Turf Topics: McCoy defies odds to grasp glory

THIS will always be remembered as the Tony McCoy National – the year that the record-breaking jockey triumphed in the only race that matters to the sporting public.

Yet the euphoria that greeted McCoy, and Don't Push It, into the Aintree winner's enclosure overshadowed, in part, the achievements of the horse's trainer and owner.

For Jonjo O'Neill, who used to ride for Yorkshire legend Peter Easterby, this was his 16th runner as a trainer. As a jockey, he never completed the course on seven occasions. "The race always ends at the Canal Turn," he joked to his children as they walked the course on the morning of the race.

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For JP McManus, the legendary Irish gambler and businessman, his previous 33 runners in the race had failed to yield a winner.

With 69 failed attempts between the jockey, trainer and owner, few racing observers gave Don't Push It a chance – not one of the Racing Post's eight tipsters forecast that the horse would finish in the first four.

This is, after all, the horse who gave McCoy a horrid fall when the Sue Smith-trained Mister McGoldrick won at the Cheltenham Festival two years ago, before trailing home Ferdy Murphy's progressive Galant Nuit last November.

Yet McCoy's legion of fans had no doubts as they backed the horse down from 25-1 to 10-1 joint favourite in the most successful National gamble of all-time; one that cost bookmakers at least 50m.

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They had no doubts. And nor did their rider who, after a first mile, was as certain of the outcome as he could be aboard a horse renowned for his quirkiness.

"After a mile I wouldn't have swapped him for anything else, as he had totally taken to it," said the jockey.

"He has always had ability but is mentally unstable so the two of us get on together! He's sometimes been too intelligent but today he used his brain the right way. He made a couple of mistakes but that was my fault as much as the horse and who cares."

McCoy could have ridden King John's Castle – the JP McManus horse that refused to start. He had been leaning towards Can't Buy Time, O'Neill's other runner who crashed out at the Canal Turn amid gasps from the crowd who feared, briefly, that McCoy was on the deck. Or Arbor Supreme, who unseated Paul Townend at The Chair.

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For once, luck was on his side. In an eerie high above Aintree with Toby Balding, the trainer who brought McCoy to England in 1994, he pointed out, as the field headed out into the country on the second circuit, how well Don't Push It was travelling, with McManus's green and gold hooped silks easy to spot.

And, when they challenged long-time leader Black Apalachi at the second last, and Hello Bud, the eventual fifth following an inspired ride by 17-year-old Sam Twiston-Davies, the roar from the grandstands silenced the course commentary. There was simply no way that McCoy was to be denied – the five-length winning margin looking far more convincing from the stands than on the TV replay where one could appreciate the bravery, and willpower, of Black Apalachi in defeat.

"Come on AP, Come on AP," shouted Balding. In the heaving grandstands, racecards – and liquid refreshment – were hurled skyward before the clamour to reach the winner's enclosure to greet the victors; one of those rare 'I was there' sporting occasions.

For, while John Quinn's Character Building was a creditable seventh for Yorkshire under Nina Carberry despite the unfavourable fast conditions, and Paul Murphy's Cerium a brave 11th, this was a race where everyone was united in their admiration for McCoy.

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As Denis O'Regan, Black Apalachi's jockey, said after coming to terms with the disappointment of finishing second: "I'm so delighted for AP McCoy. If anybody had to beat me, I'm just glad it was him."

With typical modesty, McCoy tried to deflect attention onto McManus – "the best supporter that this game had had or ever will have" – and O'Neill, "an amazing trainer" who swayed him to ride Don't Push It.

In turn, McManus spoke of his jockey's brilliance and how he had not backed the winner because he did not want to place any more pressure on the rider's shoulders.

And then O'Neill spoke about his low-key role at his Jackdaws Castle stables in Gloucestershire. "The horse lives out in a field with half a dozen Jacobs sheep. I don't go near him but don't tell JP – I still charge him training fees. I am lost for words. I thought that this would never happen to me."

Or AP McCoy – the greatest jockey who by, at last, adding the greatest race to his CV of wins has silenced, once and for all, any lingering doubts about his greatness.

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