Sir Anthony Peter McCoy OBE (born 4 May 1974), commonly known as AP McCoy or Tony McCoy, is a Northern Irish former horse racing jockey. Based in Ireland and the UK, McCoy rode a record 4,358 winners, and was Champion Jockey a record 20 consecutive times, every year he was a professional. He stands 1.78 m (5’10”), far taller than most jockeys.
McCoy recorded his first winner in 1992 at age 17. On 7 November 2013 he rode his 4,000th winner, riding Mountain Tunes to victory at Towcester. Even in his first season riding in Britain, as an apprentice for trainer Toby Balding, McCoy won the Conditional Jump Jockeys Title with a record 74 winners for a conditional jockey. McCoy claimed his first Champion Jockey title in 1995/96 and went on to win it every year until his retirement in 2015.[1]
McCoy has won almost every big race there is to win.[ His most high-profile winners include the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase, King George VI Chase and the 2010 Grand National, riding Don’t Push It.[3]
He was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2010, becoming the first jockey to win the award,[ and in December 2013 he was named RTÉ Sports Person of the Year. He was knighted in January 2016.
