AP McCoy: A serial winner and an unmatched champion jockey

Tony McCoy riding Mountain Tunes celebrates after winning the Weatherbys Novices’ Hurdle Race for his 4000th winner on November 7, 2013 in Towcester, England.

Horse racing isn’t normally the type of thing you’d expect to find printed prominently on an Indian sports page, but then the story of Anthony Peter McCoy isn’t only about racing. It is about a jockey whose journey transcends his league and permeates into the realm of impossible sporting feats. It is simply a great tale that needs to be narrated, even if we did not have a category to post it under, for it tells you of the great spirit that binds us all to the glorious religion of sport. In winning his glorious career’s 4,000th (yes, that isn’t an error) race at Towcester this Thursday, McCoy has given the impression of being a sporting legend that deserves to be celebrated in the same breath as a Roger Federer, Sachin Tendulkar or Michael Jordan.

The great jockey’s 4,000th victory came in spectacular fashion at a small town in south Northamptonshire. Mountain Tunes was trailing Panama Petrus and Kris Spin as they approached the final obstacle. Somehow McCoy got the horse to gather steam even as they climbed up a hill to rein in the leaders and claim victory by half a length and send a few thousand racing enthusiasts assembled at Towchester into a celebratory tizzy. But then they have come to expect constant success from a man who has reigned over his sport for an undefeated 936 weeks and counting.

For starters, Jump Racing or National Hunt Racing, as it is known, is an immensely popular sport in England, Ireland and some parts of France. Jockeys get plastered with showers of slushy mud and put their limbs on the line in the pursuit of pride and honour. They ride a horse over hurdles and open ditches as they navigate the rough and tumble of wicked courses that test the strength and agility of the horse and the ability of the jockey to control the pace and stride of his mount.

In what is a brutally demanding sport, Tony McCoy has thrived relentlessly for the past twenty-four years. racking up wins with inexorable consistency. Jump racers suffer devastating falls at speeds touching 40 kph, and McCoy has suffered a fall nearly once in every 16 races to end up undergoing virtually every injury you might imagine possible.

He has broken literally everything that could be in a fragile body, many times over. Falling off a galloping horse over a 1,000 times can do that you. During a career spanning over 15,000 races, McCoy has broken both his collarbones, vertebrae, thumb, leg, tibia, fibula, ankle, cheekbones, wrist, arm, shoulder blades, teeth and ribs, punctured his lungs and cut his lip.

But virtually every time, McCoy has defied the doctors by setting himself impossible rehabilitation targets and going on to achieve them. If it took spending hours in a -149c cryogenic chamber, so be it. He is the kind of racer who is willing to do whatever it takes to get back on a horse and race away into the distance, as soon as he can get out of the recuperation room.

Since his first year as a professional in 1995-96, Tony has been the champion every year for the past 18 years. Yes, every year during that period of time. Peter Scudamore, who owned the previous best mark, was champion jockey for a relatively modest 8 seasons. Now an incredible 20 titles and Martin Pipe’s mark of 4,182 trained winners are within sight.

At the beginning of the year, AP, as they fondly call him around the stables, was nursing himself back to shape after a nasty fall at Cheltenham during the end of season races earlier this year. When he returned at Ludlow, he was trailing Jason Maguire by 16 races. But he has long overhauled the competition to set himself firmly on course for a 19th champion jockey title.

Yet, not everything has come easy for McCoy. Just as it took 15 attempts for Frankie Dettori to claim the Epsom Derby, it took the same number of attempts for AP to finally win his maiden Grand National in 2010. The Mirror suggested that bookmakers lost an incredible £50m thanks to his unlikely victory riding Don’t Push It.

He also won the other most coveted jump racing trophy – the Cheltenham Gold Cup – an incredible fifteen years apart. McCoy rode Mr Mulligan to victory in 1997 and sprang a surprise by repeating the trick mounted on Synchronised in 2012. Already a winning jockey, McCoy received a huge boost to his career when paired with 15-time champion trainer Martin Pipe. That and his relationship with JP McManus have proved to be the fuel that has driven his success.

McCoy has already enjoyed a staggering amount of success, but none of that shall please him as much as a feat he achieved in 2001-02. That was the year in which the northern Irishman overhauled the legendary 1947 mark of Gordon Richards. During that prolific season, Tony had won 289 races, which was 20 more than the previous mark of the Englishman. He was also decorated with the Lesters (racing’s equivalent of the Oscars), an impressive 20 times, an unmatched feat again and incredibly valuable, considering that these nominations are made by fellow professionals.

As much as the numbers are staggering, it is the indefatigable spirit, the iron will and the intense desire to continue winning that define this 39-year-old veteran warrior. His feats of endurance are not just legendary for racing, but represent a human endeavour that needs to be celebrated among the collection of the greatest achievements in sport.