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AP McCoy: "I've got images in my head from lads going out and not coming back"

Retired jockey AP McCoy has revealed what he misses about horse racing now that he has hung up hi...
Newstalk
Newstalk

14.38 26 Oct 2018


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AP McCoy: "I'v...

AP McCoy: "I've got images in my head from lads going out and not coming back"

Newstalk
Newstalk

14.38 26 Oct 2018


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Retired jockey AP McCoy has revealed what he misses about horse racing now that he has hung up his spurs.

McCoy rode over 4,300 winners during the course of his celebrated career and speaking to Off the Ball's Eoin Sheahan and Adrian Barry, he said: "I miss winning - I miss winning more than anything else.

"As Kieran (Donaghy) or Sonia (O'Sullivan) will tell you - when you're going out in front of a big stage, and not every sports person will admit to it, you have to have an element of ego inside you that wants to perform better than everyone else on the big stage. You want it to be about you.

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"If you win the Cheltenham Gold Cup and there's 70,000 people there at the Grand National - I miss winning and I miss that. In some ways, I miss the danger and that's a tough thing to say because I saw colleagues being fatally injured and I've got images in my head from lads going out and not coming back.

"John Thomas McNamara's fall in Cheltenham - I'll never, ever forget his suit hanging up in the corner thinking 'He's never coming back' and that's something you'll live with all your life.

"But, in some ways, I miss the danger. I miss 25-runner races at Cheltenham and getting kicked all over the place and thinking 'I got away with that'," he added. 

 Listen back to Friday's OTB AM here: 

AP McCoy: "I've got images in my head from lads going out and not coming back"

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