THE HISTORIC NUMBERS
Tony McCoy retires after riding 4,348 winners in Britain and Ireland and winning 20 consecutive champion jump jockey titles. All by the age of 40 – his 41st birthday is on 4 May.
IN THE BEGINNING
McCoy’s first winner in Ireland came at the age of 17 on Jim Bolger’s Legal Steps at Thurles on 26 March 1992. His first win in England was on the Gordon Edwards-trained Chickabiddy at Exeter on 7 September 1994. Edwards said: “Mick Fitzgerald was our regular rider but he was injured with a broken collarbone, so Dave Roberts [McCoy’s agent] said he had a very good boy just come over from Ireland who was going to ride a winner.” McCoy said: “Your first winner is the most important. I was very lucky that Gordon gave me the ride and she won to get the ball rolling.”
THE LAST WINNER
McCoy’s 4,348th and final winner was Capard King at Ayr on 17 April, his 26th winner since announcing his retirement after guiding Mr Mole to victory at Newbury on 7 February.
THE MILESTONE WINNERS
1,000 Majadou, Cheltenham, Dec 1999. 1,700 Mighty Montefalco, Uttoxeter, Aug 2002 (beating Richard Dunwoody’s jumps record). 2,000 Magical Bailiwick, Wincanton, Jan 2004. 3,000 Restless D’Artaix, Plumpton, Feb 2009. 4,000 Mountain Tunes, Towcester, Nov 2013. 4,192 It’s A Gimme, Market Rasen, July 2014 (beating Martin Pipe’s record career total).
THE BIG WINS
McCoy landed the rare Cheltenham Gold Cup/Champion Hurdle double on Mr Mulligan and Make A Stand in 1997. There were also Champion Hurdle wins on Brave Inca (2006) and Binocular (2010) and a Gold Cup win on the ill-fated Synchronised (2012). Edredon Bleu’s win in the 2000 Queen Mother Champion Chase was hailed as one of the great finishes of all, as McCoy’s mount edged the gallant Direct Route. He won the King George VI Chase on Best Mate in 2002 and, after 15 years of trying, won the Grand National aboard Don’t Push It in 2010.
THE SEASON RECORD
His 289 winners in 2001-02 beat Sir Gordon Richards’s record of 269. McCoy says failing to reach the landmark of 300 winners in his final season, after a flying start was halted by injury in October, “broke my heart”. “It was the first time ever as a jockey that I felt broken,” he told the Guardian. “It absolutely broke my heart because, until then, I really thought it was on. I was riding out of my skin because I felt the hunger. I felt the need. I felt the obsession. It was always in my head but when I rode my fastest 100th winner in August the 300 became real. I always need that huge challenge. And when I got injured the goal was gone.” He finished the season with 231 wins from 827 rides.
OUTSIDE RACING
In 2003 McCoy was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours and an OBE followed in 2010, when he also became the first jockey to be voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year, beating Phil Taylor and Jessica Ennis-Hill.
THE PREVIOUS CHAMPION
The last time anyone other than McCoy was champion jump jockey? Richard Dunwoody, in 1994-95. McCoy has been champion jockey for 1,040 weeks. Roger Federer’s two spells at world No1 amount to 302 weeks and Tiger Woods spent 545 weeks as golf’s world No1. A new era will begin next season.
