TONY MCCOY last night became the first jockey to be named the BBC’s sports personality of the year in the 57 years of the award.
The 36-year-old from Northern Ireland – also known as ‘AP’ – beat darts champion Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor and heptathlete Jessica Ennis to take the award, which was decided by a public vote.
McCoy’s Grand National triumph on Don’t Push It earlier this year came on his 15th attempt at the race, and he has ridden 3,383 winners. He has also suffered more than 700 falls and suffered numerous broken bones and injuries.
McCoy said: “This is an unbelievable feeling standing here in front of all these amazing people. To win this award is very surreal.
“When I started off as a jockey I wanted to be champion jockey in my mind, and I have been lucky enough to be champion jockey for 15 years.
“But the Grand National is the biggest horse race in the world and everyone knows I had won all the other races and to finally achieve that... it was just an unbelievable day.”
Fellow jockeys joined in the praise for McCoy, with Frankie Dettori saying: “In my lifetime I don’t think we will see anything like AP.”
Ruby Walsh added: “He’s dominated racing like Tiger Woods dominated golf and Roger Federer dominated tennis.”
