McCoy recognises himself in driven Roy
McCoy, who this year chalked up the 4,000th win of his incomparable career, describes the Roy Keane/Patrick Vieira documentary Best of Enemies as “the best show I’ve seen on TV”.
But the 39-year-old, who is renowned for his iron will to win, says Keane’s revelation that he was driven by fear of failure struck a “worrying” chord.
“I love Keane, even though I’m an Arsenal fan and I love Patrick Vieira,” says McCoy in an interview to be published in tomorrow’s Irish Examiner.
“I’m not saying I’m Roy Keane or anything, he was such a brilliant footballer. But I saw a lot of similarities, let me tell you. I don’t know whether I should be proud of saying that or not.
“Sometimes you think, ‘God, do people think maybe I’ve as many demons as poor old Roy has?’ And, again, the worrying thing is that I probably have. I sat there and watched that interview and I could easily have sat and looked in the mirror all the way through it.”
Despite having broken 40 bones over the course of his career, McCoy says he has never feared injury.
“The only thing I worry about is being no good,” he says. “Fear of failure — that’s the worst.”
In a remarkably candid interview, the man from Moneyglass also talks about how his fixation with becoming champion jockey made him such a selfish and moody person that it threatened his relationship with his then girlfriend, now wife, Chanelle.
Now the besotted father of two young children, McCoy also explains why he is glad he went public about his and his wife’s decision to successfully undergo IVF treatment, after a doctor had informed him that his daily regime of piping hot baths — part of the jockey’s attempt to keep his weight in check — meant he was unlikely ever to be a dad.
