Former champion jockey Tony McCoy still craves racing’s danger
McCoy: ‘I’d give it all back for another go’ ‘It’s hard to say but I miss the danger’
TONY McCOY doesn’t miss the wasting to make a racing weight but he craves the thrill of winning again, the ‘danger’ of ‘living on the edge’ as a jump jockey.
For over 20 years, through 4,358 winners, that was McCoy’s life, balancing on the abyss, not knowing what was around the next bend, or over the next fence.
It was part of him, the crushing falls, the ‘kicks in the balls’, and he can’t shake the feeling, even in retirement.
‘You know that film about James Hunt, Rush, where he said, “the closer you are to death the more alive you feel”, well, it’s true.
‘I miss the routine, the discipline. I miss winning more than anything else, and this is a hard thing to say, I miss the danger.
‘I miss living on the edge, the excitement of it. The sportsperson is the only person to die twice.’
McCoy, 44, is no longer a professional jockey and is carrying two stone more than he used to in his prime.
Still square of jaw, he aches for a return to those days, when he was number one in the weigh-room and on the track. Because being an ex-jockey is no fun.
He will be at Cheltenham next week, working for ITV and for the JP McManus team, but he’d rather be getting a leg up, heading into battle in his silks.
Last Sunday, he was riding on a racecourse for the first time in two years and allowed himself a crazy thought.
‘I rode around Newbury with a horse I was half-thinking of buying. I was with a few of the lads who are riding next week, like Nico De Boinville.
‘And I’m thinking, “Why can’t I go to Cheltenham next week?” I genuinely thought that.
‘I was a bit low going home that afternoon, thinking “Maybe I did retire too soon” but I know I didn’t. I know it was the right thing to do.
‘The problem with sportspeople is that other people see that they are not as good as they were before they do. I didn’t want that to happen to me. Yet if you asked me tomorrow could I go to Cheltenham and ride, and no-one would know it was me, I’d do it, no problem.
‘Just to walk out there, sneak out, I’d do it in a flash. For all that I was lucky to achieve, I’d give it all back for another go.’
McCoy, in Dublin yesterday to promote Virgin Media Sport’s coverage of the Cheltenham Festival, is more open and engaging now than when he was booting home all those winners.
He candidly admits he wasn’t a pleasant person to be around back then.
‘Early doors, I know that I was very selfish, non-intentionally being rude. But I genuinely thought that this was about me.
‘You are so driven that you actually think that everything is about you, and you’re trying to keep yourself happy. You don’t care what anyone else thinks.
‘As a sportsman you’re in a selfish bubble, all you think about is you. The biggest problem is trying to satisfy yourself. Imagine Roy Keane living with Roy Keane.’
Returning to Cheltenham, no longer a main player, has been an eye-opener for McCoy.
‘Going back there for the first time, you don’t know where the toilet is. You’re looking around, you’re trying to get through the crowds, thinking: “Jesus, the amount of people here.”
‘Then you get to the toilet, and there’s a queue and you’re thinking: “Really?”
‘I genuinely never realised the enormity of Cheltenham until I finished riding.
‘I used to go into the weighroom at 10 o’clock before anyone was there. I’d sit down, read the paper and I wouldn’t do anything.
‘I was the most unsocial person. It was like “Don’t ask me, because I’m not doing it.”
‘When I was riding, if someone said “When you finish you’ll be on TV”, I didn’t think “Oh, great, I’ll go on TV.”
‘What it has done, is it has helped me go to Cheltenham Festival and given me a purpose, given me a reason, not walking around wondering what I’m going to do with myself.
‘It does make it easier, mentally, because it is something you will always miss.’
At Cheltenham, where there is a life-size statue of him — ‘for the birds to shit on,’ he says drily — McCoy will be on the outside, looking in.
A part of him desperately wants McManus to be successful, but it aches that he won’t be on board, especially as the team is bulging with talent.
‘About two years ago, I was down in Martinstown with JP and I said to him “Were you just waiting until I retired before you got all these good horses?”
‘And he said: “Sure, I didn’t need good horses when you were riding for me.”
‘He has a way of making you feel better.
‘He has the best team of horses going to Cheltenham that he’s ever had. Hopefully, he’ll have a lot of winners.’
McCoy had more winners in his career than anyone — in his time. It has come and gone, as it does for all those in the arena.