'It has been a wonderful life, really - you couldn't ask for any more'

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Our comeback was less momentous than the one he had miraculously completed three decades earlier, but when the Racing Post newspaper returned following the sport's Covid hibernation there was a determination to secure for the rebirth edition the very best and biggest interviewee. That could mean only one man.

It was the man who for so long had been British racing personified, the one who had transcended the sport to an extent we can now barely comprehend. "Get Lester," was the cry. Thankfully, we got him. Then, as so often in the past, he delivered in style.

The phone call to Switzerland was secured by Maureen Piggott, who one year earlier had spoken about her father for a Racing Post profile he was delighted to learn was being written. She hailed him "a genius", acknowledged he had "not always been the most straightforward" and admitted: "I do accept he is a little bit different."

It was those differences that made him special. More than that, they made him unique.

You can be sure no 12-year-old will ever again ride a winner at Haydock, the place he enjoyed his first British victory aboard The Chase in 1948. Forty-six years later it was also the place where he recorded his final domestic success, this time on a sprinter named Palacegate Jack. I was one of those there that day and returned home with a signed racecard, much to the delight of my father, who was hard to impress but idolised Piggott.

Lester Piggott pictured with a Willie Newton sculpture of The Chase and Palacegate Jack, the two horses whose victories at Haydock bookended his careerCredit: Winter Jon

He would always back him in the Derby, for that's what most people did. Jockeys were terrified of losing their Epsom fancy to him, something Bruce Raymond recalled in the profile. "You certainly never felt safe about riding your horse in the Derby until you were actually sitting on him at the start," said Raymond. When that was put to Piggott, he laughed. It would not be the only time he laughed through our conversation.

"I did tend to have the choice of the ones who didn't have their own jockeys but it was probably only because I had won the Derby a few times," he said. "I promise you it wasn't that easy. I also had to ride a few horses who couldn't win. You can always say with hindsight this could have happened or that could have happened, but overall, I can't complain."

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

He gave others good reason to moan. Joe Mercer once went to Germany and saw the colt he felt sure would win that year's Deutsches Derby. Mercer was keen to secure the mount but somewhat naively waxed lyrical about the animal to Piggott. By the very next day, Piggott was booked for the ride.

"You had to watch him, otherwise he was in your pocket," Jimmy Lindley told me in 2019. "Truthfully, though, it was business, and there was no bigger admirer of Lester than me. They say it's all fair in love and war. Lester believed that but he left the love out of it."

Lindley and Mercer have both since gone, now joined by their dear friend. Even two years ago Piggott was marvelling at his own longevity, perhaps understandably given the punishment he put his body through in the pursuit of sporting excellence.

"It's quite unbelievable for me to think how old I am," he said, genuine surprise in his voice. There was incredulity in the voice of his interviewer when we spoke of him having ridden for so long while barely eating. "I think it was all down to having a lot of willpower," he suggested. "I got hungry, sometimes very hungry, but I got used to it. I don't eat too much now. I suppose I just got out of the habit."

Lester and Keith Piggott in a picture kindly supplied by Nick O'Toole from his private collection

Piggott rose to fame in a totally different era. His was a career that began on Pathe newsreels. The first of his nine Derby triumphs came a month before the end of food rationing. He did things that belonged to a different time. He also did things on a horse nobody else could manage, which is why when three years ago he walked into a room at the Curragh's RACE apprentice school, 32 young people shot to their feet and gave him a rousing ovation. They knew they were in the presence of greatness.

"Lester was over the moon," said Nick O'Toole, a friend of Piggott and avid collector of his memorabilia. Along with fellow devotee Sean Magee, O'Toole had that year organised a Long Fellow exhibition at the Curragh. On both days of the Guineas weekend, Piggott was mobbed. He therefore asked for a chance to enjoy the exhibition himself the following morning. Over an hour and 40 minutes he went around it twice, studying each and every picture, reading each and every caption, his life, a most remarkable life, laid out before the man who had lived it.

"He likes silence," O'Toole advised me. "He also seems to have more affinity with the thoroughbred than he does with humans. I have known Lester for 42 years but, like many, I still don't know him."

What did become apparent when we spoke was Piggott's sense of humour, something that had been equally obvious when he asked Lindley to stop outside an ice cream shop in London. Piggott got out of the passenger seat, entered the shop and came out with two cones. To the driver's astonishment, he polished off both. "I thought one was for me," Lindley said to him. "You never said you wanted one," replied Piggott, probably licking his lips for good measure.

It was a mighty line, as was one he kindly gave during our interview, in doing so raising the subject of his imprisonment for tax evasion without saying a single word about it.

Lester Piggott secures an astonishing Breeders' Cup Mile victory aboard Royal AcademyCredit: Stidham

He had just been talking about carrying home Royal Academy in that still scarcely believable Breeders' Cup Mile. "It was a fairy story, really, wasn't it?" he suggested, meeting no disagreement from me.

"Most people remember me for three things," he continued. "That Breeders' Cup win is one of them. You know what the others are."

He agreed that his unparalleled Derby record was one of the two others. Pushing my luck, while already knowing the answer, I asked if he wanted to state the third? "I'll leave it to you," he said. Then he laughed.

There had been no such jocularity when his attention had turned to Nijinsky, whose Triple Crown campaign was at that point 50 years into the past. "When you rode Nijinsky it was like driving a really good motor car," he said, going on to discuss the Guineas, Derby, King George and St Leger. Inevitably, the infamous Arc defeat had to be broached.

"That day in France was probably the most disappointing day I ever had as a jockey," he admitted. They were strong words and sincerely meant. So was his defence of the ride he gave Nijinsky at Longchamp.

"As I said, the horse wasn't going in the first part of the race," he said firmly, repeating one of his earlier comments, but this time his voice that bit louder and more animated. The tone mellowed once he began reminiscing about Sir Ivor, his 1968 Derby winner and the thoroughbred he came round to believe was superior to Nijinksy and the best he ever sat on.

Nijinsky and Lester Piggott after winning the 1970 Derby at Epsom

"A long time after I last rode him I went to see him in his paddock in America," he said. "The way he greeted me made me think he knew exactly who I was. He really was brilliant. He was able to win the Derby but could have won over five furlongs as well."

I put to him that Nijinsky would surely have been quick enough to win the July Cup.

"Probably," said Piggott. "But he wouldn't have beaten Sir Ivor in the July Cup."

No writer would reject an answer like that. Piggott was not the easiest interviewee but he made the experience so fabulously rewarding. He even knew the sort of words needed to close that piece and this one.

"It's marvellous, you know," he said, summing up a life that now sadly has come to an end. "I think it's wonderful that people still take an interest in me and what I did. It's nice to be popular. It's better than having stones thrown at me, anyway.

"It has been a wonderful life, really. You couldn't ask for any more."

Lester Piggott:

Lester Piggott, legendary jockey and nine-time Derby winner, dies aged 86

The remarkable facts and figures behind Lester Piggott's career

In his own words: 'It was quite a bad punishment, wasn't it? It was almost inhumane'

Lester Piggott Q&A: a brilliant interview with the record-breaking champion

Appreciation: 'His cut-throat mentality was unmatched in the history of the turf'

'He was my idol growing up' - Mick Kinane on his admiration for Lester Piggott

Aidan O'Brien: 'Incredible man' Lester Piggott left unbelievable mark on us all

Racecourse brilliance and quieter moments: Lester Piggott in photographs

'Lester went wrong way round a roundabout to pass me! No wonder he was champion'

Nine Derbys, 30 British Classics and winners worldwide - Lester by the numbers