McCoy reaches magical 3,000th

JUMPS RECORD:TONY McCOY'S pursuit of sporting history threatened to descend into muddy farce in Plumpton yesterday, but the tireless determination that has made him the punters' greatest hero finally pulled him through.

In freezing rain and gathering gloom, McCoy drove Restless D’Artaix to victory in a novice chase and took his career total to 3,000 winners over jumps, just half an hour after crashing out at the final flight on Miss Sarenne with victory apparently assured.

Some jockeys would have given up and gone home after that disappointment, but not the indefatigable McCoy. He looked gaunt, having starved for two days to get down to 10st 4lb, his absolute minimum, in order to ride Miss Sarenne. Despite that effort going to waste, though, he grabbed his latest piece of history at the next opportunity.

In some ways, Plumpton was a poor stage for such a momentous racing occasion. There were just a few hundred racegoers to mark the moment, and the horses were splashing through large puddles on the track by the end of the afternoon. Had McCoy not been pursuing his record, the meeting might well have been abandoned.

Yet it was appropriate too, since it is at tracks like Plumpton, and on miserable afternoons like this one, that McCoy has compiled his immense total. For every winner at the Cheltenham Festival or at Aintree, there have been dozens at the smaller tracks, where McCoy has been riding seven days a week and often for nearly 52 weeks in a year, for nearly 15 years.

McCoy latest landmark figure now sits alongside other records such as his total of 298 winners in the 2001-2002 season. It is now more than six years since he overtook Richard Dunwoody’s career total of 1,699 winners, and his last major ambition is to ride a Grand National winner before he eventually retires.

What drives you on, McCoy was asked as he was mobbed by fans and autograph hunters in the winner’s enclosure after his landmark win. “The fear of someone else riding more winners than me,” he answered, though he remains in love with the game too. “It’s very easy to be driven on when you love doing something,” he said.

“It doesn’t take much incentive. I’m flattered by all the attention there’s been, it makes it feel like an ever better achievement.

“I feel very privileged, and I think of the jockeys that have ridden before me and were probably every bit as good as me if not better, and haven’t ridden that many winners. I think my mum and dad will be very proud, and when my daughter grows up, I can tell her that I was an alright jockey.

“There’s been a lot of hard work and a lot of miles to ride 3,000 winners, and hopefully there’s plenty more to come,” he said.

It was not just the Plumpton racegoers who gave McCoy a rousing reception as he returned on Restless D’Artaix. The weighing room too erupted in applause as the champion returned to the scales.

• Guardian Service