Zac Purton says Maureen Haggas ‘must have been on the drink’ after being called ‘big sissy’

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A war of words has broken out between a Hong Kong champion jockey and the daughter of the legendary Lester Piggott after she labelled him “a big sissy”.

Australian Zac Purton was booked to ride Lake Forest, who was sent overseas from Newmarket to contest the £2.5 million King Charles III Stakes in Sydney, Australia . Purton was principally at the meeting at Royal Randwick to ride superstar sprinter Ka Ying Rising, who took out the £10m Everest, the world ’s richest turf race.

Two races later he was aboard 17-5 chance Lake Forest, the four-year-old trained by William Haggas for Tony Bloom, owner of Premier League club Brighton.

Lake Forest finished last of the 12 runners while the stable’s other runner Sam Hawkens, who went off favourite in a Group 3 race, was seventh, under Australia’s leading jockey James McDonald.

Haggas’s wife Maureen was at Kempton on Wednesday night when she was asked on RacingTV how the two runners were and she didn’t hold back.

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“As far as I’m concerned Lake Forest never had a race,” she said. “It was about the worst ride I think I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I was appalled, absolutely appalled.

“We went all that way and, I mean I don’t know Zac Purton at all, but it was just dreadful. It was so disappointing because everyone knows he is a horse you have to tell him he’s got to do it. He knew that and he was told it and he just sat there like a big sissy.

“I was horrified, I really was. We’d gone all that way at that huge expense on the owner’s part. It just makes you realise how lucky we are with the jockeys we have in England, Ireland and France when you compare them to the rides we got on Saturday which were really shockingly awful.”

Contacted by the Mirror , Purton replied: “I had a nice laugh, she’d make a good comedian.”

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In a further interview with RSN’s Giddy Up podcast in Australia, Purton said: “I thank her for her advice. I haven’t had time to watch the replay yet because I’ve been too busy watching replays of myself winning the $20 million Everest.

“I’m a little bit bemused at her take on the race, but she’s entitled to that, no problem.

“I followed Ceolwulf who went on to win the race, so I thought he was not too bad a horse to be following. He put seven lengths on me. As soon as they quickened my horse just went up and down in the one spot. He gave me no response at all.”

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The 42-year-old Purton, the eight-time champion, rode his 1,900th winner in Hong Kong on Wednesday, also sprang to the defence of McDonald.

“Where she went a little bit too far was by dragging James McDonald into it as well,” he said. “He’s currently the world’s best jockey and she said we both gave our rides really shockingly awful rides’.

“The most disappointing part is that every time William Haggas has brought a horse to Australia we have championed him. We’ve been very happy for his success, We’ve welcomed him down. We’ve rolled the red carpet out for him and made him feel like he’s loved in Australia – and then they have one bad day and she falls off the rocking horse.