Tony McCoy - 2010 BBC Sports Personality
Grand National winning jockey takes BBC prize – Phil Taylor comes second, Jessica Ennis third
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McCoy, who this year fulfilled a career ambition by winning the Grand National, on Don’t Push It, could not have looked more surprised to win.
“To win this award is very surreal,” he said, having last week won the sports journalists’ award. “I’ve got so many people to thank I don’t know where to start. I work in a wonderful sport in horse racing, I know they’ve probably spent half the night voting for me, so thank you to them.” That was a reference to the sport’s drive to bolster his vote.
Phil “the Power” Taylor, the 15-times world darts champion, was second with 10.33% of the vote from 72,095 calls. Taylor said “that’s the happiest I’ve ever been coming second” and went on to make a more serious point, that just being in the top three was a “first” for his sport. The world and European heptathlon champion, Jessica Ennis, was third for the second year in a row, polling just under 9% of votes. The heavyweight world champion boxer David Haye, absent from the ceremony with flu, received the lowest number of votes, 7,538.
McCoy has ridden more than 3,000 winners and has claimed just about every big race in the National Hunt calendar, including the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle and King George VI Chase.
However, it was his first victory in the John Smith’s Grand National on the Jonjo O’Neill-trained Don’t Push It in April that finally endeared him to the wider public.
It was a triumph that saw McCoy, 36, allowed his emotionless guise to slip following so many agonising failures in the world’s most famous horse race at Aintree in April.
He waved his whip to the crowd in sheer delight at the relief of ending his Grand National hoodoo.
Success in the country’s premier award will be seen by the racing industry as the ultimate recognition for a career that has seen McCoy rewrite the record books time and again.
Despite breaking just about every bone in his body, some more than once, he has dominated the sport ever since he became champion jockey for the first time in the 1995-96 season.
Not only is he by far the winning-most jockey in jumps history, he even overcame the legendary Sir Gordon Richards’ all-time record total of 269 winners in a season in 2002.
Fellow jockeys joined in the praise for McCoy, with Frankie Dettori saying: “In my lifetime I don’t think we will see anything like AP.”
Ruby Walsh added: “He’s dominated racing like Tiger Woods dominated golf and Roger Federer dominated tennis.”
Taylor said he was stunned and delighted to have come second.
“It means the world to me,” he said. “For darts as well it’s fantastic and I can’t be any happier than I am now after all the years of dedication I’ve put in.
“It’s a shock that sports people actually know who you are. David Beckham came up and said ‘How are you, how’s the kids? I heard you had a little grandson this week’ – I’m like, ‘Dave, wow, can I kiss you?'”
BBC Sports Personality of the Year voting figures: 1 AP McCoy 293,152 (41.98%), 2 Phil Taylor 72,095 (10.33%), 3 Jessica Ennis 62,953 (9.02%), 4 Lee Westwood 58,640 (8.4%), 5 Graeme McDowell 52,108 (7.46%), 6 Tom Daley 50,763 (7.27%), 7 Mark Cavendish 44,170 (6.33%), 8 Amy Williams 43,056 (6.17%), 9 Graeme Swann 13,767 (1.97%), 10 David Haye 7,538 (1.08%).
David Beckham was, at 35, the youngest winner of the Lifetime Achievement award. The former England captain received a standing ovation that lasted for more than a minute.
“I’m obviously really humbled to receive an award for something I love doing and always have loved doing,” said the footballer, who won six Premier League titles, two FA Cups and the Champions League with Manchester United and the Spanish League and Super Cup with Real Madrid.
“I’ve been lucky enough to have played with some of the great teams over the years – and of course playing for England has always been one of the highlights and biggest things of my career.”
He thanked his “father figure” Sir Alex Ferguson – who broke his ban on talking to the BBC to record a message for his former charge – and dedicated his award to British troops in Afghanistan. In winning the award the man who has also played for Preston North End, Milan and the Los Angeles Galaxy followed such luminaries of the sports world as Ferguson, Martina Navratilova, Pele and Seve Ballesteros.
