LESTER and my father did not always have the most harmonious relationship. It could be fraught at times but they had a lot of good days too.

They were both very intelligent men but also very strong-willed. They came to an arrangement whereby they both did their own thing but also co-existed at the same time.

On a big trials day at the racecourse, there would never be a debrief in the parade ring afterwards. There might be nothing more than a grunt between then but Lester would call my father that evening and they could spend an hour discussing the horses.

Outside the box

Lester’s brain was always working and thinking outside the box. For instance, he might be riding for someone else in Paris on a Sunday but he would call Dad and say ‘you should take a look at the horse who finished fourth in the Group 3’ and it might not even be a race Lester was riding in.

The Derby was the only race my dad really wanted to win. Every year you were looking for the horse who could win it. It was traumatic because then you worried if there was a possibility that Lester might bail out on you and ride something else!

He pushed my father’s patience to the utmost but it worked the other way too, like when Lester dropped himself on Roberto when it wasn’t his ride. The horse wouldn’t have won the Derby under anyone else – that was the strongest ride I can remember.

My own favourite memory of Lester is when he rode Royal Academy to win at the Breeders’ Cup in New York in 1990.

Comeback

My father and John Magnier had been very influential in Lester’s comeback from retirement that year. They had lunch one day in Dublin and encouraged him to take out his licence and they gave him some of his first winners.

John Reid had been riding Royal Academy all season but he had a fall and couldn’t ride in the Breeders’ Cup. I remember being at the sales in Newmarket one day and Lester just appeared from behind a tree and suggested he should ride Royal Academy!

The Breeders’ Cup was in its infancy and there hadn’t been many European winners there. It was a special day.

He was completely unique and transcended racing in the same way that only Frankie Dettori does these days.