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Had to be like that, didn’t it ?
Towcester. 5 lengths down going to the last. Gets up on the line.
Nobody like him
Hopefully someone will upload a more compete video of the aftermatch because i’ve only seen the replay and it cuts off shortly after he’s won. Sounded like thousands there at the course.
From Legal Steps in 1992 to Mountain Tunes this afternoon (via 4000-odd successful stops in-between) Tony McCoy has proven himself the greatest jockey of all time, under any code.
His Bradman-esque grip on the dry statistics of his sport are remarkable. 1500 or so more winners than any modern rivals and 2300+ more than greats such as Richard Dunwoody and Peter Scudamore. 18-times champion jockey (consecutively) and has never ridden as a professional in a non-champion season.
He set a new record under either code of 269 winners in a season, a feat he upgraded that season to an almost ridiculous new mark of 289. All the time, through a number of serious, but fortunately not career-threatening, injuries he has averaged an astonishing 215 winners per season.
His 2010 Grand National win crystallised his years of success in the public consciousness, and culminated in him winning the BBC’s Sports Personality Of The Year award by a massive margin, the only representative of horse racing ever to do so.
But to define AP by statistics is to do him a massive disservice.
His professionalism and the desire to get as close to the impossible goal of perfection are visible at every meeting – in the selling hurdle, the bumper, the four-runner gaff-track chase. All will get the same level of attention to detail and the maximum amount of effort.
His deprecating nature and withering self-analysis display a ruthless desire for winners. The only race that counts is the next one. There’s no ‘cruising’, no letting up, no sitting on laurels: the most important rides are the ones ahead.
Though occasionally moody on the rare occasions when things aren’t going well, despite all his success McCoy manages to remain down-to-earth and approachable as is the way with jump-jockeys. He’s a popular weighing-room character with a decent understanding of the needs of the media and punters alike.
Many will call for his retirement now, presumably as he has no more worlds to conquer. Personally, I would demur to AP’s judgement on that. However, I would concur that falling off horses is definitely a young man’s game.
The meaningless epithet ‘legend’ is applied all sorts of purveyors of mediocrity nowadays. In football, it appears to mean a player who condescends to stay at one particular club for more than a season. Racing can be hugely proud that if there is ever a definition of this term in a sporting sense, AP would be it.
Make no mistake, AP McCoy is the finest sportsman this country has ever known. No one else comes close.
Enjoy him while you can.
Mike
Yes, fine, fitting words indeed and nothing needs adding other than to reiterate
enjoy him while you can
I certainly enjoyed that 4000th winner: a suitably prototypical McCoy finish
Great post, Mike. (The like button appears to be out of commission).
I read somewhere the other day that AP was on a golf holiday in Portugal with other jocks and broke off to fly over for 1 ride at Sedgefield, then back again for the golf.
Like many successful people, he is driven (on his own admission) by an utter dread of failure…something beyond fear of it.
Agreed – an excellent post – post of the year???
I reckon. Perfectly put, Mike.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Brilliant post Mike, says everything that needs to be said.
AP is the Arkle of jockeys.
Value Is EverythingTruly great sportsman and a great bloke. I’m not sure which is harder to achieve.
He always seems to want to win, not just for his vested interests, but also for punters and to bash those fiendish bookies.
Unlike Fallon, who has come across as contemptuous of punters in his interviews, McCoy comes across as the sort of bloke with whom you’d want to share a pint. Not that I drink beer, mine’s a Milkshake (…not a Kirsty).
Zip
Amazing feat, whichever way you look at it. And great post by Mike. Nothing more needs to be said.
AP
with his dad, all ready for his first ride on Nordic Touch in a flat race at Phoenix Park in Sept.1990. – Unplaced.
http://i42.tinypic.com/2dt6op4.jpg
Truly great sportsman and a great bloke. I’m not sure which is harder to achieve.
He always seems to want to win, not just for his vested interests, but also for punters and to bash those fiendish bookies.
Unlike Fallon, who has come across as contemptuous of punters in his interviews, McCoy comes across as the sort of bloke with whom you’d want to share a pint.
Not that I drink beer,
mine’s a Milkshake (…not a Kirsty).
Zip
Nor would AP!
What Mike said…!
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