I know from sitting around with injuries how difficult life will be without racing and riding winners. – 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 suppose I’m happy when I know I’ve given a horse a good ride, no matter where it is. I like playing golf in the summer; I’m happy when I hit a good shot, and I enjoy watching Arsenal playing beautiful football, but overall I can’t believe you can be happy when you’re not winning. I honestly can’t accept that. – Tony McCoy
If summer racing didn’t exist, I could go on holiday, yes, because nobody else would then be riding winners; but as long it goes ahead, I’ll do it for the reason that I want to ride more winners than anyone else. – Tony McCoy
I’ve always got a sweet tooth. I have chocolate hidden in places that nobody knows about. – Tony McCoy
You need fear and doubt to drive you on. Without it, you end up living in the past and being happy with what you have achieved. – Tony McCoy
My first winner was on Legal Steps, in Ireland, at Thurles, in March 1992. I rode for Jim Bolger, and his stable jockey was Christy Roche. – 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 convinced myself that it can win and will be disappointed if it doesn’t. – Tony McCoy
For eight or 10 years, I got wrapped up in chasing records. Everything was a number. Didn’t matter what I won, it was a number. Every horse I rode was a number. – 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
In my opinion, the power of the mind in sport is vital. If you can overpower those physical risks mentally, you can get your body round it physically. I’ve made my body do things because of my mind that it shouldn’t have been able to do. – Tony McCoy
It’s not hard to motivate myself because once you get a taste for winning races, you simply don’t want to do anything else. You get a buzz from it. You want it every day. Only someone who has experienced winning can understand how good it feels. – 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 have found the right way to deal with my diet, largely through trial and error, but also by having good people around me all the time, and they have given me the right advice for my body. – 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
The criticism does not hurt because I have always been my own worst critic. I wouldn’t say I don’t respect other people’s opinions, but my opinion is the most important. – Tony McCoy
It always hurts a bit to pick the ‘wrong one’ in a race as big as the Champion Hurdle, and then, to make matters worse, you go and get beat by the horse you rejected. – 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
You only worry about your head or spinal column. Everything else, some way or another, will repair in time. – Tony McCoy
A helmet is the most important part of any jockey’s kit because of the number of falls you take, so I wouldn’t want to be wearing anything on the track unless it had been thoroughly tested. – 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
I am quite hard to live with, and I know that if I go through a bad run, I’m not the best company and am best left alone. But I’m not nearly as bad as people like to make out. – 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
I think I’m skilful enough, but I don’t consider myself a naturally talented, gifted sports person. – Tony McCoy
