Scott on a crusade to rally support for McCoy

His routine will be the same – whether it be a routine afternoon at Wetherby, or Uttoxeter, where he will be riding today, or a big race day at Cheltenham, the scene of so many magical McCoy moments through the years.

The 36-year-old – his face gaunt and etched from years of sweating and bone-crushing falls – will spend up to two hours in the sauna so he can attain a racing weight that is one-and-a- half stones lighter than it should be.

Having donned his racing silks, he will then invariably be the last jockey to leave the weighing room. But, while other riders might ignore requests from well-wishers, he will religiously sign racecards and photos – even if he is late meeting connections in the paddock to discuss tactics.

It is a process that is repeated before and after every race, even if the 15-times champion jockey has suffered the ignominy of an unexpected defeat and is in no mood for small-talk.

Meeting the paying public's expectations come first, even with a 16th successive title uppermost in his mind.

It is why Brough Scott, the former commentator and Racing Post editor who has just chronicled McCoy's career in a compelling new book inspired by the jockey's career-defining Grand National win aboard Don't Push It last April, believes the rider has not reached wider recognition for his accomplishments. "The thing is that he is a thoroughly decent human being."

Scott, who hopes that his brilliantly illustrated book can galvanize television viewers to vote for racing's greatest ambassador in this year's BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards, hopes his insight can shed some light on McCoy's phenomenal success and longevity.

"I first met him when he became champion conditional in 1995 – and don't forget that he has since won the jockeys' title every year since then, 15 successive titles," said Scott.

"He was riding for Toby Balding, who invited me to spend the night at the stables, and then spend the day with the young tyro. There was Toby, his wife, myself and this young boy who was about 20 or 21 for dinner.

"He was very polite, quite funny and self-denigrating and then schooled horses the next day and went racing. I just marvelled at his workload, determination and how he fought against his weight.

"Despite all his successes, he remains the same, polite individual."

This is a man who has ridden over 13,000 races. He has won more than 3,000 races, more than any other jump jockey in history, and has now won virtually every major race in the calendar – even though the Grand National required 15 attempts. His dominance, says the author, is greater than Lester Piggott on the Flat at the peak of his powers.

Yet, outside the close-knit racing community, McCoy is largely unrecognised by a wider public that worships over-rated footballer or those 'heroic' sporting failures – tennis player Tim Henman is one such example – that have come to epitomise Britain.

"As sport should be played, he's both implacably hard and utterly fair," says Scott, who believes the jockey's low-profile could be attributed to a teetotal lifestyle and hours dieting in saunas so he is not featured in nightclubs and on the news pages of the tabloid media.

"Most people can't do that. To succeed as a sportsman, most people think you have to be brutally competitive but not a decent human being. McCoy is both. He is the hardest of the hard – but decent at the same time. He's also improved year after year."

Scott compares McCoy to sporting peers like Ryan Giggs, last year's Sports Personality winner; Sheffield world champion heptathlete Jessica Ennis and golfer Graeme McDowell, the Northern Irishman and US Open champion who described himself as a "legend" after winning the Ryder Cup for Europe.

Unlike McDowell, Scott says McCoy would never be presumptuous enough to use a phrase like "legend" to describe himself.

He also says the Ryder Cup was a team event that was bigger than one individual, however talented.

And while all three, he says, are extremely successful and likable individuals – in comparison to the scandal-hit England footballer Wayne Rooney for example – they have not been the undisputed No 1 in their sport for 15 successive years. That, he says, needs highlighting.

They also, says Scott, have not had to "live off a diet of fresh air" and risk permanent injury every time that they compete.

"That's the difference and why we should do far more to admire McCoy's achievements.

"Giggs won Sports Personality last year because Manchester United got out its vote.

"Around 800,000 people watch racing on television on a Saturday afternoon – they all need to be persuaded to support this icon so that he gets the recognition that his successes deserve."

The former presenter of Channel Four Racing, who rode 100 winners himself as a jockey, says charting the jockey's career has been therapeutic, although editing so many great feats was far more challenging than he had envisaged.

In particular, says Scott, it has reminded him how this jockey has evolved from a rider who was over-dependent on the whip to one of this country's most sympathetic horsemen in history.

"The iron fist has become the velvet glove – he is a beautiful, beautiful rider."

It is why, says Scott, the sporting public should appreciate this record-breaker while they still can. He does not have that many opportunities left to win Grand Nationals – or light up midweek meetings at Wetherby with his never-say-die attitude, treating every race as if it is the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

"Don't ever under-estimate what happened at Aintree in the National," added Scott as he described how the rider, for once, allowed his raw emotions to show and said his young daughter, Eve, could hopefully be proud of her dad when she grows older.

"As McCoy looked up in the stands and pumped his fists high in triumph, he sealed a pact not just between himself and his sport, but between that sport and the nation.

"The world could truly see the diamond we have at the very heart of things. The roars that echoed around Aintree had a unique sound.

"In 40 years reporting at Aintree and further afield, I have never heard the like of it – not at Twickenham or Wembley, not when Severiano Ballesteros walked up the 18th at St Andrew's, not even when Usain Bolt trotted round the stadium that first incredible night in Beijing.

"For in none of those other places was there quite such a sense of how much a life had been on the line."

Win or lose, Tony McCoy is the same – the man who continues to make racing history, and defy medical science as his skeltal frame bounces back from injury after injury, because he believes that winning is all the matters.

The first to play down his achievements, he is the first to assist an injured jockey – or help racing charities with his time or financial generosity.

"He's a phenomenon, and if the sporting world better understood him, he would have been Sports Personality winner six times over. It's time that we put that right," added Scott.

Brough Scott is a racing journalist and author of 'McCoy', published by the Racing Post, price 20.