Samantha Dobles celebrated her first success as a trainer after saddling Military Drill for the narrowest of victories in Race 5 on Saturday's program at Gulfstream Park.
“It's nice to win. I've saddled winners for other people, but it's more rewarding to win with a horse you do everything with,” the 33-year-old trainer said.
Military Drill ($11.40), who was Dobles' 11th starter, prevailed in a long photo-finish and had to survive a stewards' review of a foul claim before becoming the official winner of the five-furlong claiming race on Tapeta.
Dobles grew up in a racing family in the Finger Lakes region of New York, where her mother is an outrider and her father is an exercise rider. Her sister, Elizabeth Dobles, has been a successful trainer at Gulfstream Park for the past several years.
“I came down from Finger Lakes and worked as an assistant for my sister,” Samantha Dobles said. “We just have this horse, and we claimed another horse today. We're just starting out little.”
Lester Piggott, who won a record 30 British Classics between 1954 and 1992 and was 11-time riding champion in his native England, died on Sunday, May 29. The 86-year-old had been hospitalized since last week in Switzerland, where he resided, according to his son-in-law, trainer William Haggas.
“He cast the longest shadow anyone's ever cast over racing,” veteran racing journalist Brough Scott said in an interview with Nick Luck. “For me, he was my first and greatest hero.”
“He was a person who made us all better – because we had to be better to beat him,” Willie Carson told the BBC. A longtime rival of Piggott and five-time British champion jockey who won 17 Classics, Carson said, “It is so sad. Part of my life is gone.”
“He was a legend,” champion jockey Frankie Dettori told BBC. “We always tried to aspire to be like him and none of us can do it. He will never be forgotten.”
Born into a multi-generational racing family on Nov. 5, 1935, in Wantage, Berkshire, Piggott, the son of trainer Keith Piggott, launched his riding career as a 10-year-old, winning his first race aboard The Chase at Haydock Park at the age of 12.
A sensation in his teenage years, Piggott won the first of his record nine Epsom Derbies at age 18 in 1954 with 33-1 longshot Never Say Die. He would go on to win his second Derby with Crepello in 1957, followed by St Paddy in 1960, Sir Ivor in 1968, Nijinsky II in 1970, Roberto in 1972, Empery in 1976, The Minstrel in 1977 and Teenoso in 1983.
Nicknamed “The Long Fellow” because of his lanky, five-foot, eight-inch frame, Piggott would go on to win a total of 4,493 races on the flat and 20 wins over hurdles, according to the Racing Post. A record 116 of those victories came during the Royal Ascot meeting.
He was the last jockey to win England's Triple Crown, riding Nijinsky II to victories in the 2,000 Guineas, the Derby and St. Leger Stakes in 1970. Piggott won the latter 1 3/4-mile race on eight occasions, the final time with his last English Classic winner, Commanche Run, in 1984.
How he acquired the mount on Commanche Run was an example of Piggott's all-out drive to win, a personality trait some called ruthless. American Darrel McHargue had been Commanche Run's regular rider after moving to England, where he was contract rider for trainer Luca Cumani. When McHargue was unable to ride the colt in a St. Leger prep, Piggott was called on to handle him. He won that race, but McHargue was back in the saddle for Commanche Run's final St. Leger prep, the March Stakes.
As the St. Leger approached, Piggott began calling Commanche Run's owner, Ivan Allan, lobbying to ride him in the St. Leger because a victory would give the jockey his record 28th British Classic triumph.
In a British documentary on Piggott, Allan recalled a conversation he had with the rider. “I remember him telling me, 'McHargue couldn't ride a bicycle,' and if I wanted to win the St. Leger I'd better put him up on the horse,” the owner said. He was convinced to give Piggott the mount. McHargue, a future Hall of Famer in the U.S., left England shortly thereafter.
In that same documentary, Robert Sangster – who owned many of the top horses Piggott rode to victory during a successful association with legendary Irish trainer Vincent O'Brien at Ballydoyle – spoke of Piggott's often difficult personality. “Lester had a complete disregard for any authority or any boundaries: his home life or the revenue (tax authority), the stewards or riding,” said Sangster. “He rode to win, and that was the essential quality that we loved.”
That disregard for authority led to Piggott spending a year in jail in England after a 1987 conviction for income tax evasion. He had retired from riding in 1985 and was training horses in Newmarket when his conviction and original three-year jail sentence was front-page news. Piggott, whose net worth was in the tens of millions of dollars at the time of his conviction, was found to have omitted significant income from his tax returns and used false names to funnel money into secret bank accounts in Switzerland, Singapore, the Bahamas and Cayman Islands.
He also was stripped of his Order of the British Empire because of his conviction, but rode for Queen Elizabeth after returning to the saddle and was honored in 2019 with a bronze statue that she unveiled during a special ceremony.
Piggott was the center of other controversies throughout his career, involving rough riding and overuse of the whip. It was all part of his desire to win.
In 1990, Piggott returned to the saddle and only 12 days into his comeback at the age of 54 provided one of the most memorable performances of his career, taking the Vincent O'Brien-trained Royal Academy from last to first in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Mile at Belmont Park.
Piggott is survived by his wife, Susan; daughters Maureen and Tracy and a son, Jamie.
Tributes for Lester Piggott poured in throughout the racing world.
What a huge part of the history of Ballydoyle . My favourite memory of Royal Ascot when My Grandfather “Vincent O Brien” lead in Lester on “Collage Chapel” after wining the Cork & Orrery Stakes… The last winner for them both at Royal Ascot @Ascot pic.twitter.com/ScYJXYsqgF
The team at Newmarket Racecourses are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Lester Piggott. To win 30 British Classics, with the last coming aboard Rodrigo de Triano in the 2000 Guineas 30 years ago this year, is an achievement which may never be surpassed. pic.twitter.com/ZQZBZsSyMz
— Newmarket Racecourse (@NewmarketRace) May 29, 2022
Lester Piggott, one of the greatest jockeys in the history of horse racing, has passed away at the age of 86
Here is a thread looking at some of Piggott's achievements during a remarkable career in the saddle that spanned five decades pic.twitter.com/C5Dqyv4Vwt
Australian racecaller Ric McIntosh was dealt a difficult hand at Kilmore on Thursday when thick fog blanketed the track, reducing visibility to nearly zero, reports 7news.com.au.
“And they're off. And your guess is as good as mine what's happening,” McIntosh said on the broadcast.
He told 7news.com.au: “Never in 30-odd years of broadcasting have I had to do the whole meeting in the fog. It was tough with a capital T to be honest. Horses just appearing willy nilly out of the fog at the 100-metre mark, and I had no idea what the order was going to be!”
Even though jockey Angel A. Rodriguez had bounced around a half-dozen racetracks with moderate success since arriving in the United States from Panama in 2018, agent Steve Worsley saw something in the young rider.
So Worsley, who also has the book for popular veteran Jose C. Ferrer, offered his services to the 22-year-old in the final weeks of the Tampa Downs meet this spring.
“I'd seen him ride at Gulfstream in the past. I knew he had ability,” said Worsley. “I told him `I'd like to take your book at Tampa for the last six weeks and if you're interested I would love for you to come to Monmouth Park.'
“We won eight races the last six weeks at Tampa and now we're here (at Monmouth Park).”
And making an immediate impact.
Rodriguez heads into Monmouth Park's three-day holiday weekend of live racing starting Saturday with a suddenly-increased workload and still riding the momentum of his victory aboard The Critical Way in the Get Serious Stakes last Sunday.
“I feel good about my first summer at Monmouth Park,” Rodriguez said through a translator. “I have a lot of trainers giving me help and I'm working hard. I feel comfortable here.”
Rodriguez, a graduate of the Laffit Pincay Riding Academy in his hometown of Panama City, Panama, enters the weekend tied for third in the Monmouth Park rider standings with a 4-4-3 line from his 16 mounts so far.
The victory in the Get Serious Stakes was just his second stakes win in the United States, with Rodriguez having won the Unreachable Star Stakes at Indiana Grand (now Horseshoe Indianapolis) in 2018.
As a 17-year-old he won Panama's most prestigious race — Clasico Presidente de la Republica – on the way to being the country's leading apprentice.
That doesn't mean much in the United States, but Rodriguez is starting to earn some longer looks from trainers with his fast start.
“I just want to ride,” he said. “I don't care where I am in the standings. I want to ride in more stakes races and I want to have a good meet here.”
Winning that first stakes race at Monmouth Park is certainly a boost, but it's really just the beginning, Worsley said.
“Without a doubt it will help him,” he said. “Stakes races are the races everyone pays attention to and I've picked up some interest from good trainers because of it. He's also breezing for some good trainers now.
“But getting off to a good start at Monmouth Park doesn't mean you're going to ride for Chad Brown and those types of trainers right away. You have to keep winning races day in and day out and people will notice and that kind of business will follow.”
Rodriguez sees his fast start as just that – a start.
“Winning the stakes race gave me more confidence,” he said. “I know that with hard work come results. Of course I want to ride in more stakes races but I just want to have a good meet at Monmouth Park and see what happens from there,”
Monmouth Park's Memorial Day weekend will feature a $100,000 stakes race all three days, starting with Saturday's Cliff Hanger Stakes at a mile and a sixteenth on the turf. The Sunday feature is the 79th edition of the Jersey Derby at a mile on the turf, with the Miss Liberty Stakes at a mile and a sixteenth on the turf headlining the Monday program.
The Jersey Shore Food Truck Festival will mark its return over all three days, with Family Fun Days back on Saturdays and Sundays.
