AP McCoy

[screenexile]

How much credit should the jockey get when it's the horse that's doing the running?

All 4000 of those horses must have pure class. Just watch the win yesterday for your answer.

Surely your man must have a point though - only in Ireland would your greatest ever sportsman be one who gets to the finish line on top of an animal. 

All a matter of opinion and where you rate certain sportspeople above others in terms of the merits of their particular sport.

Harrington, DJ, O'Dricsoll, Kelly, McGuigan, Katie Taylor even would all have a claim of being Ireland's best ever sportsperson

I was taking you seriously until 'Katie Taylor' 

Best in the world at her sport. . . surely she has to be on the list!

[Tony Baloney]

How much credit should the jockey get when it's the horse that's doing the running?

All 4000 of those horses must have pure class. Just watch the win yesterday for your answer.

Surely your man must have a point though - only in Ireland would your greatest ever sportsman be one who gets to the finish line on top of an animal. 

All a matter of opinion and where you rate certain sportspeople above others in terms of the merits of their particular sport.

Harrington, DJ, O'Dricsoll, Kelly, McGuigan, Katie Taylor even would all have a claim of being Ireland's best ever sportsperson

I was taking you seriously until 'Katie Taylor' 

Best in the world at her sport. . . surely she has to be on the list!

Sure that's like saying someone is the best ladies footballer or camogie player when the overall standard of the sport is pish... 

*ducks for cover*

[deiseach]

Katie is one of our greatest Olympians.

[highorlow]

if you read his book you would be amazed at some of the stories

Aye great book.

Gives a great insight to anyone (myself included) that has no understanding much about the skill involved in riding how rare these lads are and the dedication and risks they take.

The stories about him mitching from school and going to his 1st trainers yard (can't think of trainers name) and how no jockey in the yard senior or junior could handle this particular crankey horse until wee Tony got up on him and controlled him, he was only 12 or so!.

[deiseach]

Not DJ Kane or Gary Kelly?

DJ Foran.



(No need to comment on Kelly.)

[highorlow]

For dedication, commitment, ability, skill, bravery, longevity and winning everything in his sport that was on offer AP must be on of the greatest ever individually.

Only the like of Christy Ring would compare, but he was part of a team.

[Milltown Row2]

Katie is one of our greatest Olympians.

Michelle Smith??

[deiseach]

Katie is one of our greatest Olympians.

Michelle Smith??

I would say no. But your mileage may vary.

[gallsman]

Katie is one of our greatest Olympians.

Michelle Smith??

Only in Jimmy Magee's eyes.

[nrico2006]

You have different criteria to bring into this argument such as how global is the sport in question and how does the individual rank in the overal hierarchy?  You have:

- Mc Coy, who relies on a horse to do most of the work.  One of the best jockeys about but again how global is the 'sport', has all his winners not been mainly in the UK and Ireland against other UK and Ireland jockeys?  If he is the best, how many jockeys is he actually competing against?

- Harrington, who won multiple majors in one of the most global sports with a huge number of participants.  Definitely in with a shout. 

-  Katie Taylor, dominates her weight class in a minority sport that is largely unpopular around the globe.

- McGuigan,  won a world title but didn't hold it long.  Was he really the best in the world at his weight? 

- Kelly/Roche, both near the top of the cycling world in a sport that is pretty global.  Roche has to be in with a shout.

- O'Driscoll, one of the best players in the world in his position but again in a minority sport that is only taken seriously by a handful of countries.

- McIlroy, 2 majors already at a young age in a huge global sport.  Nationality up for debate.

- Best, arguably the greatest footballer to ever come out of the UK and Ireland and possibly the greatest European footballer ever.  Is he Irish though?

[gallsman]

You have different criteria to bring into this argument such as how global is the sport in question and how does the individual rank in the overal hierarchy?  You have:

- Mc Coy, who relies on a horse to do most of the work.  One of the best jockeys about but again how global is the 'sport', has all his winners not been mainly in the UK and Ireland against other UK and Ireland jockeys?  If he is the best, how many jockeys is he actually competing against? Prior to McCoy, only one other jockey had ridden 200 winners in a season. McCoy has done it 7 times. To eclipse McCoy (if he retired today), someone would on average have to have 200 winners for 20 seasons.

- Harrington, who won multiple majors in one of the most global sports with a huge number of participants.  Definitely in with a shout. 

-  Katie Taylor, dominates her weight class in a minority sport that is largely unpopular around the globe. Boxing is unpopular? Four time world champion. Ireland's only legitimate Olympic gold medalist in 20 years.

- McGuigan,  won a world title but didn't hold it long.  Was he really the best in the world at his weight? Briefly, yes, in a time where you became the man by beating the man. In this case, a long reigning legend.

- Kelly/Roche, both near the top of the cycling world in a sport that is pretty global.  Roche has to be in with a shout. Drugs cheats the two of them

- O'Driscoll, one of the best players in the world in his position but again in a minority sport that is only taken seriously by a handful of countries.

- McIlroy, 2 majors already at a young age in a huge global sport.  Nationality up for debate.

- Best, arguably the greatest footballer to ever come out of the UK and Ireland and possibly the greatest European footballer ever.  Is he Irish though?

[Milltown Row2]

Katie is one of our greatest Olympians.

Michelle Smith??

I would say no. But your mileage may vary.

Strange some craic in Ireland when she won, seemed a lovely girl

[Hardy]

McCoy is a phenomenon that almost defies description. I don't think I've ever heard anybody utter a negative syllable about him and this universal admiration seems to be justified by the accounts of all who know him.

On a side issue, I'm puzzled. Maybe some of our fitness/diet enthusiasts here can help. We keep hearing about AP's diet - dinner only four times a week, the smell of an oily rag for lunch, etc. We hear the same about most jockeys. Lester famously lived on coffee and cigars. My problem is this. To maintain a certain weight, you need only balance energy intake (food calories) with energy expended (exercise and exertion). To achieve that balance, the typical adult male who takes a reasonable amount of exercise needs to consume about 1,800 to 2,200 calories per day. That would be three normal meals.

Athletes typically need to consume much more than this just to fuel their physical effort and maintain a constant, healthy weight. That is, whether you weigh seven stone or seventeen stone, if you engage in competitive physical activity you probably need from 2,500 to 4,000 calories, depending on your sport and level, just to maintain your seven or seventeen stone. Yet it seems that AP and the other jockeys are surviving on not much more than 1,000 calories per day, while conducting a very physically vigorous life. In theory they should be malnourished and continue losing weight until they waste away. What am I missing?

[Premier Emperor]

How much credit should the jockey get when it's the horse that's doing the running?

All 4000 of those horses must have pure class. Just watch the win yesterday for your answer.

Surely your man must have a point though - only in Ireland would your greatest ever sportsman be one who gets to the finish line on top of an animal. 

All a matter of opinion and where you rate certain sportspeople above others in terms of the merits of their particular sport.

Harrington, DJ, O'Dricsoll, Kelly, McGuigan, Katie Taylor even would all have a claim of being Ireland's best ever sportsperson

I was taking you seriously until 'Katie Taylor' 

Best in the world at her sport. . . surely she has to be on the list!

...Amateur boxing. How would she fare in the professional game?

[maddog]

You have different criteria to bring into this argument such as how global is the sport in question and how does the individual rank in the overal hierarchy?  You have:

- Mc Coy, who relies on a horse to do most of the work.  One of the best jockeys about but again how global is the 'sport', has all his winners not been mainly in the UK and Ireland against other UK and Ireland jockeys?  If he is the best, how many jockeys is he actually competing against?

- Harrington, who won multiple majors in one of the most global sports with a huge number of participants.  Definitely in with a shout. 

-  Katie Taylor, dominates her weight class in a minority sport that is largely unpopular around the globe.

- McGuigan,  won a world title but didn't hold it long.  Was he really the best in the world at his weight? 

- Kelly/Roche, both near the top of the cycling world in a sport that is pretty global.  Roche has to be in with a shout.

- O'Driscoll, one of the best players in the world in his position but again in a minority sport that is only taken seriously by a handful of countries.

- McIlroy, 2 majors already at a young age in a huge global sport.  Nationality up for debate.

- Best, arguably the greatest footballer to ever come out of the UK and Ireland and possibly the greatest European footballer ever.  Is he Irish though?

Roche (whatever the speculation) achieved something only every done by Eddy Merckx (Tour of Italy Tour de France and road world championship in one season).  But for injury he would have won a lot more.
Have huge respect for McCoy, was stood by the open ditch in a novice chase (near sure it was the same day as the Omagh bomb) on the back straight at Stratford upon Avon. The horse ploughed into the fence and catapulted McCoy into the air - 15ft easily. He landed with a fair old thud - going was firm for sure that day as it was baking hot. He got up and tore his helmet off and fired it into the ground in a temper, pure frustration at what he said was his own mistake in asking the horse for a big leap at the fence. He marched off across the course back to the weighing room for his next ride. No one was asking him for autographs at that point with the head he had on him.
A hardy buck.