---
title: "McCoy wishes he could “go back riding”"
canonical: "https://readhorseracing.com/2017/03/06/mccoy-wishes-go-back-riding/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Daniel Archer"
section: "News"
published: "2017-03-06T13:51:52Z"
modified: "2017-03-06T14:01:05Z"
---

# McCoy wishes he could “go back riding”

20-times Champion Jockey Sir Anthony McCoy has revealed just how much he misses race riding and would love to make a return to the saddle.

McCoy rode 4,358 winners over Jumps in his superb career which included 31 victories at the Cheltenham Festival including two Cheltenham Gold Cup wins on Mr Mulligan (1997) and Synchronised (2012).

McCoy started his career with trainer Jim Bolger but after moving to England struck up a formidable partnership with trainer Martin Pipe with the duo taking many big race scalps which included the 1997 Champion Hurdle on Make A Stand.

McCoy then became stable jockey for owner J P McManus and trainer Jonjo O’Neill and went on to enjoy many great days in the famous green and gold silks. He now works as a pundit on ITV Racing and part of McManus’ Racing team.

However, in a revealing interview with the Daily Mail, McCoy made clear that he would love to be back riding and in many ways hinted, that he wished he hadn’t retired.

McCoy said: “I’d love to be starting again. I’d love to have it all ahead of me. I’d love that. I think I’d be a lot better.

“I have moments all the them when I wonder if I did the right thing. I schooled two horses at Jonjo O’Neill’s yard, More Of That and Minella Rocco. Both of them are running in the Cheltenham Gold Cup later this month. I’d have given my arm to be riding one of them in the Gold Cup.

“Very few sportspeople go out at the very top. It’s a hard thing to do. It kills you. I was always stubborn enough to say this was my choice and this was what was going to happen.

“There are a lot of moments when I think I retired too early. But I’m too stubborn to go back. I’d rather suffer and think I had a good time – too stubborn to admit I might have made a mistake. It kills me that I retired but in a way I know it was the right thing.”