Andrea Degortes, known as Aceto, won 14 Palios in Siena during a career that lasted from 1964 to 1996. But the numbers only tell part of the story: ‘Someone like me is born once every 1,000 years,’ he said bluntly. And perhaps he is right.

He was born in Sardinia, the son of a shepherd who "beat me every day. Once he put a rope around my neck, he wanted to kill me.‘ Aceto never attended first grade. At 14, he went to Rome with his whole family. There he started working in the Capannelle stables. At 21, he raced his first Palio, asking for a million lire when the others were given ’20 lire". ‘I said: I want a million or I won't ride.’ He lost that Palio. When he got off his horse, the crowd attacked him. ‘They hit me in the face, I ran away, I threw myself into a shop. I said: maybe this is the first and last Palio I'll ever do.’ That was not the case. He only stopped at the age of 53, after breaking a record that had stood since 1900.

His secret? “My strength was on the ground. I killed the jockeys before getting on the horse”. He would cling to the columns before the race and challenge everyone: “If you have the courage...”. His character made as much of a difference as his reflexes: ‘In the Palio, the one who makes the fewest mistakes wins. The race lasts one minute and 12 seconds.’

He revolutionised the jockey's trade, transforming it into a profession. He trained 3-4 hours a day, had magicians instead of physiotherapists, and earned hundreds of millions. ‘In 1985, I paid half a billion lire in fines.’ The figures caused a scandal in a world where previously ‘they gave him 20 lire’.

He was brutally honest about the Palio system: ‘The jockeys are all bought and no one is sold. Money has nothing to do with it in Siena, 70% is thrown away’. He always took the money they offered him, but he always aimed to win: ‘I knew it was in my interest to win.’ He was a jockey for the Oca for 21 years, then came the most sensational betrayal: he moved to the Torre, the historic rival: ‘The first news item on the television was that Aceto had gone to race for the Torre.’

In the last Palio, he risked being lynched. He became more famous than the Palio itself. The headlines read ‘Aceto wins’, not ‘Siena Palio wins’. He was invited to all the TV shows, had dinner with Pavarotti, met Maradona: ‘I went to all the events, from Carrà to Pippo Baudo. I told them a load of rubbish’. He is now over 80 years old.

He has no regrets. ‘I don't miss the Palio at all. I'm fine now, not like before.’ He sleeps peacefully, something he didn't do as a jockey: ‘You didn't sleep much at night, which is normal when you're taking risks.’ He is convinced that he will remain a legend. ‘Americans still ask: is Aceto running this Palio? Aceto is the symbol of the Palio di Siena. And that's the truth.’