McCoy’s double dream

The cold seeps deep into our bones, and darkness begins to roll across Lambourn, the small village which calls itself the Valley of the Racehorse, but Tony McCoy is already high in the sunlit hills of his latest ambition.

“You’ve got to dream, don’t you,” the gaunt and pale champion jockey says as, his eyes flashing with piercing intensity, he confirms that, today, he will attempt to complete the rare double of winning both the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Grand National in the same year on the same horse.

McCoy plans to ride Synchronised, “an ugly duckling’’, to victory in the Grand National over the brutal jumps of Aintree. Last month McCoy produced one of the supreme performances of his extraordinary career when he transferred his own courage and resolve into Synchronised’s surprising win in the Gold Cup.