The end draws near
If as a sportsman you have reached such fame that you are known by just a handful of letters then it is certain your legacy is a proud one. Internationally you have icons such as Pele and Messi, while in Ireland Henry or Sean Óg is enough to distinguish whom you may be speaking about.
And into this category falls probably the greatest jumps jockey of all time.
AP McCoy or Tony as some like to call him, will call it a day this weekend when he rides for the final time at Sandown. The Antrim native announced back in February that he would be quitting at the end of the jumps season, and after failing to get the ideal send off at Aintree will complete a remarkable career at Sandown.
Ahead of that final appearance the champion jockey has been looking back at his career and he’s set to appear on the new series of The Clare Balding Show which airs tomorrow night at 9.30pm on BT Sport 2.
On the show he reveals his fear of the unknown ahead of what will be final ever appearance at a race track as a jockey. He also admits that he wanted to quit while still at the peak of his powers,
‘I’m dreading it, yes. I would like to, the thing that I’d love to do is to be able to do it all again, so it is. I’ve often said, I said it recently, that I’d love to change my name and go back riding and be in the next season again and carry on as normal but I think the position that I was lucky enough to be in, I think the most difficult thing is to walk away when you are still performing.
‘It is very difficult for a sports person to walk away when you are still performing before the dip comes or people think he’s maybe not as good as he was or someone else might have had a chance of being champion jockey, I never wanted that to happen. I wanted to be brave enough and have enough bottle to walk away when I was still champion jockey.’
The Irishman had previously said that if he had won the Aintree Grand national on board Shutthefrontdoor that he would have quit there and then. As it was he came home fifth on board the hot favourite in his final ever bow at Aintree. McCoy admits the emotion of the day finally caught up with him in the weigh room many hours after the race itself,
‘I’ll tell you when was the most emotional part, I went to the owners and trainers bar, I was quite late leaving the races, I had a few family there, my wife was there and lot of her friends and she decided that they wanted to go in and see the weigh room after the racing. I said okay, I’ll bring you into the weigh room and anyone who wins the Grand National has got a plaque, mine was 2010, above your seat and gradually as age has gone on over time my seat was out the door which is not a good place to be because that means you are next one out. I said to the girls and their husbands, this is where I sit and my wife went, no, that’s where you used to sit. And that was the most emotional part of the Grand National, so it was.’
‘But as I said up until, really up until after the Grand National I was really wrapped up in my job, I was lucky enough to win on Jezki and Don Cossack the two days before the Grand National so I was still a jockey, you know. It was only really after the Grand National, on that evening, that I thought I’m nearly not a jockey anymore.’
The emotional rollercoaster continued last week as McCoy took his final ever rides around Cheltenham.
The jockey secured just one win at the famous March meeting but his final trip to Prestbury Park and leaving the course was according to the jockey a very difficult journey
The Antrim man is also hoping his son stays well away from the horses and instead strays towards a safer life as a footballer or golfer
.@AP_McCoy tells @clarebalding he’d rather his son grow up to be a footballer or a golfer than a jockey. #TheCBShow http://t.co/YKddnOtola
— BT Sport (@btsport) April 22, 2015
AP McCoy was speaking ahead of his appearance on the new series of The Clare Balding Show. To see the full interview watch BT Sport 2 from 9.30pm tomorrow or on BBC Two at 10pm on Friday.’
