Piggott fondly recalls Eddery Legendary former jockey Lester Piggott said Pat Eddery "was a natural horseman" after his close friend died in the early hours of Tuesday morning, aged 63. Piggott and Eddery both won the UK jockeys' championship 11 times and enjoyed an intense, yet satisfying, rivalry on the racecourse. "Pat Eddery was as fierce an opponent on the racecours e as he was a loyal and dear friend off it. He was a natural horseman. He exuded class and always knew what to do in a race," said Piggott. "The horses he was associated with speak for themselves, and I doubt you'd find a jockey with a sharper tactical brain or stronger in a finish. "He was a huge personality in the weighing room, and wasn't slow to keep us all grounded with his wit and sense of humour. He will be sorely missed." Willie Carson, who was crowned champion jockey on five occasions in Britain, was o ne of Eddery's closest friends in the weighing room. He told At The Races: "It's a very sad loss. He was a huge part of my life because we were together and friends for a very long time. "An absolute gentleman, one of the greatest jockeys ever to ride a horse and you could go on forever about all the great horses he rode, but he always told me it (the best) was Golden Fleece, especially in the Derby. "He was liked by everyone. (He was) a gentleman, a nice person to have a night out with and I spent lots of time with him. Part of my life has gone as well. "When he retired, he hit a problem because racing had been his life - all he ever wanted to be was a jockey. He tried the breeding game which didn't work, he never settled into retirement. "He's gone at an early age - 63 is no age at all - and he'll be sadly missed. It will be a great loss to the industry because simply he was one of the greatest ever. "Pat always had the knack. When he was on a horse, he always did the right thing and got horses running for him." Another weighing-room colleague was George Duffield, who remembered Eddery's "fantastic" skill as a youngster. "It's a sad day to lose someone as talented as him at such a young age as 63," he said. "I remember him starting. He was just fantastic as a kid. He had so much confidence and was so bullish about everything he did. He was so special from day one, which put him apart from everyone else. "My best day was actually beating him in the Eclipse. It was a massive feather in my cap to beat someone as talented as he was when I rode Giant's Causeway. He had that fantastic talent where horses wanted to go faster for him more than anyone else. "People like him come along every 20, 25 years. The main thing about Pat was he never changed. From the day he started to the day he finished he was the same old Pat, day in, day out. All the success he had never went to his head. He was just one fantastic guy, a star man."
