Tony McCoy
Tony McCoy
Sir Anthony Peter McCoy OBE, commonly known as A. P. McCoy or Tony McCoy, is a Northern Irish former horse racing jockey. Based in the UK and Ireland, McCoy rode a record 4,358 winners, and was Champion Jockey a record 20 consecutive times, every year he was a professional. He stands 1.78 m, taller than most jockeys...
NationalityIrish
ProfessionHorse Jockey
Date of Birth4 May 1974
CountryIreland
accept arsenal believe enjoy given golf good hit honestly horse matter overall playing suppose watching
I suppose I'm happy when I know I've given a horse a good ride, no matter where it is. I like playing golf in the summer; I'm happy when I hit a good shot, and I enjoy watching Arsenal playing beautiful football, but overall I can't believe you can be happy when you're not winning. I honestly can't accept that.
lads rarely
Really racing is about the horses, not me. You can't do it without the horses, and they are the big players as are the lads who look after them, and they rarely get a mention.
naturally sports
I think I'm skilful enough, but I don't consider myself a naturally talented, gifted sports person.
horses marked whip
I think I've always used the whip in the correct way. I see marked horses every day, and it's not a pretty sight, but I've never marked a horse. Never.
bar bath chocolate diet home hot hour lie might slice station stop
Most days, I have a slice of toast, then lie in a hot bath for an hour to get up a sweat. I have a sauna at the racecourse and then go and ride. On the way home, I might stop at a service station and have a bar of chocolate and a Diet Coke. And that's it, basically.
chance
I was told that there's near on a million to one chance that I would be able to have children.
god laziness ride serious
When you give someone a commitment to ride their horse, you do it - unless, God forbid, something serious has happened. It would be laziness not to do it.
bath draining exhausting experience few injury lengthy periods pounds shed sides spending tough
There are many tough sides to being a jockey. Injury is something we all dread, but spending lengthy periods in the bath or the sauna just to shed a few pounds can be an exhausting and draining experience.
anyone asked meet
When I was a kid, if someone had asked who I'd meet if it could be anyone in the world, it would've been Liam Brady.
advice deal diet found given good largely people time trial
I have found the right way to deal with my diet, largely through trial and error, but also by having good people around me all the time, and they have given me the right advice for my body.
affects failure fear middle thrill
I don't know which is stronger: the thrill of winning or the fear of failure. I don't know which one affects me most. I don't know where the middle is.
becomes easier feed flow mind next regular whether worth
If you've got a regular feed of winners, you control your mind to do it. It becomes a must. If you didn't have that regular flow of winning, whether you could get yourself to do that, I don't know. It's a lot easier when you know the next day you can win and you can win and win, it's worth doing it.
certain disappear freedom soon
I get butterflies before going out to ride every day, but they disappear as soon as I am on a horse, and I think that is the same for most jockeys. Then it is just down to you and the horse, and there is a certain freedom in that.
I dream up things, and then I convince myself that they're possible.