Tracy Piggott (born 1966) is a British-born former jockey and broadcaster, best known for her work commentating on horse racing on Irish state broadcaster

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

Early life

Piggott is the daughter of Susan Armstrong and champion jockey

Lester Piggott Lester Keith Piggott (5 November 1935 – 29 May 2022) was an English professional jockey and trainer. With 4,493 career flat racing wins in Britain, including a record nine Epsom Derby victories, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest f ...

and member of an English family which has been involved in horse racing since the eighteenth century. Her great-grandfather

Ernest Piggott Ernest Piggott (1878–1967) was a leading British jump racing jockey, whose family has become one of the leading dynasties in British horseracing. He was three times Champion Jockey and three times Grand National winner. His son, (Ernest) Ke ...

won the

Grand National The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, England. First run in 1839, it is a handicap ...

as a jockey three times, in 1912, 1918 and 1919, while her grandfather Keith Piggott won the Grand National as a trainer in 1963. Piggott has a sister, ex-eventer Maureen, and a half-brother, Jamie. She has one daughter, Thea, born in 2007.

Career

On leaving school, Piggott first worked as a "galloper" (Also known as Exercise rider or work rider) for horse trainers in the US before moving to Ireland in 1986. There she worked as an assistant to horse trainer

Tommy Stack Tommy Stack (born 15 November 1945 in Moyvane, County Kerry, Ireland) is a former National Hunt racing jockey and trainer. As a jockey, he is probably best known for piloting Red Rum to a third Grand National victory. Stack was National Hunt Champ ...

and also competed as a jockey at several meets. Since 1989, she has worked as a broadcaster with

. She has concentrated primarily on horse racing commentating, but has also anchored the coverage for three Olympic Games, the Special Olympics and the Paralympics, and has been a pitch-side reporter for rugby internationals and

Heineken Cup The European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Heineken Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is an annual rugby union tournament organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the top-tier competition for clubs who compete in a pre ...

matches. In the late 1990s, she was the presenter on the flagship sports programme ''

Sports Stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

''. Piggott has also worked on other television programmes — narrating the documentary ''The Young Prince of Ballydoyle'', presenting the sports quiz ''At the End of the Day'', and hosting the retrospective ''The Sporting Year''. She is a member of the

Irish Sports Council Sport Ireland ( ga, Spórt Éireann), formerly the Irish Sports Council, is a statutory authority that oversees, and partly funds, the development of sport within Ireland. It is located at the National Sports Campus in the townland of Sheephill ...

, and has carried out work for several charities such as the John Durcan Leukaemia Trust, the National Council for the Blind and Playing for Life. In 2008, she appeared on '' The Restaurant'', while in 2013 she was a contestant on Celebrity MasterChef Ireland, and was the third contestant to be eliminated.

Personal life

Piggott has faced some high-profile personal difficulties. Her father was convicted of

tax evasion Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the taxp ...

in the late 1980s. In late 2010, she took out an injunction against a former fiancé, Stephen Mahon, alleging that he had spread malicious falsehoods about her. Mahon had previously been convicted of animal cruelty.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Piggott, Tracy Living people RTÉ television presenters 1966 births British female jockeys British women television presenters