Introduced by Clive Graham

The champion jockey has variously been described as 'Britain's worst-fed company director,' 'a man with short arms and deep pockets,' and as having an expression 'like a well-kept grave.' He is also by common consent, the best race rider on the Turf. In the 22 years since his first success at the age of 12 Lester has ridden nearly 3,000 winners here and abroad. He is almost certainly Britain's wealthiest sportsman. But this taciturn, poker-faced man remains a stranger to all but a few close friends. What are the ingredients of his greatness? What kind of person is he? This programme shows his successes on such horses as Nijinsky, Sir Ivor, and Crepello; probes his past reputation of being a hard and dangerous rider; and gives his own views and those of Sir Gordon Richards, Scobie Breasley, Harry Carr, Sam Armstrong, Vincent O'Brien, Bernard Van Cutsem, and Keith Piggott, his father.