Getting to 1000 winners in a career in Britain seemed out of reach for jumps jockeys until Stan Mellor broke the mould in December 1971.
So who could possibly have thought, nearly 40 years later, that figure would be quadrupled as Tony McCoy bagged his 4000th over jumps in Britain and Ireland.
With an unparalleled determination to succeed in every race, whether it be a selling hurdle at Newton Abbot or the Cheltenham Gold Cup, McCoy, who retires after racing at Sandown on Saturday, rewrote every record in the book.
From his 1994/5 debut season in Britain, McCoy ruled the National Hunt game, bagging title after title to make him undisputed champion for the past 20 years, smashing records along the way and bouncing back from some serious spills with the minimum of fuss.
Other notable landmarks included the most successful season in history, an amazing 289 winners in 2001/02, and the overtaking of Dunwoody’s all-time record total of 1699 winners in August, 2002, to become the most successful jump jockey in British history.
The Ulsterman won the biggest races, too, landing the rare Cheltenham Gold Cup/Champion Hurdle double on Mr Mulligan and Make A Stand in 1997 and the King George VI Chase on Best Mate in 2002.
His Grand National victory aboard Don’t Push It in 2010 not only ended his 15-year hoodoo in the race, but helped him become the first jockey to win the coveted BBC sports personality of the year.
His father Peadar may have been a joiner by profession but, like many in the Emerald Isle, he kept a few horses as a hobby, his ‘hobby’ horses having included future Cheltenham Festival winner Thumbs Up.
McCoy realised young that his future lay in racing and quit school at 15 to join Jim Bolger’s yard.
Though he still saw himself as a jumps jockey in the making, his new boss wanted him to stick to the Flat and was reluctant to let him ride over hurdles.
McCoy got what he described as a “lucky break” when he broke his left leg, causing his weight to balloon and forcing even Bolger to concede his future lay over the sticks. Soon after came the opening that allowed him to set the British racing world alight.
In the summer of 1994, he joined British trainer Toby Balding.
McCoy took to British racing straight away and rode 74 winners in his first season, running away with the apprentice jockeys’ championship. Many a young rider struggles once losing his right to claim, and fails to confirm the promise of his early career. But not McCoy.
Beating old ally Martin Pipe’s career record of 4191 winners was another personal landmark and this season looked like it might produce the magical 300-winner mark that McCoy so craved, but an injury lay-off meant that was not to be.
