The Greatest Jockey You've Probably Never Heard of!

(Matt: Bumped to the front.)

Anthony Peter McCoy, also known as Tony McCoy or even simply as AP to racing fans in the UK and Ireland is one of the very rare sportsman that can be described as a ‘living legend’ who continues to break records that no other jockey will ever come close to equalling.

He is a name that may not be too familiar with racing fans stateside but none the less, he is someone who should be brought to the attention of any fan of the sport, anywhere in the world, for this jumps racing jockey is re-writing history books every time he rides another winner.

In simple terms, McCoy has been crowned Champion Jockey in the UK on 15 occasion; he has ridden well over 3000 winners from over 13,000 races and has travelled in those races the equivalent of 1.25 times around the world! He holds the British record of 289 wins in a single season which he achieved in 2001/2. At the end of 2010 he added the coveted BBC Sports personality of the Year award (equivalent to the ESPYS) to his list of honours and achievements, becoming the first jockey to do so.

2010 also saw him win a first ever Aintree Grand National, the richest handicap steeplechase in the world, with a purse of $1.5million when he rode Don’t Push It to victory for his boss JP McManus and trainer, Jonjo O’Neill. His other big wins of the year include the Champion Hurdle on Binocular, the Ryanair Chase on Albertas Run and completed a full house of National wins when taking the 2010 Welsh National at Chepstow on Synchronised (also for McManus and O’Neill), although that race was ran in 2011 after being rearranged due to the poor weather in December. Although McCoy is a freelance jockey, he is contracted as lead jockey to millionaire Irish businessmen and racehorse owner JP McManus, who has horses being trained with a variety of stables in the UK and Ireland.

McCoy has now ridden the winners of virtually every major race in the UK’s National Hunt and has ridden plenty over in Ireland too and all before his 37th birthday which does not come around until 4th May.

Of course you do not become the greatest jockey in the world unless there has been several pain barriers breached and McCoy can certainly testify to breaching a few of those. In those 13,000 rides, he has fallen nearly 700 times and has broken bones such as his middle and lower vertebrae, both shoulder blades, several ribs, ankle, cheek, wrist, leg and has had a few teeth knocked out or chipped. Like many jockeys, he has to be extremely mindful of his weight which means that his diet and general fitness has to be strictly controlled and worked into an exhaustive daily/weekly routine which takes him all over the country seven days a week.

A typical day in the working life of Tony McCoy would be a 5am start, travel to stables; these might be close at hand or the other side of the country! He will ride out or school a few potential mounts before making his way to wherever he is riding that day. Being a freelance jockey, McCoy is in constant demand, very often having the pick of several runners in any given race. Freelancing however does come with its disadvantages of course; he only rarely is given the opportunities to ride Cheltenham Gold Cup winners, as these top graded races are usually won by the big stables that have an appointed stable jockey. For instance champion trainer, Paul Nicholls has Ruby Walsh, Nicky Henderson has Barry Geraghty and Nigel Twiston-Davies has Paddy Brennan.

Tony McCoy was awarded an MBE in the 2003 Queen’s Birthday honours list and has since been made an OBE in 2010. The next stop at Buckingham Palace might well be to become Sir Tony McCoy and why not there are very few in sport who has achieved anything like this man has!

Whilst McCoy will never be inducted in to the National Museum of Racing’s Jockey Hall of Fame, he is certainly worthy of recognition by the racing public for his achievements in the sport and horsemanship that continues to dazzle racing fans across the Atlantic in Britain and if you didn’t know about him until now, you won’t regret watching some of his work on youtube!

Tony McCoy Tribute (via AtTheRacesUK)