Driven McCoy comfortable with his choice for Supreme Novices

His gaunt face is etched with the scars of battle, his hair matted together by his riding helmet. His forehead is cut. His nose is a bloody mess. His mouth is covered in dried blood while his teeth are broken in many places.

Blood has dripped down onto his chin.

Why does this blood and gore matter? Within a day of a horror fall on the way to the start on day one of Wetherby’s prestigious Charlie Hall meeting last November, the 38-year-old – his mouth numb with pain – was riding a remarkable victory at Ascot.

The horse? My Tent Or Yours, now the hot favourite for tomorrow’s William Hill Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, the traditional curtain-raiser to jump racing’s Olympics that will see 250,000 spectators make the annual pilgrimage to Cheltenham Racecourse that is snugly nestled in the foothills of the Cotswolds.

On the back of an ominously easy five-length victory over the talented Cotton Mill in Newbury’s ultra-competitive 21-runner Betfair Hurdle, the 17-times champion jockey decided to ride My Tent Or Yours over the Jessie Harrington-trained Jezki who had been ante-post favourite all winter.

With both horses owned by JP McManus, McCoy will be desperately hoping that he’s made the right decision – he has often said that an early winner at Cheltenham is the best possible confidence-booster in this sport where riders are only one fall away from disaster.

“They are first and second favourite, but I have great faith in My Tent Or Yours after the way he won the Betfair Hurdle. This was not a hard choice as I think he is a really good horse,” explained the jockey whose only previous win in the Supreme Novices’ came courtesy of Hors La Loi III in 1999.

The favourite’s trainer, Nicky Henderson, concurs and offers this assessment of My Tent Or Yours: “He is a bull of a horse and needs lots of work – you daren’t leave him for long. AP thinks the world of him.”

There had been some discussion about supplementing My Tent Or Yours into the Stan James Champion Hurdle because of his prodigious talent, but connections have opted to bide their time with a horse that appears to have limitless potential because of his speed.

This speculation also came when a grief-stricken McCoy, McManus and Henderson were still coming to terms with Darlan’s devastating death at Doncaster last month – this was a horse that also had the racing world at his feet and the jockey could not hide his emotions as he made the heartbreaking, and lonely, walk back to the Town Moor weighing room.

The gloom that enveloped McCoy was comparable to his desolation when Synchronised, his unexpected Gold Cup winner of 12 months ago, suffered a freak accident in the Grand National while running free – or when the Martin Pipe-trained Valiramix broke a leg after slipping up in the 2002 Champion Hurdle when he had the race at his mercy.

It was the same when Gloria Victis, a novice, perished in the 2000 Gold Cup while still in contention two out.

McCoy never forgets, even though he admits in the just-published paperback edition of his autobiography that he can never trust a racehorse because of the sport’s unpredictability.

After Mr Watson spooked on the way to the Wetherby start, dread became to overtake McCoy.

“I knew immediately that I had broken a couple of teeth, and my face was extremely sore,” he writes. “The doctor at Wetherby was great. She organised for a plastic surgeon to stitch me up at hospital in York, and he was waiting for me when I got there.

“He wanted to give me a general anaesthetic, but that could have meant an overnight stay so I figured I would give it a miss.

“I had a local anaesthetic and 23 stitches after I was sorted – six or seven on the outside of my lip, just to hold it together. I stopped off at the dentist on the way home. Fair play to him. It was nine o’clock on a Friday night, and he was there to put two temporary crowns in for me.

“My Tent Or Yours was running at Ascot the following day and I was desperate to ride him, but I had a red entry in the (medical) book so ordinarily I wouldn’t have been allowed to ride. But I was fine. I had no concussion, no head injury. I had to present myself to the doc at Ascot to show him that I was okay, which I did. Fortunately My Tent Or Yours won.

“Getting injured doesn’t mess with your head in the same way as getting beaten does. I am getting better at not winning now, but I don’t think I will ever be good at it.”

This assertion helps to explain why McCoy is, arguably, the most driven man in all sport. On the brink of an 18th successive jockeys’ championship, retirement looms, though not before he has ridden a 4,000th victory. Injury permitting, that landmark could come in a year’s time – McCoy is just 150 winners short of his ultimate aim.

His long-suffering wife Chanelle, now expecting the couple’s second child, disagrees about the record quest. She wants her husband to retire now “to get out with my head and my neck and my back intact”.

However she is even more unlikely to see her wish granted if My Tent Or Yours gets favourite backers off to a victorious start tomorrow.

The reason is a simple one: AP McCoy will be distraught if he misses out on a horse destined for greatness. His argument is this. He has a loving family and pays for a full-time PA and chauffeur. “All I have to do is go and ride the horses,” concludes McCoy. “I don’t think I’ve ever done a proper day’s work in my life.”

How humbling.

AP McCoy: ‘My Autobiography’ is published by Orion, price £9.99.