ARGUMENTS will always rage in any sport when comparing the merits of stars from different eras but it will be difficult for anyone to contest the status of Tony McCoy as the finest jump jockey of all time.
Fred Winter, John Francome, Stan Mellor, Peter Scudamore, Richard Dunwoody, and a host of others will still have advocates but the current cham-pion declared his case yet again when he became the first to reach 2000 winners.
The 3-1 shot Magical Bailiwick, appropriately trained by Martin Pipe, who has pro-vided the great bulk of his winners, was the horse on whom the remarkable landmark was achieved in the Connaught Cup Handicap Chase at Wincanton. Typically, Irishman McCoy looked beaten four out but worked and worked until he persuaded the chaser to get on with the winning bit.
He returned to a rapturous reception and said: ''I'm so pleased to have got lucky 2000 times and I hope I can ride plenty more winners like that.''
He then gave an insight into why he is such a phenomenon. ''I take every day like I haven't ridden a winner before and when I go out to ride again, that is what will be in my mind. I'd like to ride another 2000. The first is history, it's past, gone. It's about riding the next 2000. I love my job and that is what is so good about it, even though I know I can be a bit difficult when things don't go well.
''I very much appreciate I'm lucky in as much as I have a great team behind me such as my agent, Dave Roberts, and I had a great grounding when coming to Britain just over nine years ago with Toby Balding, before joining Martin Pipe.''
McCoy is five ahead of Richard Johnson (142-137) in the race for the title, and he added: ''I've been champion jockey eight times and I want to be champion jockey again. As far as I'm concerned that's my job and why I ride every day.''
Pipe paid tribute to his No.1 jockey, saying: ''Tony was brilliant, as usual. He's unique in his field and I'm delighted he's got the 2000 on one of my horses as he always gives everything 110% of a ride.''
McCoy went on to make it a four-timer at Wincanton.
Irish bookmakers Paddy Power quote him at 1-6 to retain his title, with Johnson 7-2.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article