Ex champion jockey Piggot leaves wife for woman 20 years his junior

London, May 30 (ANI): Former champion jockey Lester Piggot has left his wife Susan for a woman who is 20 years younger to him.

At the age of 77 and no longer in tip-top health, the greatest ever jockey Piggott still has an eye for an attractive filly.

The nine-times Derby winner is no longer to be found living in Newmarket with his long-suffering wife, to whom he has been married for 52 eventful years.

Instead, he has moved abroad to start a new life with a woman more than 20 years his junior.

She is attractive Lady Barbara FitzGerald, 55, whose estranged husband Lord John is heir presumptive to his brother, the Duke of Leinster.

According to reports Piggott and Lady Barbara are ensconced in a rented house on the outskirts of Geneva, a location some will see as ironic after the former jockey's conviction for tax fraud 25 years ago.

After a year in jail, he was stripped of his OBE, a move widely seen as unnecessarily cruel.

According to friends, Lester and Swiss-born mother-of-two FitzGerald are planning to build a house together in Switzerland.

They have known each other for many years because FitzGerald's marital home is in Newmarket, a town where all the racing folk know each other intimately.

Her husband is the racing manager of Lanwades Stud at nearby Moulton. She previously worked in the town for racehorse auctioneers Tattersalls.

Piggott, who won 5,000 races over 48 years, including the Oaks six times and the St Leger eight times, has two daughters by Susan - Maureen, a former eventer who is married to Derby-winning trainer William Haggas, and Irish TV sports presenter, Tracy.

He also has a son, Jamie, from a previous long-standing mistress and former assistant, Anna Ludlow. But their 16-year affair fizzled out some time ago.

Lester has suffered cardiac problems in the past and in 2007 was taken to hospital in Lausanne after suffering a heart attack on holiday on Lake Geneva.

But he bounced back and just three months later I reported he was playing golf in Newmarket with attractive blonde widow, Diana Vigors, 13 years his junior. At the time, Vigors insisted that their friendship was platonic.

Susan, who remains at the family home, is philosophical about the change in her domestic life.

"I have known Barbara for years and she is a very nice person. We are all still friends and that goes for all the family," the Daily Mail quoted her as saying.

"Put it this way, at 72 you feel very differently about things than you do at 25.

"All I wish for is Lester's health and happiness. There are no hard feelings," she said.

FitzGerald's daughter, Hermione, 26, a professional golfer, also didn't have problem with her mother's new partner.

"It's all good. I have met Lester and I like him.

"My mother is happy with him and as far as my parents are concerned, I hope it will be a fresh start for both of them," she added. (ANI)