All the tributes to A.P. McCoy's 4000 winners echo the same admiration of the dedication, the will to win, the single-mindedness and even the somewhat reluctant star in the spotlight. As my tribute I show here my copy of The History of Fontwell Park signed to me by the great man.
The poll in the Racing Post identifies Wichita Lineman's Cheltenham win as his best ride which was one of many that surely no other jockey would have worked at and galvanized to such a success from a horse who, let it be remembered, did at least his fair share of the work. Battle Hymn at Ascot several years ago was a similar one I remember because I had backed it and that's what it's like in racing - one remembers one's own winners for money. And so slightly less strenuous and more easily achieved wins were some of my favourites like Black Jack Ketchum in the Novice Stayers Hurdle at Cheltenham and At Fisher's Cross last year.
I was not one that was too dismayed when Clan Royal was very unluckily forced out by a loose horse in the National. A.P. was going ominously well at the time but it was one of my National wins that year and so you win some and you lose some.
As McCoy well knows because a few years ago at the Festival, race after race went by, then a day and another day without a winner and his expression was increasingly more on the grim side of taciturn. It might have been the year that Valiramix died in the Champion Hurdle which didn't help.
Synchronized and Darlan were two other high profile fatalities in recent years and then one might have to temper the adulation with the opinion that perhaps he didn't succeed as substitute jockey on Denman either.
All of which downside is only to balance the successes with some trials and tribulations, to say that it wasn't all a picnic in the park and that, in the words of Lester Piggott (when explaining a defeat to an owner), he couldn't come without the horse.
4000 winners at a strike rate of, let's say very roughly, 25%, is 16000 rides which will virtually all have been at least two miles and often more than that. So that is likely to have been more than 40000 miles with a fence every couple of furlongs and although obviously with the advantage of riding one of the best horses most of the time, it will have been done quicker on average than anybody else went.
So, a driven man, a modest man, a record that surely to goodness won't ever be beaten and thanks very much for signing the book that day. It was Stubbsy that picked it up and asked for me. I wasn't actually there.
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So, are we going to back A.P. to celebrate tomorrow. Not for the nap, we're not, no.
Saturdays at Wincanton at this time of year can turn into Paul Nicholls benefits and he is delivering the winners, most noticeably on Saturdays, at present. And so we will see what price the bookies put up about star novice chasing prospect Wonderful Charm and then, if that's not going to be exciting enough, scrutinize the prospects of Far West. One of these, or maybe something else, will be in bold letters here later this evening.
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That Wincanton Hurdle at 2.05 looks a cracking race in prospect and the bookies don't seem to agree yet. Ladbrokes go 7/2 Far West and 5/2 Melodic Rendezvous, and there are two other serious contenders, whereas Paddy goes 11/4 joint favourites.
But Paddy is 6/4 Wonderful Charm at 3.15 and even though he has already shortened up Third Intention from 11/4 to 5/2, that's the nap and there's a double in there for anybody in an adventurous mood.