Piggott did far worse to Dettori in the bad old days.
Jockey Frankie Dettori tells a story of how his legendary rival Lester Piggott once grabbed him by the goolies during a race – to take revenge on the younger jockey for teasing him.
This tale came to mind last week when popular South African jockey Muzi Yeni was fined for making “demeaning and unsportsmanlike” gestures at other jockeys in a race at Fairview.
Yeni rode a good race on Kingdom Of Heaven in Race 6 on Friday, coming from well back to win going away and post a third win on the afternoon. As he and horse cruised to the winning post, the pint-sized rider turned in the saddle and appeared to point a finger at a couple of his well-beaten rivals.
You can’t really see on replays, but arrangement of the digits might have made things ruder. Whatever, the stipes were not amused.
After watching video replays and quizzing jockeys on the receiving end, the fuzz charged Yeni with unprofessional conduct. He admitted guilt and was fined R5,000 with half suspended for a year.
On the scale of jockey punishments, it was peanuts, and one wonders why anyone bothered putting a black mark on the record. A quiet word and a knowing smile would have sufficed in a hard-knocks game in which robust competition is standard.
The three wins at Fairview took Yeni to 15 for the infant season and to the top of the log of the jockey championship – one of his burning career targets. S’Manga Khumalo and Craig Zackey are second with 13 apiece. The two most recent champs, Gavin Lerena and Richard Fourie, have been on a few weeks’ holiday.
Back to the Dettori/Piggott story:
In his autobiography Leap of Faith, Dettori says the incident happened after he’d taunted Piggott when the latter made a comeback to riding at the age of 55.
“As we come into the bend at the halfway point I glance to my left and see him behind me. He reaches over, grabs my balls and squeezes as hard as he can.
“The pain’s extraordinary. I feel my eyes watering behind my goggles. He says: ‘That’ll teach you to be cocky, you little sh*t’.”
Frankie writes: “I’m in his face telling him he should be in a museum, advising him to get the slippers out because there’s no way he’ll be able to keep up with us young bucks.
“We’re riding at Glorious Goodwood. There’s a big field, 20 runners or so. After the race, back in the weighing room, we watch a replay.
“I gather everyone round. ‘Lads,’ I say, ‘watch out for where Lester grabs my balls. It’s coming up round about now.’”
But then Frankie adds: “There’s a blind spot in the coverage of about 10 seconds where the cameras switch and the action’s too far away to be caught by either of them. He knows exactly where the cameras are, of course.
“I look across at him. Not a trace of a smirk passes his lips.”
