Champagne-free McCoy not finished yet
The 14-times champion endured plenty of ribbing from Paddy Brennan and Tom Scudamore in the aftermath of his Liverpool triumph, but the Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle-winning rider is not contemplating the easy life just yet.
The man who became the first to partner 3,000 winners last spring partied long into the night in Liverpool after the 10-1 joint-favourite provided him a first National win at the 15th attempt – but not one drop of champagne crossed his lips.
“Amazing isn’t it,” said the 35-year-old after posing for pictures with his daughter Eve, wife Chanelle and trainer Jonjo O’Neill at the bottom of the trainer’s Jackdaws Castle yard this morning.
“I didn’t get home until 5am and have only had a couple of hours sleep.
“I had a few Red Bulls to keep me awake, but this is a surreal feeling.
“If I liked the taste of champagne I might have had some, but I don’t even like the taste. I didn’t get to see many of the boys after the race, but Tom Scu and Paddy Brennan kept asking me when I am going to retire.
“I do hope that one day I wake up and say that this isn’t for me before I make a fool out of myself.
“I love what I do and hope for my own mental state that I do wake up like that one day, but I fear something will drag me down.
“But I live in the future, not the past. The season starts again in two weeks and I want to be champion jockey again and I want Binocular to win the Champion Hurdle again.”
McCoy’s failure in the National had dominated the build-up in recent years with a trio of third-place finishes the best he had previously achieved.
“For the last 14 years I have left Aintree thinking I will never win the National,” he said.
“Every year I have then gone back and started to convince myself that it is possible.
“After jumping five or six fences yesterday I thought it can happen and the more we went on the more confident I became.
“Don’t Push It has always had a bit of class and I knew that if he took to it then he could win.
“The way he jumped the first few fences I knew we had a chance of winning.
“Each time I pulled him out and showed him daylight he kept picking up and he gave me the impression he would stay.”
The racing world and media at large have joined to celebrate McCoy’s achievements.
He has twice been in touch with his close friend Ruby Walsh, whose bid for Grand National glory ended when he fell and broke his arm earlier in the afternoon.
And he even took a call from Frankie Dettori who rang with his congratulations having put to rest his long-standing Derby ghost aboard Authorized in 2007.
No tears were present this morning, but McCoy was uncharacteristically emotional when chatting to the television cameras on pulling up. He added: “Crossing the line I could not believe it. Martin Pipe and Ted Walsh were two of the first people to congratulate me.
“They are two of the biggest people in jump racing and to see the joy in their faces made me emotional. It was very special.”
