Subject(s): Lester Piggott Sport: Horse Racing Location: Wantage Museum, Wantage, Oxfordshire (This statue is one of 9 identical Piggott statues sited at racecourses around the country) Unveiled: 18/8/2019 Sculptor: William Newton Material: Bronze Status: In Situ Inscription(s): Plaque: LESTER PIGGOTT. CHAMPION JOCKEY. [photos]. Lester Piggott, with 4,493 wins to his name, including nine Epsom Derby and seven Guineas victories, is widely regarded as one of the greatest Flat racing jockeys ever. Born in Wantage in 1935, Lester came from a racing background. His father Keith was a successful National Hunt jockey and Grand National-winning trainer. In 1941 he enrolled at King Alfred’s School in Wantage but he left four years later to attend a private school in Upper Lambourn. Lester started riding as a young boy. By the age of 12 he was formally apprenticed to his father and had won his first race at Haydock Park on a horse called The Chase. In 1954, aged 18, Lester was a youth sensation within the racing community and in the same year rode the first of his nine Derby wins on Never Say Die for trainer Joseph Lawson. He went on to win a further 29 British Classics. Known affectionately as the Housewives’ favourite, Lester had a glittering career of unparalleled success and was Champion Jockey 11 times. He was famously tall for a jockey, and it was his height of 5ft 8” tall which earned him the nickname of ‘The Long Fellow’. Lester had a legion of fans during his career and did much to expand the popularity of the sport beyond the racing fraternity out to the wider public. Renowned equine sculptor William Newton has replicated Lester in this life-size bronze work as part of a project to site nine statues around the country. Each statue represents one of Lester’s Epsom Derby winners. The idea was the brainchild of journalist Neil Morrice, who was joined by Osborne Studio Gallery’s Geoffrey Hughes and Brough Scott, and came to fruition thanks to the support of David and Christopher St George. The first of the nine statues was unveiled at Epsom by Her Majesty the Queen on 1 June 2019. This statue was unveiled by Lester Piggott on 18 August 2019. Links: Sculptor