Sea Silk Road (9-2) was a fitting winner of newly-renamed Sky Bet Lester Piggott Stakes at Haydock Park on Saturday afternoon.
The late, great Piggott won both his first and last race of his glittering career at the Merseyside track and Haydock officials had been working with his family, including daughter Maureen Haggas – wife and assistant of the winner's trainer Willie Haggas – to find a suitable contest to be named in his honour. And it was fitting that Haggas' Sea Silk Road took the inaugural running of the contest formerly known as the Pinnacle Stakes, under a fine ride from Tom Marquand – one which the legendary multiple champion and Classic-winning jockey would have been proud of. Under Marquand, Sea Silk Road was sat last of the five runners for much of the 1m4f contest as outsider Poptronic led the way. But after the turn for home, Marquand came through horses to challenge the leader. Sea Silk Road hit the front in the final furlong and went on to score by three-quarters-of-a-length from Nachtrose (9-1). It was the perfect victory for connections, who were landing victory in the Pinnacle for a record third time and back-to-back runnings following Sea La Rosa's success 12 months ago in the same Sunderland Holding Inc's yellow and blue-starred colours.
Maureen Haggas, who was joined in the Haydock's winner's enclosure by her sister Tracy, said: "It's my father's race and things like this don't always happen, so it's nice when it does. Kirkland (Tellwright, clerk of the course) have been talking for a while as we wanted to have a race here, for obvious reasons. It was just a question of which one and this is a nice race on a nice day and a stepping-stone on to other things.
