AP McCoy believes he "had more failure than anyone else" and recalls being called "the losing-most jockey of all time".
The legendary jockey rode over 4,300 winners during an incredible career, in which he was crowned champion rider 20 times.
But McCoy claims he had more failures than successes and was never content during his career in the saddle.
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He told William Hill's new podcast, Up Front with Simon Jordan: “I had more failure than anyone else. The day I retired there were headlines on how great I was and my 4,357 winners and Richard Johnson, runner up to me as the Champion Jockey for 16 years, looked at me and said, ‘not one person has mentioned the 14,000 losers you rode, you’re actually the losing-most jockey of all time’.
"You do lose more than you win but I had a thing that I had to make sure I won more than everyone else, and I used myself as my benchmark and if I could beat what I had done previously then I would be hard to beat.
“I used to come home and watch replays. I spent more time watching the races that I didn’t win, trying to work out why I didn’t.
"I rode for a man called Martin Pipe, who was the most successful Jump trainer ever, and I used to write reports about his horses every night and other horses that weren’t even his because I thought I could learn from it and look back at it. I know that those are things that made me better.”
McCoy added that he always wanted more, no matter how many races he won, and was never satisfied during his career.
He explained: “For the 20 years of my life as a jockey I don’t think I was ever content, I was never satisfied, and I always wanted more. I went to a sports psychologist when I was 24 because I thought it might make me better, and no disrespect, but it didn’t make me better because I never wanted to be okay with not winning. I wanted to go to bed at night miserable when I was bad at what I was meant to be good at.
“What helped me a lot is I was good at being level when I won and when I lost and taking praise and criticism equally. But you have to appreciate and enjoy the big days like a Cheltenham Gold Cup or Grand National win, and I think there’s an egotistical part in every good sportsperson. Tiger Woods knows that even though now he’s 47, there’s going to be more people wanting to watch him than all the other golfers put together.
“I was always in the moment, but I enjoyed the torture of the build-up and the drive to get there. I was Champion Jockey for 20 years in a row, but I only got enjoyment out of being Champion Jockey for the two or three weeks before I held up the trophy because numerically no one could beat me, and I had three weeks of feeling like I was Champion Jockey. As soon I held up the trophy at Sandown and then put it back down, it was gone.
“I wanted to be different. When I went into the jockeys’ changing room I looked around and, not in an arrogant way, I want to be better than everyone in here. If you’re at Crystal Palace as a footballer, you should be walking into the changing room thinking I want everyone to think I’m the best. I had people saying to me ‘why are you traveling four hours to Sedgefield just to ride in one race?’, and I’m thinking, ‘it’s because I want to and if you want to beat me, you’re going to have to do it as well.’”
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