Quotes by Tony McCoy

About Tony McCoy:

Anthony Peter McCoy is an Northern Irish former horse racing jockey, based in the UK and Ireland. He was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2010, becoming the first jockey to win the award. In December 2013, he was named RTÉ Sports Person of the Year.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

If you break your sternum or your ribs, you can still move. It's going to hurt, but if you can cope with it, you'll do it.

Tony McCoy

When I was 18, I broke my leg, and my shin came right through - like I had two knees.

Tony McCoy

When I was a kid, if someone had asked who I'd meet if it could be anyone in the world, it would've been Liam Brady.

Tony McCoy

I never had a written contract, was never officially a stable jockey.

Tony McCoy

No matter how long I go without riding winners, I know in the back of my head that I can ride.

Tony McCoy

I probably don't look healthy, but I have never got to the stage where I thought I was going to pass out.

Tony McCoy

The National is about however long it takes to run that race - eight minutes of fame - but champion jockey is about racing 365 days a year. I actually wouldn't swap any of my winners for the National.

Tony McCoy

If I go racing tomorrow and I have five rides that all get beaten, all I want to do is get out there the next day and put it right. I hate having Sundays off; I hate having any day off.

Tony McCoy

I was determined my 4,000th winner would be in the green and gold colours of J. P. McManus and trained by Jonjo O'Neill, who have been my greatest supporters.

Tony McCoy

I have seen countless colleagues struggle to come to terms with retirement. I learned a lot from Richard Dunwoody when he was riding, and I completely understand why he took off and undertook what most people consider mad challenges.

Tony McCoy

If you ask most trainers who have ridden which pressure is greater - watching your horse or riding it - they will tell you it is harder watching it because you have no control over what happens.

Tony McCoy

I think I've always used the whip in the correct way. I see marked horses every day, and it's not a pretty sight, but I've never marked a horse. Never.

Tony McCoy

Horses are like people - they have different personalities. They can be nice, friendly and hard-working, or awkward, difficult and lazy. If horses were people, some would be on the dole, and others would be entrepreneurs.

Tony McCoy

By the nature of the sport and the danger we face daily, we are very close knit. Some of us have spent most of our lives together. To give you an example, having spent two decades sitting next to Richard Johnson and seeing him virtually every day, I ...

Tony McCoy

There are many tough sides to being a jockey. Injury is something we all dread, but spending lengthy periods in the bath or the sauna just to shed a few pounds can be an exhausting and draining experience.

Tony McCoy

I get butterflies before going out to ride every day, but they disappear as soon as I am on a horse, and I think that is the same for most jockeys. Then it is just down to you and the horse, and there is a certain freedom in that.

Tony McCoy

From a public perspective, the Grand National is the biggest race of all, and not to have won it yet is definitely a failure. But there's been a lot of jockeys every bit as good and better than me that haven't won it - John Francome, Peter Scudamore,...

Tony McCoy

I don't know which is stronger: the thrill of winning or the fear of failure. I don't know which one affects me most. I don't know where the middle is.

Tony McCoy

I am disappointed when I don't win, because I want to believe I can win on every horse I ride, which is a ridiculous thing to think. Even if I'm on a horse that I have woken up thinking has no chance, by the time I've reached the course, I'll have co...

Tony McCoy

Many of us in the jockeys' room are wasting to ride many pounds below our natural weight, but all the while you are doing that, you also want to ensure that you are as strong as possible so that you can give your mount every possible chance in a race...

Tony McCoy

When I started off riding, you dream about being champion jockey. Then I wanted to be champion jockey again. Then I wanted to ride 200 winners in a season. Then, when there was a chance of riding more winners than Richard Dunwoody, that was my goal.

Tony McCoy

Author Bio

  • NameTony McCoy
  • Descriptionjockey from Northern Ireland
  • BornMay 4, 1974
  • AwardsOfficer Of The Order Of The British Empire