AP McCoy: Twenty-time champion jockey was 'only happy on a horse'
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A familiar sight to race fans as AP McCoy celebrates another winner
Twenty-time champion jockey AP McCoy says he was never satisfied or content despite winning 4,358 races in a record-breaking career.
The Grand National winner from Northern Ireland retired in 2015.
"The only place I was happy was on a horse - the moment I got off it I was the most insecure person in the world," McCoy told Sportsound Extra Time.
"I was never content - I was never satisfied. The fear of failure must always outweigh everything else."
He added: "I think any sportsperson who wants to have any longevity or a period of time when you want to be successful, you can never be satisfied, you can never be content, there's an element where you can never be happy."
The 46-year-old, who has welcomed the return of racing after the Covid-19 lockdown, rode in more than 16,000 races and suffered an estimated 1,000 falls in a remarkable career.
Short-lived joy
"The moment I picked up the Champions Jockey crown at Sandown it was over," said McCoy.
"The only time I was champion jockey was on that night - or a few weeks earlier when it was numerically impossible for somebody to beat me, but from the moment when I woke up on the Sunday morning I'm back to zero, I'm the same as everyone else.
"I rode five out of six winners at Ascot in 2002 - I was really happy but when I got into the house I was thinking about the one horse I was beat on - by the time I went to bed I was worried that I might never ride five winners again in my life.
"So I had nearly taken the enjoyment out of what I had done, because I wanted to. I wanted to wake up the next morning and try to be better today than I was yesterday."