The crazy world of Fried Rice, Weary, The Enforcer and Johnny Five Shaves

1 Legendary jockey Fred Archer was known as The Tin Man not because he didn't have a heart – he did, and it was broken when his wife Nellie died after childbirth – but because of his acquisitive and miserly nature, the word 'tin' referring in Victorian times to money. His employer Mat Dawson called him "that damned, long-legged, tin-scraping young devil". When the 13-time champion died in 1886 at the age of 29, he left the 2018 equivalent of £6.7 million to his only daughter.

2 No man can help his face, but it was the impassive visage of Australian ace Bill Williamson that earned him the sobriquet Weary. No-one ever caught him napping during a brilliant career at home and in Europe, but his heavy lidded, undemonstrative appearance even in victory led to an enduring description. "Who smiles, after all, while they're working?" he said.

3 Lester Piggott was known to his adoring public by more than one nickname, but the one that prevailed more often than most was The Long Fellow in respect of his height. Only in the world of jockeys could a man who stood 5ft 8in in his thin-soled boots be deemed a giant among his fellow men – but then, Piggott is indeed a giant among his fellow men.