and the greatest flat jockey is ...

​The answer to the above question is, of course, open to debate. It is as subjective as what is the tastiest jam or is beer better for you than mouthwash. My answer to this question will be different to the answer provided by a twenty-year-old or even a forty-year-old. Or if you are Irish or British. I am also not qualified to pass judgement on American jockeys, for instance, or any foreign jockey or even jockeys foreign or British who plied their trade prior to the middle sixties.
If Lester Piggott or Ryan Moore were riding in the nineteen-twenties or thirties the traditional style of riding then might not have suited their natural style and the likes of Gordon Richards or Charlie Elliott might have proved their superiors. And how can we judge Sir Gordon, Steve Donoghue or Harry Carr against Piggott, Moore, Frankie or any of the champion jockey twixt then and now? It is like asking whether Sir Stanley Matthews would have bamboozled present-day defenders as he did during his time as a professional footballer?
It is personal judgement, isn’t it? Deciding whether quantity is superior to quality, whether duration of a career is worth more points than someone whose career was cut short through injury or, as in the case of Manny Mercer, death. It may even come down to a preference for an individual jockey’s character or even looks. And character does have a bearing.
The greatest legend of the sport is undoubtedly Lester Keith Piggott, one of only a handful of jockeys to transcend the pages of the racing pages and into the consciousness of the general public. He was the ‘housewife’s favourite’, even more so than Sir Gordon Richards back then and Frankie Dettori now. He was and remains revered. Even his prison sentence for tax evasion has done little to change the public’s perception of him.
Yet though initially enthralled by him, as time has passed my opinion of him as a jockey has altered. It is a shame in some respects that the zenith of his ability is not in the present-day, when use of the whip is more condemned than glorified. Today, his rides on The Minstrel and Roberto would have had him not only banned for weeks and not days but vilified in the media as well. In fact to watch replays of those two Derbies is an unsatisfactory experience and hard to justify to anyone outside of the sport. Yet great trainers exulted him, believing he won on horses that mere mortal jockeys would not have done.
In summary, as great a rider as he was, the legend of Piggott disguises the will to win that went beyond, at times, the acceptable. He is not a role model for the modern-day young rider to follow. He was not a good role-model even in his own day.
Whereas the riding of Ryan Moore and Frankie Dettori are tutorials for the ages. But here is the rub, as it was with Lester and perhaps every great jockey before him. Once established, once they have secured the ride on the horse that first propels them into the limelight, they barely ever ride a horse that can be categorised as a ‘bad ride’ and it is ‘bad rides’ that get jockeys riding at a lesser level a reputation unjustified to their skill-set.
Of course, if I asked the question – how many jockeys would have won this year’s King George on Enable? – the answer would be either only a few or virtually any competent jockey. Yet it was a ride that in my estimation was faultless to the enth degree and summed-up without thought or words why at this moment in time Frankie’s confidence is stratospheric, and consequently he can do no wrong. At this moment in time I have no hesitation in nominating him the best jockey riding in Europe.
Yet for the past few seasons I would have said the same about Ryan Moore. Once upon a time I think I said it about Steve Cauthen. Others said it about Pat Eddery, though personally I was not a fan of his bumping the saddle style of riding a finish as I couldn’t believe it didn’t give a horse from time to time a sore back. In Eddery’s time, I was always in the camp of Willie Carson, a jockey who even now I believe to be seriously underrated. And with his combined record in this country and his native Australia, Scobie Breasley should never be overlooked when it comes to compiling the list of ‘greatest-ever’ flat jockeys.
Horses make jockeys, though occasionally jockeys make horses and I suppose that is why some jockeys are superior to others. But would Frankie ride a dodgy one of John Gosden’s on the Heath? Perhaps not. I suspect Rab Havlin would have no hesitation, though. He might actually be a better horseman than Dettori. If Aiden O’Brien should have such a thing as a ‘dodgy one’ at Ballydoyle, I dare say he wouldn’t allow Ryan within the length of a lunge rein of it at home. And that is the way it has been down the centuries in all of the top yards. Great jockeys are not necessarily great horseman. At home, Rab Havlin may be of greater use to John Gosden than Frankie.
So, again, is Lester the greatest flat jockey ever to ride in Europe. Given the choice I would always overlook him in favour of Moore or Dettori. But that does not negate his claim to be a degree or two better than any jockey before or after him.