetic.

“Then the roads got better and agents got involved and my mother started a bloodstock business – Susan Piggott Bloodstock. She was a pioneer among women involved in her own career in the racing and bloodstock industry.

“She had a very good eye and bought some good horses and Dad rode them. She got it from her father, Fred (Sam) Armstrong, he was a very good trainer.”

How did Lester handle the severe dieting to get his 5ft 8in frame to do the weight?

“He got used to it. I do remember him lying on the floor wrapped in a towel after a sauna.

“He used to have this all-in-one plastic suit that he wore to sweat off more weight. He hung it on the back of the bathroom door and if I needed to got to the bathroom in the middle of the night, it was a nightmare to see this hanging there! I was terrified.

“He loved horses – he just had that affinity with them. In one interview (Kenneth Harris, The Observer) he explained in detail the vital importance of balancing a horse.

Covered up

“When he rode a horse for the first time in a race, he would work out all this on the way to the start. Then in the race he would keep them covered up – it’s not in their nature to go out on their own – they are a herd, a pack animal.

“Yes, he adored horses and he had that will to win. He lived and breathed racing. He was the whole package. He didn’t consider it a disadvantage being tall. He said he could wrap his legs around a horse and give it a squeeze the way a smaller jockey could not. Then when he was asked why he rode with his bottom stuck up in the air he said, ‘I have to put it somewhere.’

“He had a very good brain which remained as sharp as ever. He wasn’t a social person. Okay, after he won the Guineas or the Derby he would have a glass of champagne.

“But then he would be studying the opposition for the next day. He always said, ‘you are only as good as your last ride’.”