AP McCoy

He deserves it. What a remarkable jockey he has been.

"Yeah, ma stats are great, Richie - (CHOKE) - goodbye ya ar$es..."

"Er, ah mean Rishi - whatever - ah'm chuckin it - sniff - two hunner blah blah chuckin' it...there'll be no more of that..."

I remember him when he was just Tony McCoy

A_T

Back to seabrooks then

Living Legend

Why has he jacked it in?  Always thought he was a quitter.

He's getting out in one piece, that can't be easier as you get older. I  gave up laying and backing his mounts years ago, could never get them right. His strength can't be denied, but his will to win sometimes waves goodbye to common sense when approaching fences in a tight finish. You can't lift half a ton of horseflesh over a fence, and if you get the stride wrong when you're almost flat out, you either go down or make a right faux-pas of it and lose the race.

Imo, he was never able to present horses at fences the way Francome did. John could see the stride 4 paces out, and either took a tug, or let it run. Be interesting to see how many fallers they had as a percentage of their rides in chases.

He couldn't match AP in a finish but his mounts always ran and jumped well for him. He was a great jockey to watch.

You`ll miss him when he`s gone.

Really thought his single mindedness meant he would retire after riding 5000 winners about 4 years away.

Forty years old and still the world's greatest athlete after two decades of fractures, pain and starvation.

Hi Mitch et al
Would be nice if Dickie got the title in 2015/2016 to be the 1st Englishman since Scu 20 odd years ago.
I fear that McGuire or Coleman might knock him back.All the best to AP though what he's been through with injuries is
staggering along with all NH jockeys.
Its amazing that you don't hear more stories of Jocks hooked on Hillbilly Heroine ie Oxycondone etc.

Was Mccoys first jockey championship a tie with Scud who then retired for the season so McCoy could be joint winner or was I imagining it

That share was with Francome I tink

Cheers I know it was a while back so I was bound to get my facts wrong !

Scu had a season-ending fall in April 1982. Francome caught him up in June and then took no more rides so that they tied on 120 winners.

AP was an 8 year old at the time. How does pumpy get the gigs on so many quiz shows?

Not many more than 100 winners or so used to secure the title of champion jockey in those days!

No racing in May,June ,July or Sundays may have affected that.

For AP Fans... radio 5 live are doing a special hour long programme today from 1.30 from leopardstown.

#Leopardstown: @bbc5live live tomorrow from the Dublin track where retiring AP McCoy in action from 12; McCoy special from 1-30

Cornelius Lysaght

enjoy

He couldn't match AP in a finish

Surely you mean McCoy looked more stylish in a finish?

How can  horse run faster than it can run?

Or do you mean that Francome couldn't get a horse to run flat out and McCoy can?

sick of hearing about this already - why not just retire instead of saying you're going to? loved the the way Scu went rode a winner at Cheltenham (?) then said "that's it" - noone expected it.

Sweet Duke at Ascot, trained by N Twistin' Devious.

Great to see McCoy milking it for all it's worth at Leopardstown. Laughing, punching the air, soaking up the cheers after twenty grim, gaunt years of Mondays at Plumpton.

Fwiw my opinion is that Francome, like any rider from the era before Adrian Maguire and AP McCoy changed the game, would barely ride a winner now.

And the betting markets will go crazy now until he retires,
more that likely he will get at least one winner a meeting until the final day.
but one thing he was the best of the best at doing,he was determined to be champion year after year and had a closed mind to anything else.
no doubt he deserves his fame and is without a shadow of a doubt he was the greatest of them all.

I will have to rename my hound.

I don't think he will appreciate being called Rupert somehow..

Blimey I thought he was DEAD

Would have been a great man even if he never sat on a horse.

My hound is very much alive and kicking Mc Moon..

Bodil you're Deluded my friend

Quite like the Rupert thing though tbh

When you grow up McM....

yep I will be too ... doubt i'll make it that far but am learning young

Didn't intentionally slight you McM - he would have been great whatever career chosen.  I'm a cynic and take no prisoners.  You still have hope (and lots/some of it), btw, at least superficially.

No problem & sorry i didn't mean to insult you either (disagree slightly though)

My hope is diminishing by the day & not sure i wish to continue in this corrupt world much longer , i respect you old guys but at least you had a fighting chance , what will my generation of pensioners bee likes

You need a good kicking (not about our imaginary disagreement).  Youth (as in not being old) is priceless.  Pretence is a valuable commodity.

so the plan is to imagine being 39 forever , it's kind of an odd number (not a prime) don't you agree

I want to poke your eyes out. 

When it's gone it's gone.  So much is spread before you. 

The slow heat death of the universe.

Mutter ...

They had a list of top 10 jockeys ever (in the paper, yesterday) and McCoy was number 1, ahead of Piggott ; they have got to be havin' a laugh ; he is not even the no.1 jump jockey riding today ; if you had a big chance with your horse in the Cheltenham Gold Cup or Grand National, you'd prefer to have Ruby on it...ffs...garbage list...