He's 56. He's a grandfather. And he's just won his 30th English Classic!

The last of Lester Piggott's record 30 British Classic winners came in the 2,000 Guineas of 1992. This race report that was published at the time and recalls the great man's beaming grin as he was led in on the Robert Sangster-owned and Peter Chapple-Hyam-trained colt.

Headlines reserved for a flashy three-year-old called Arazi were snatched away by a walnut-faced grandfather on Saturday as Lester Piggott achieved English Classic win number 30 on Rodrigo De Triano in the General Accident 2,000 Guineas.

Those who think Piggott’s famous features rarely crack into a smile were confounded as he was led into the winner’s enclosure at Newmarket engulfed by rapturous applause – his stony expression didn’t just crack, it split from side to side.

At the age of 56, Piggott is exactly twice the age of winning trainer Peter Chapple-Hyam, who is in only his second season as a trainer.

“The oldest jockey in the race and the youngest trainer!” beamed winning owner Robert Sangster. “Lester has been a great pal for years and Peter is a new young trainer. I couldn’t be more thrilled.”

Owner, trainer and jockey are all convinced that Rodrigo De Triano, a son of Sangster’s 1984 Guineas winner El Gran Senor, should not be tried over the Derby distance, and so the Irish 2,000 Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes are now the likely options, provided the ground is good or faster at both venues.

Sangster always had every confidence that Rodrigo De Triano would improve on his fourth place in the Greenham Stakes.

Robert Sangster: 'I couldn’t be more thrilled”Credit: Edward Whitaker

“It was very gluey at Newbury, but it’s chalk soil here and the rain goes through it. I don’t think he’d stay beyond a mile, though, so it’s very doubtful if he will run in the Derby,” he said.

Chapple-Hyam added: “He’s not bred to go further and River Defences will be our Derby horse if all goes right. Mile races have always been the plan and there’s not much wrong with winning them.”

Whatever the campaign, Piggott keeps the ride, which he gained after Willie Carson was claimed to ride Saturdays fifth, Muhtarram, for Hamdan Al Maktoum.

The trainer had told Piggott to wait and wait and not get there too soon, “as he may well stop when he hits the front”.

He explained: “He has this turn of foot and gets there so easily and then pulls himself up. Lester told me that the others ‘won’t even see me coming’.”

Certainly they would have needed eyes in the backs of their heads to see him in the early stages, for Rodrigo De Triano was just about last of the 16 runners.

“They went a bit faster than I thought they would, I didn’t see what was likely to make it and I was back a bit,” said Piggott. “But I was comfortable enough and once I got to the Bushes I knew I was going to win anyway.”

Lester Piggott: child prodigy who blossomed into a riding legend and statesman

Sangster admitted afterwards that he had trouble following Piggott’s progress during the race, and one Newmarket TV viewer, Piggott’s 88-year-old father Keith, also lost sight of the Sangster colours for much of the race.

He said: “To tell the truth I saw he wasn’t too good out of the gate and I lost him for some time, until they mentioned ‘and here comes Lester’, and of course he trotted up. Lester came to see me after the race and he was in very good spirits.”

Andre Fabre, one of Piggott’s biggest admirers, said: “He is a great jockey, amazing and it is good for racing. That was one of his strongest finishes.”

William Hill’s on-course man Don Payne said: “It wouldn’t have been the greatest result, but considering it was Lester who rode it, it could have been a lot worse. Ten years ago, it would have been a disaster.”

Lester Piggott:

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