Lester Piggott’s son to make racing debut
Lester Piggott’s son, Jamie, is set to try and follow in his father’s footsteps as he makes his racing debut at Killarney tomorrow afternoon (Thursday 18 July).
The 19-year-old, who is Lester’s only son, will ride his first race for trainer Tommy Stack in the 2.55pm Killarney Grand Live Music Handicap at the County Kerry venue.
His mount, Pivotal Rock, is a six-year-old gelding by Pivotal. He has won twice and came 4th in his last outing last week at Dundalk Racecourse.
Piggott started riding out for Stack 5 years ago when still at school.
“He’s been coming here since he was a kid during the holidays. We’ll take it from here and see how he gets on,” said Stack’s son and assistant, Fozzy.
“He’s also had some experience at Ballydoyle and he’s a nice kid. I don’t know if anybody will be as good as Lester.
“This horse usually runs his race so we’ll see how he goes. We’re hoping for a good day.”
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His father, now aged 77, won his first race in 1948 when he was just 12 and went on to ride more than 4,000 winners during his career. Lester was also Flat champion jockey 11 times and was only 18 when he rode the first of his 9 Derby winners.
The bookies seem to believe that Jamie will have inherited his father’s talent and have him 10-1 to be crowned Champion Apprentice in Ireland before the end of 2015 and 50-1 to be crowned Champion Jockey in the UK before the end of 2018.
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Sophia Heath joined Horse & Hound in July 2013 having previously worked for the Daily Telegraph's Olympics website, CNN International and Omnisport. A Durham graduate with a Masters in journalism from City University, Sophia has evented, showjumped and hunted. Sophia left Horse & Hound in early 2015 to join an international boating website.