Achievement overshadows personality as McCoy awaits the nation's big vote

To horse racing devotees, it was vindication for the rider's perseverance and refusal to accept defeat as he continues to re-write the record books. They were just willing him home.

And, to the world of sport, it was a reminder that McCoy, the 15-time champion jockey, is the most successful competitor of his generation – the rider, standing up in the stirrups and waving his whip to the crowd, remains a defining image of the 2010 sporting year.

This did matter.

Yet, seven months on from winning the Grand National, the one contest that defines the racing year, the 36-year-old is already looking to the future rather than dwelling on the past.

He is not finished. Far from it. "There are more championships to win," he says. "And big races." The determination in his voice is infectious; he truly means it when he says "coming second is for losers".

And there's the small matter of the upcoming BBC Sports Personality of the Year award– the jockey is favourite to win the title 12 months after being omitted from the 2009 shortlist when his 3,000th career win was not deemed worthy of consideration.

Yet, while he is renowned for his winning rides on seemingly lost causes – equine-wise – that punctuate his career, he is powerless when it comes to the voting intentions of the sporting public later this month or the inclement weather which has ruined racing's fixture list.

"To be honest, I've not given it much thought, though it would be nice to win for racing – not myself. I'm more concerned about the freeze and when we'll race again. It's not looking good," says the champion with foreboding.

There is one blessing, however. The enforced break, now in its second week, gives time for injuries to heal, to enable the jockey to eat modestly, watch his beloved Arsenal FC and to reflect upon Don't Push It's Aintree heroics when McCoy ended his National jinx at the 15th attempt.

"I was fairly confident that the horse was enjoying himself – and that is the main thing in the National," explained McCoy.

"You can never get across to people enough how much luck you need to win the Grand National.

"I don't think, months on, that I'm any better as a jockey but I'm definitely a lot luckier than I was. You need more luck than skill."

Perched on the top tier of Aintree's packed grandstands, it was clear McCoy's green and gold striped silks – the colours of his boss JP McManus – were making effortless process.

There was a brief scare at the Canal Turn when those colours were seen hitting the deck. "Not again," a punter said to me. And then relief that it was Can't Buy Time – the horse McCoy had intended to ride.

Yet, approaching the final fence and drawing level with long-time leader Black Apalachi, McCoy was the personification of a professional while his friends and supporters held their nerve. He was oblivious to their tension.

One jump stood between the champion – and the recognition that he so richly deserved. And he was prepared for that one last obstacle

"It was like every other horse race," he told the Yorkshire Post. "It's about beating the fella beside you.

"I was concentrating so much on winning that the thought it was the Grand National did not enter my head.

"Not until 50 yards from the winning post, at least, when I heard the roar of the crowd – I'll never forget that.

"The whole reception afterwards was amazing but getting to the winning post, that was everything."

To AP – he is universally known in racing by his initials rather than his first name – the race compensated for the disappointments when riderless horses cost him possible winning rides on Blowing Wind and Clan Royal.

Typically, however, he says he is not the one deserving of credit – he lists the aforementioned McManus, the trainer Jonjo O'Neill, his family, loyal friends and, of course, the horse. "I was just the rider."

This is the real Tony McCoy, the personification of modesty. Has National success changed him? "I should hope not."

McCoy then pauses before adding: "I don't think – or I certainly hope – that I have never changed since day one."

By 'day one', he means his childhood in Northern Ireland – his father Peadar bred the 1993 Cheltenham winner Thumbs Up – and his days riding the family pony before working, as an 11-year-old at the yard of his great mentor and family friend, the late Billy Rock.

Even though he was only five stone wet through, he just had one dream. He wanted to be champion jockey. Nothing else mattered, not even school.

"It became a regular thing every Saturday morning to go the eight miles with Dad to Billy's yard," recalled McCoy.

"I couldn't, however, be roused to get out of bed at 8.15am during the week to get the bus to school, but I needed no prodding at 7.15am for my tuition at Mr Rock's."

Sometimes, the future champion would even cycle to the Rock stable in County Antrim. He would crib homework from school friends. His mother Claire would make excuses when the attendance officer called – "I don't think she knew you could only get measles, mumps and chicken-pox once," recalls McCoy.

When she refused to drive him to the Rock yard, the single-minded youngster evidently replied: "Right, get me the Yellow Pages and I'll get myself a taxi" – early evidence of the determination that runs through McCoy.

And, when McCoy did make an infrequent appearance at school, the older boys teased him: "Nice to see you turning in today, Lester."

"I've not done badly," reflects the champion on his childhood – and why he was so right to put his riding first.

"My ambition was quite simple – to be champion jockey every season I ride. It hasn't changed.

"I was champion conditional in 1994-95 and I've been lucky enough to be champion every year since then.

"If I couldn't be champion, I don't think I'd carry on – winning is what motivates me."

McCoy is so matter-of-fact and straight-forward about his achievements that they need placing in wider social context.

When he won the first of his 15 successive championships in 1995-96 – and he's on course for a 16th – John Major was Prime Minister, Bill Clinton was US President and Boris Yeltsin was leading Russia.

In sporting terms, this run of success is the equivalent of McCoy's Arsenal winning football's Premier League for 15 successive years. It just doesn't happen.

Mention of the Arsenal and he is quick to reflect on his night at the Emirates Stadium to watch the Gunners beat Wigan 2-0.

"It was only the Carling Cup but it would be nice to win it," he says. And, then reflecting on the side's five trophy-less years: "Just to win something."

This remark, perhaps, illustrates why McCoy is on a different level to other competitors – whether it be in racing or more lucrative sports like football. He is never satisfied, though fatherhood, in the form of his three-year-old daughter Eve, offers some perspective. "She doesn't count the losers that I ride."

Self-depracating, it is why he believes that sporting achievement is far more important than personality, the criteria behind the forthcoming BBC award. "It's no good if you don't win."

Warming to his theme, it is why he believes his National success was eclipsed by his victory on the unheralded Valfonic at Warwick in April 2002 – his 270th winner of an unforgettable season and one which took him past the record that had been set 55 years previously by Sir Gordon Richards.

"For me, it was how long the record had stood for," he said. "He was 26-years champion jockey and rode more winners than anyone else.

"If I wanted to do that jumping, I'd have to ride until I was 50 and even I know my limits.

"From what I have read, he was dead straight, spoke the truth and, above everything else, had the respect of his fellow men. I would gladly settle for that."

This is why McCoy's racing heroes remain Frankie Dettori, who coincidentally won his Epsom Derby at the 15th attempt, and Lester Piggott who won a record 30 Classics.

Neither, he points out, were good enough to win Sports Personality – hence why he would be "very humbled" to lift the award.

"Frankie has done so much for racing," says McCoy. "And Lester, there will never be another Lester Piggott. That says it all."

When I point out, gently, to the interviewee, that both Dettori and Piggott have said, in the past year, that there will never be another AP McCoy, he smiles. "I don't know about that," he says.

It is why, says McCoy, his next race will always be his best race – as shown by his appearance at a bracing Wetherby 10 days ago where three rides yielded three more wins.

A perfect day? "Not quite, you can always do better but I do get more enjoyment from winning now, I have got better at that over the years."

Just three days later, and he is limping into an ambulance after a crashing fall – his third of the afternoon at Ascot. "That's why you have to ride for the present."

From a man who kept secret a decade ago that he was riding – and winning – with his ankle broken in two places by telling himself "if you can walk, you can ride", he was not going to let his Ascot pain become a major hardship.

"You just get on with it," says the man who has ridden 1,000 more winners than his nearest rival Richard Johnson. Likewise, his constant battle with his weight – each day can begin and end with gruelling sessions in the sauna to keep his skeletal frame in check.

If he is riding a horse with 10st 4lb to carry – McCoy's natural weight should be 12st – the formula, he says, is simple, and one learned from painful experience. "You just don't eat a lot. That is the only way."

He's also motivated by a new generation of jockeys emerging in the weighing room. "If you don't do it, someone else will."

That said, McCoy cannot wait to be reunited with Don't Push It as they begin their journey to Aintree, and a second National tilt, in a relatively low-key hurdle – weather permitting.

"We just want to keep him sweet and make sure he does not have too tough a time," says McCoy.

"He'll probably have top weight at Aintree and no horse has won successive Nationals since Red Rum in the year I was born.

"It will be tough. I wouldn't bet on it happening again – but nothing is impossible."

Especially when the one and only AP McCoy is in the saddle.

Yesterday'S Lingfield meeting became the latest meeting to fall victim to the weather and tomorrow's scheduled races will be subject to an inspection later today.

There has been no jump racing in Britain since last Saturday and the only hopes for any materialising lie tomorrow with Exeter and Warwick, which are still frozen in places. Both will be checked this afternoon to see if the fixtures stand a chance of going ahead.

The world according to Tony Mccoy...

McCoy on ... BBC Sports Personality: "I'm flattered to be nominated. Who would I vote for? It's a tough call – Lee Westwood being world No 1 golfer is a big achievement. Graeme McDowell won a US Open and sank the winning Ryder Cup putt, but that's a team game. Lee Westwood has become the best player in the world in an era that has included Tiger Woods.

McCoy on ... Playing a round of golf with Tiger Woods: "He was just one of the lads. I found more sand than in a holiday brochure and he congratulated me a couple of times on my bunker play. But I will not be having a career as a pro golfer."

McCoy on ... his sporting heroes: "Tiger Woods, he is amazing. Roger Federer. Ryan Giggs for his loyalty to Manchester United for 20 years. Growing up, it was Liam Brady and Lester Piggott."

McCoy on ... The best horse he has ridden: "There's so many. Best Mate, Brave Inca, Master Minded, Big Buck's, Inglis Drever, Cyfor Malta, Gloria Victis. I'd have to say Best Mate – I won a King George on him and he won three Cheltenham Gold Cups. That's almost impossible. In two years, I'd like to say Binocular if he wins three Champion Hurdles. He was okay last weekend at Newbury but he'll have to improve – like the jockey."

McCoy on ... His best ride: "Probably the 2000 Champion Chase on Edredon Bleu. We were headed on the run-in by Direct Route – nine times out of 10 that's it at Cheltenham – and then got back up on the line. He was a fighter."

McCoy on... life after racing: "I've not really thought about it. If you do, you shouldn't be doing your job because you're not 100 per cent focused. There are still plenty of big races to win, and hopefully I can carry on being champion."