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
knows nobody places
I've always got a sweet tooth. I have chocolate hidden in places that nobody knows about.
champion dreamed fear life people sports win
Essentially, I am a dreamer. I've dreamed all my life. When I started, I dreamed I'd be Champion because it is a sport that is all about the people who win the most, and I have a fear of not winning.
doubt drive fear living
You need fear and doubt to drive you on. Without it, you end up living in the past and being happy with what you have achieved.
begins convince illnesses ordinary serious talking
A lot of healing is in the mind. I'm not talking about serious illnesses like cancer. I'm talking about ordinary broken bones. Healing begins in the head. You have to convince yourself you can do it.
difficult life riding sitting
I know from sitting around with injuries how difficult life will be without racing and riding winners.
love
I've appreciated every winner. I love them all.
compared formula involved minority people racing sports though
Even though people involved in racing think that it has a big sporting stage, it is a minority sport compared to some of the other high-profile events: football, Formula One or golf.
repair spinal time
You only worry about your head or spinal column. Everything else, some way or another, will repair in time.
champion chance dream jockey richard ride riding winners
When I started off riding, you dream about being champion jockey. Then I wanted to be champion jockey again. Then I wanted to ride 200 winners in a season. Then, when there was a chance of riding more winners than Richard Dunwoody, that was my goal.
christy jim jockey legal rode stable
My first winner was on Legal Steps, in Ireland, at Thurles, in March 1992. I rode for Jim Bolger, and his stable jockey was Christy Roche.
buzz good hard motivate simply taste understand winning
It's not hard to motivate myself because once you get a taste for winning races, you simply don't want to do anything else. You get a buzz from it. You want it every day. Only someone who has experienced winning can understand how good it feels.
falls kit thoroughly unless wearing
A helmet is the most important part of any jockey's kit because of the number of falls you take, so I wouldn't want to be wearing anything on the track unless it had been thoroughly tested.
injured
When I'm injured, I eat everything - proper junk. That's the one thing about being injured so much, I get to treat myself.
broke flat gordon jockey jumps record richards season sir successful
Sir Gordon Richards was the most successful jockey - flat or jumps - there's ever been: champion jockey for 26 years. He set a record of 269 winners in the season 55 years before I broke it. That was my greatest achievement.