Tony McCoy says there is no set date for his retirement
Sunday 8 February 2015 13:51, UK
Tony McCoy admits he does not know exactly when he will call it a day this season.
The 19-times champion jumps jockey announced at Newbury on Saturday that he will retire at some point this season, but he still plans to ride at the Cheltenham Festival and in the Grand National ahead of the final day of the jumps season at Sandown on April 25.
He told Sky Sports News: "I want to hopefully be able to ride at the Cheltenhams and the Aintrees - the big Festivals - and then take a view.
"I’m not looking forward to it but I haven’t set any specific day or any specific date. I will just take it as it comes and see how it happens.
"I want to ride in the Grand National and I want to ride in a lot of those bigger races that are left in the season so I honestly don’t know when the day will come.
"It could be the last day of the season, it could be beforehand, it’s not something that I’ve set a specific day or date on."
Barring injury McCoy will be crowned champion jockey for an unbelievable 20th successive year after riding his 200th winner of the season on Mr Mole at Newbury shortly before he announced his retirement.
He added: “I was asked yesterday by the press when I first decided. I jokingly said five years ago, but in some ways five years ago I thought if I could win 20 jockeys’ championships then that would be a good achievement.
“I always wanted to try and retire while I was champion jockey, I always wanted to retire while I was at a good level, I always wanted to retire having people asking me 'why, not when' - so that’s partly the reason why.
“It’s something I love doing, it’s something I’m going to miss, but I think it’s important I retire whilst I’m lucky enough to be champion jockey.
“It’s something that I’ve dreaded the day for a long, long time, but I’ll just have to get over it at some point hopefully.
“I’ve been very lucky. I’ve lived my life doing something that I really love doing. I often say to people that I haven’t done a day’s work in my life. I’ve lived my life having the most enjoyable way of life, the most enjoyable career, so the dread is I’m not going to be able to do it anymore.
“I get a buzz from what I do. I get a bit of an adrenalin rush every morning when I get up. Every day when I go racing there’s something different. I go somewhere different every day so there are a lot of reasons I’m going to miss.
“But I think if you want to be successful at something in life you have to really enjoy it and I’ve really enjoyed my life, that’s for sure.”
McCoy insists he has not made any plans for the future after his retirement other than his intention to attend a number of major sporting events.
He said: “I always said I would never make the decision on what I’m going to do after racing until I’ve had to make that decision, and for 25 years I’ve never, ever thought about doing anything else.
“Even in the last week when I was preparing myself to make the decision I still haven’t given it a moment’s thought.
“I’m going to play a little bit of golf, go and watch a few sporting events around the world that I’ve never been able to do and what happens after that, I don’t know. I honestly am not sure.
“I love sports and I am obviously a huge football fan. I’d love to go and see Floyd Mayweather if he fights Manny Pacquiao - I’d like to go to that. I’d like to watch Rory (McIlroy) win the Masters if that was possible and I’d like to watch Arsenal win the Champions League final, but whether or not that’s possible, I don’t know!”
Watch Sporting Heroes: AP McCoy on Sky Sports 2 at 5pm on Sunday.
