Former Man Utd owner & racing titan John Magnier reveals how Lester Piggott cost him £190million deal in rare interview

ONLY last week, I wrote that "without doubt, Ashford Stud's Justify (Scat Daddy) is bound for stardom in the breeding shed, having already been a sensation on the track". I then added: "It is incredible to think that having gone to stud at a fee of $150000, reduced to $125000 for season three, that Justify has been available for two seasons at…

Desert Crown, winner of the 2022 Derby, was expected to face off against this year's Epsom Classic hero Auguste Rodin at Ascot but misses the race Desert Crown has not been declared for Saturday's all star King George VI and Queen Elizabeth QIPCO Stakes due a leg infection. His absence robs the Ascot feature of a face-off between the winner of the…

There cannot have been many seasons when there was even the possibility of three Epsom Derby winners - Auguste Rodin, Desert Crown and Adayar - racing against each other. For that, we should be grateful to the deep pockets of the Middle Eastern racehorse owners who can afford to race their horses without fear of the financial consequences of…

For the past three years, observers of the British Turf have been all agog awaiting the equalling of the best-known of all Classic records - the late Lester Piggott's nine Derby wins as a jockey, writes Tony Stafford. He was kept in suspended animation as Aidan O'Brien was poised on eight as a trainer when outsider Serpentine collected in 2020,…

One of the all-time greats, Brigadier Gerard achieved the highest performance rating in the 2000 Guineas in the last half-century or so when winning by three lengths in 1971. Despite the remarkably small field - only six went to post - Brigadier Gerard was only third in the betting as an incredibly strong line-up also included Mill Reef and My…

Betfred Boss Fred Done has described himself as "immensely proud" to be announced as the new sponsor of The Oaks and The Derby at Epsom Downs. In a three-year deal, Betfred will also support two other races across the two days of The Derby meeting, which in 2023 takes place on Friday 2nd June and Saturday 3rd June. Founded by Fred Done with a…

Betfred will sponsor the Derby and the Oaks for the next three years, becoming the first bookmaker to back the Epsom Classics. The Jockey Club, which owns Epsom, had been searching for a third sponsor for the Derby in four years after Cazoo, the used car company, did not renew its backing of the meeting after the latest edition after experiencing a…

Betfred Boss Fred Done has described himself as "immensely proud" to be announced as the new sponsor of The Oaks and The Derby at Epsom Downs. In a three-year deal, Betfred will also support two other races across the two days of The Derby meeting, which in 2023 takes place on Friday 2nd June and Saturday 3rd June. Founded by Fred Done with a…

FORMER Manchester United owner and racing titan John Magnier has revealed how Lester Piggott cost him a £190million deal. In a rare interview, billionaire horse tycoon Magnier, 74, opened up on El Gran Senor's infamous defeat in the 1984 Derby. He said a deal worth $80m (£190m in today's money) had been agreed for the thoroughbred's sale. But there…

Bloodstock expert Nancy Sexton ranks the stallions who have left the most indelible mark in the last 100 years. Today: the top five Nearctic - Natalma (Native Dancer) Stood: Windfields Farm, Canada; Windfields Farm, Maryland, USA Northern Dancer was a game changer as far as the industry was concerned, and not just in North America but Europe as…

Horse racing enthusiasts and punters are counting down the days to one of the major parts of the racing calendar, with the Epsom Derby fast approaching. "The Derby" is part of this year's Platinum Jubilee celebrations, although the Queen likely won't be in attendance at the famous event. Now 96, the monarch is hoping to pace herself for the…

Lester Piggott was without doubt the finest jockey of his generation, and probably of any that has gone before or since. Tall for a jockey at over 5ft 7ins, "The Long Fellow", as he became affectionately tagged, partnered more than 5000 winners worldwide. His career in the saddle will never be matched, and if there were occasional lows - none more…

No race did more to build the legend of Lester Piggott, the man and the myth, than the Derby. For three decades, people who watched just one Flat race a year knew that he was the man to beat. Huge numbers queued in betting shops nationwide to back him. Nine times they returned to collect their winnings as the rider who was always at his best when…

RACING'S most revered supporter, Her Majesty The Queen, will wake up this morning to the delight of a right old Derby conundrum! For if ever there was a Derby for guessing, it's today's magnificent ITV-broadcast Platinum Jubilee Epsom Classic run in memory of the late, great, nine-time victor Lester Piggott. The reason for this is as the so-called…

GLAMOROUS racegoers have piled into Epsom for Ladies' Day as they get into the Jubilee spirit. Punters are arriving at the ever-popular event dressed to impress as the UK celebrates the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. Racegoers have pulled out all the stops as usual, donning their finest suits and best frocks. And this year, there is a Union Jack theme…

The pre-race talk surrounds one horse hoping to keep up an impressive record at Epsom this weekend. Desert Crown has dominated the buildup to this year's Derby as the three-year old protects an unbeaten record at Epsom. Trained by five-time derby winner Sir Michael Stoute, the colt was an 11/1 winner on debut at Nottingham last November and…

Lester Piggott, one of Britain's greatest jockeys, who won nearly 4500 races on his native soil but whose yearlong imprisonment for tax fraud in the 1980s detoured the latter part of his career, died on Sunday near Geneva. He was 86. His daughter, Maureen Haggas, confirmed the death, at a hospital, but did not give a cause. She said her father, who…

Although six years had already passed since the first win of his legendary career, Lester Piggott was still only 18 when riding his first Derby winner, Never Say Die, making him the youngest jockey to win the race during the twentieth century. This came just months after Piggott had ridden a winner, Mull Sack, at the National Hunt Meeting (nowadays…

Lester Piggott was without doubt the finest jockey of his generation, and probably of any that has gone before or since. Tall for a jockey at over 5ft 7ins, 'The Long Fellow', as he became affectionately tagged, partnered more than 5000 winners worldwide. A man of very few words and sometimes none at all, he was as well-known as any modern-day…

Lester Piggott was without doubt the finest jockey of his generation, and probably of any that has gone before or since. Tall for a jockey at over 5ft 7ins, 'The Long Fellow', as he became affectionately tagged, partnered more than 5000 winners worldwide. A man of very few words and sometimes none at all, he was as well known as any modern-day…

Lester Piggott, a jockey whose career haul included nine Derby victories, has died at the age of 86. Unquestionably one of the greatest jockeys of all time, Piggott rode his first winner, The Chase, at Haydock in 1948 when just 12 years of age and his last win came with Palacegate Jack at the same Merseyside track in 1994, a few weeks short of his…

It's the month of June, the season of European Derby's, and its Desert Crown who's $2.75 with Ladbrokes for The Cazoo Derby, The Derby Stakes of 1½m to be run at Epsom. With this Cazoo Derby run in Memory of Lester Piggott it was Naver Say Die in 1954 who was the first of record 9 wins, along with wins in 1957, 1960, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1976, 1977…

Before becoming part of folklore, or reduced to a shabby punchline, Shergar was one of the finest racehorses of the last half-century. A tragic mystery due to his kidnapping by the IRA in 1983, it can get overlooked how revulsion surrounding such a grotesque act was bound up in the impact the colt made on the wider public consciousness doing what…

Pat Eddery, one of the greatest jockeys of the postwar era, with three victories in the Epsom Derby and four in the Arc de Triomphe to his credit, as well as two Breeders' Cup races in the United States, died on Tuesday. He was 63. Teddy Grimthorpe, the European racing manager for Juddmonte Farms, who worked with Eddery for many years, confirmed…

In its enduring 149-year history, the Irish Derby has been synonymous with exceptional racehorses. ften, it has been the race in which greatness is confirmed, a coronation of sorts for the champion that has triumphed in the original at Epsom. That has been especially so since the Curragh Group One gained elite international status in 1962, when its…