The fastest man on four legs
Jeffrey Bernard
LESTER: THE OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY by Dick Francis
Michael Joseph, £12.95
Let us start with a sentence from the press handout issued by the publishers. This book is the result of conversations between the two jockeys, taped at intervals over the years, during which Lester slowly but compulsively revealed his inner self as to no writer before.' Well, he may well have done but he is still playing his cards pretty close to his chest. It was in 1973 aPparently that Lester first asked Dick Francis to write the story for 'when I retire' b. ut the revelations of the inner self are put into one chapter headed 'The Man Inside The Myth.' It is very doubtful that Lester Will ever reveal much at all and this book as roject really — was always going to fall little short for people who want to know more about Lester than simply his life story, most of which is in the record books for all to see anyway. What Dick Francis has done has been to write a very good racing book indeed, but to solve the enigma is nigh impossible. The other difficulties lie in the libel laws which have always made it virtually impossible to Write a really good racing book about anything but the horses and, of course, Lester is still with us. Collecting Piggott anecdotes has been a great sport on the racecourse, in the members' bar between races, for years, but how many of them could be printed? Most of them are terribly funny but I shudder to think of the red faces.
Dick Francis has reiterated what most of us know, i.e. that Lester is not mean and that he has secretly helped many people out, he is a genius in his field, one of the best judges there is of a horse and the running of a race, and that he has a marvellously dry wit. Oh yes, he is serious- ly rich too. But Dick Francis is at his best in the chapters that don't simply recall the great triumphs on the course, but tell of Lester's extraordinary affinity with horses, which is uncanny. As Francis writes:
Lester knows horses like other people know people. He recognises their faces, learns their heads. They all look different to him. Once he's met them and got to know them, he's familiar with them and can identify them anywhere instantly. Horses know him in return. 'They can't say hello,' he [Piggott] says, 'but you know they know you because of the way they look at you.' Sir Ivor always knew Lester,' Vincent O'Brien assured me. `Whenever he heard his voice, he'd look around. He'd always look at him if he was near. All horses know Lester if he's ridden them.'
Now, I should have thought that most readers would like a little more of that sort of stuff and that is Dick Francis at his best. Here he is quoting Lester at his best:
Not every horse can run fast, the same way that people can't. It's unreasonable to expect it. Intelligence has nothing to do with speed. Some very slow horses are intelligent, some good ones aren't. If a horse has an ache or a pain he can't go fast, but as he can't tell you, it's probably never found out. At least sixty per cent of horses don't really want to do their best. Winning doesn't mean all that much to them. You have to try to humour them to get them to do what they can. I've ridden some very good horses who were so good it didn't matter that they wouldn't do their best, they could win anyway. Like Roberto. He was a terrific horse going left-handed, but he was half-hearted in his Derby: he should have won by a couple of lengths. [He won a short head]. There's a vast difference between a really good horse and a bad horse. People don't realise. It's not a matter of twenty lengths difference, it's a furlong. If you get a horse who's very fast, very intelligent and wants to race, it's a revelation. On one of those you can beat the world.
It is good that Dick Francis has revealed, too, the truth beneath the mountain of myth about Lester stealing other jockeys' mounts and the book ends with fascinating appendices which give details of all Les- ter's wins. The bare facts are these: British Flat Race Wins 4,349. British Hurdle Wins 20. Minimum Total Overseas Wins 822. Minimum Total 5,191. What could it have been if he had not had weight difficulties? He is disgusted that four ounces of his adored ice cream produce in him a pound of body weight, which he holds neither logical nor fair.
What will we do without him now? He has got a marvellous set-up to train from in Newmarket and it is odds on that the likes of Robert Sangster and the Maktoum brothers will send him the classiest of horses. But the racing will never quite be the same again without him on the horse. I shall always look at this book when I want racing reminders, but the inner self re- vealed? Not quite. And he only makes jokes when I see him. The fact remains that this book is really just a public relations job.
Jeffrey Bernard with Lester Piggott in 1980
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