Sideline Sid Sports correspondent & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

"When the young ones amongst the crowd at Te Rapa on the 22 February 1972 have grey beards and the old ones are gone, the day that Lester Piggott and Sailing Home won the Waikato International Stakes will still be a talking point" - DB Racing Annual 1972.

The recent passing of English champion jockey Lester Piggott, at the age of 86, brought Sideline Sid's memories of that February day at Te Rapa flooding back.

Piggott, who was considered a genius in the saddle, rode over 5000 winners around the globe, creating headlines from the time he rode his first winner as a 12-year-old.

Lester Piggott won the blue riband English derby, which is considered one of the great horse races of the world, on a remarkable nine occasions.

Popularly known as 'The Long Fellow' due to his height, Piggott left this earth as the one of the leading contender for the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) award, in the world-wide jockey ranks.

The Waikato International stakes kicked off 1970, with a number of invited Australian riders taking mounts in the feature mile and a quarter staying test.

There was huge anticipation amongst the countries racing fans, when Lester Piggott accepted an invitation to come to New Zealand to ride in the 1972 invited jockey's event, on a February Tuesday.

Sideline Sid is now one of the grey beards who joined a huge crowd trackside at Te Rapa racecourse in Hamilton, to witness the arrival of the jockey who rode bolt upright while his rivals were crouched in the saddle, unlike today where jockeys all ride high in the stirrups.

The cream of New Zealand and Australian jockeys rode the best horses in the country, which were allocated by ballot.

Piggott drew Sailing Home, who had won the Auckland Cup on New Years Day, while Victorian ace Roy Higgins was given the ride on weight-for-age star Game.

The New Zealand racing bible, Tapestry of Turf, stated "the event sorted itself out as a virtual match race between the two, with Piggott somehow enabling the staying mare to find the pace to keep on Game's quarters from the 800 metres".

"The two grand gallopers matched strides from the home turn, Piggott's high-in-the-saddle perch contrasting markedly with Higgins down under crouch". "Sailing Home got there by a neck from Game, with Topsy making ground strongly into third place".

The punters went ballistic as Sailing Home and Game returned to scale, with the large crowd believing they had witnessed one of the greatest exhibitions of riding skills ever seen in New Zealand.

That wasn't the end of Lester Piggott's making the headlines in Aoatearoa, with a spectacular return in March 1980, where he rode four winners and a second from six rides.

He rode another absolute pearler, to get Arbre Chene home by a nose from outsider Blue Rula in the days feature, Air New Zealand Stakes.

The world has lost one of the truly all-time greats in the jockey ranks.

RIP Lester Piggott.