The turf
Double ton McCoy
Robin Oakley
He is the Unreal McCoy. As we applauded the champion jump jockey back to the winner's enclosure at Kempton after the Voice Newspaper Adonis Juvenile Novices Hurdle, Martin Pipe said of his stable jockey in the understatement of the year: 'He does give them an edge. It's nice to have him on our side.' The victory Tony McCoy had just scored on Fataliste at 3-1 Pipe described as 'a brilliant front-runner's ride' and so it had been, despite the nor- mally insuperable handicap of carrying my biggest bet of the day. But what was so incredible was that- on only the last day of February Fataliste was McCoy's 200th win- ner of the season. The only other jump jockey ever to have scored a double ton was Peter Scudamore (also with Pipe as his main employer) and he took until 27 April to do it.
The grin above that craggy McCoy chin told its own story. Here is one of the fittest young men in any sport at the pinnacle and enjoying it. Just about every third horse on which he gets the leg-up comes back off the course into the winner's enclosure: his strike rate is over 31 per cent. But there was a story too in the tautly stretched skin across the cheekbones and the deathly pal- lor of a face belonging to a man who lives much of his life outdoors. To put his achievement into perspective we need to consider a few other statistics too. Fataliste was Tony McCoy's 641st ride of the season.
According to a few sums on my rusty cal- culator the champion jockey has this sea- son ridden more than 1,500 miles at racing pace. He has jumped at least 5,000 hurdles or fences in the process. He will drive some 80,000 miles a year to get around to the racecourses, let alone the mornings riding work for the other trainers who employ him. And to keep a 5ft llin frame at a rac- ing weight, all this has had to be done on one meal a day plus the occasional mug of soup and some sugary cups of tea. Surely no other sports star achieves as much on so little intake.
Nor do they take the risks which McCoy does every time he goes out on a horse. I have no tally of the number of times he has fallen this season. Nor, I suspect, has he. Jockeys do not dwell on that aspect of their lives. But I recall one week not so long ago when he had five falls. And one of the fac- tors in McCoy's driving determination is surely the realisation that this is a career which can always be tragically cut short with your very next ride: the retirements with shattered limbs in recent weeks of both David Bridgwater and Mark Dwyer are testimony to that.
McCoy is a phenomenon. When he arrived from Northern Ireland in 1994 he had never ridden in a steeplechase. That year he won the conditional jockeys cham- pionship and he has been champion senior jockey in the two seasons since. The great John Francome reckons him the best jock- ey he has seen. I certainly rate him one of the bravest: if his mount has even the ghost of a chance he will never fear to ask a tired horse for a big one at the last. He is bold, committed and aggressive. As Martin Pipe was saying on Saturday, 'He goes out with confidence', and, although McCoy, fright- eningly, is probably still short of his peak as a rider, he has that precious ability to transmit that confidence to his mounts. We must enjoy him while we have him, and may it be for a long time yet.
Fataliste may now go for the Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham, although Pipe reck- ons him better on a right-handed track. Owners Trevor and Christine Painting were on their way back from Mauritius as McCoy brought him home and it will be up to them. 'I'm glad they're back,' grinned Pipe, not a man who wouldn't think it worth the bending to pick up a tenpenny piece. 'I can't afford to send many more faxes.'
If anybody had a grin wider than McCoy's last Saturday it was Robin Dickin, who had chosen bravely to give his exciting first season chaser Kadastrof yet another outing in the Emblem Steeplechase. Other bigger yards might have been keeping such an exciting prospect in cotton-wool until the Cheltenham Festival after his close sec- ond to Ask Tom on his previous outing. Dickin agreed that the textbook way might have been to confine him to a gallop on the flat at Newbury. 'But that might have con- fused the horse. After all, he is a profes- sional flat-racer too.' And so the textbook was torn up.
Worried that the eight-year-old entire might get too full of himself and charge the first fence at Cheltenham, he chose the bold course of running again at Kempton and was rewarded with a facile victory. Kadastrof clearly enjoyed himself and remains one of my banker bets for Chel- tenham. He'll now be 'sent out to play' until the Festival while his able trainer enjoys a series of sleepless nights. But do not dive in ante-post. Robin Dickin still has not decided whether his stable star will go for the Arkle or the Queen Mother Cham- pion Chase. He says that he hopes that any of those who have plunged ante-post on his horse for the Arkle will forgive him, but if it looks nearer the time that he can win the Champion Chase that is what he will go for. Not a betting man normally, he has backed his horse for the Arkle. 'But what's a tenner at 25-1 if on the day he can be a champion?'
Robin Oakley is political editor of the BBC.
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