TONY McCOY'S RECORD: Tony McCoy told a blatant untruth after winning his 270th race of the jumps season at Warwick yesterday. Martin Pipe, he pointed out, had provided him with almost 200 of those victories. "I'm sure," he said, "that they're horses which most jockeys would have won on."

It is simply not so, as McCoy himself had proved just a few minutes earlier. Valfonic, the horse who took him to a new all-time record for winners in a British season, was last of all as a big field for the novice handicap hurdle passed the grandstand with a circuit to run. He hit the hurdle in front of the stands, too, and was towards the back, ridden and apparently going nowhere with three flights to jump.

Yet somehow, when it mattered, Valfonic and McCoy appeared, and with something still to give. He was awkward at the second last, yet once again, the champion soon had him balanced and running. It was another winner dredged from the mud of defeat.

The victory which took him level with Sir Gordon Richards' 55-year-old record was a thing of beauty, too. Shepherds Rest, a 10-year-old chaser, always travels sweetly through his races, but often finds little when asked. McCoy's simple solution? Don't ask. He cruised and waited, then went on at the last. Shepherds Rest won, as they say, without ever knowing he had been in a race.

It is the sort of thing that McCoy has been doing week after week, a great champion in his prime, probably riding the season of his life. In their way, each of the winners paid testament to the depth of his talents. The second was about patience and cunning, the third about sheer determination, while Robin Dickin, who trained his first, Shampooed, spoke afterwards of the jockey's essential horsemanship.

"People are wrong to label him a big-stick man," Dickin said. "A more caring, tender, loving person for a horse you'd never find. Years ago I had a horse who'd taken the mickey out of a few jockeys and I told him not to worry about giving him a couple of cracks. When he got off he told me off for it, and said that all he needed was another half a mile. When he went another half mile with Tony on he won."

If anyone can be bothered, it is possible to pick a few holes in McCoy's achievement. Richards had just eight months in which to ride his 269 winners, not the 12 available to a modern jump jockey, and nor did he have an extensive programme of evening meetings to back up his afternoon rides.

Yet McCoy has still achieved a feat to stand alongside the breaking of Bob Beamon's long-jump record. He has done something which few bar himself ever thought possible, and now that the milestone is no longer around his neck, he could easily beat 300.

At his moment of triumph, McCoy was typically downbeat, and grateful to all those, from his parents on, who have helped to get him where he is. "My mother didn't like it that I didn't go to school very often," he said, "but my dad thought there was no harm me giving it a go, and he helped to make sure that I went to the right places. I started with Billy Rock, who trained near my home, and he sent me to Jim Bolger's because he thought it would be the best education for me."

And who would bet against him improving on this season's final total once again? "I've had plenty of rides this year and a tough enough season," he said, "but no tougher than a lot of lads that are struggling up and down the country. It's going to be tough to beat it again," he said, "but I'm going to start racing again in May and I'm not going to think that it's never going to be beatable because it is. Every record is beatable and there's always going to be someone coming along who'll do it better than you."

That, many would say, is another blatant untruth.