McCoy: I want to stay champion

"There's not a lot I won't do to win. I take risks that aren't wise. Sometimes a horse can do more than it thinks it can. Even when it's tired I'll make it stand on its feet. Sometimes a horse doesn't want to jump, and I think, 'Right, horse, if you want to fall then I'm going to see to it you do it hard so you don't do it again.' If he wants to be stupid enough to think he can frighten me, he's got another think coming."

Revealing words indeed. For while there is no question that McCoy is a wondrous jockey, perhaps the best of the last century, there is a seed of doubt whether the price is too high. It is his trademark that he never gives up in any race - he regularly wins by niggling at a horse every inch of the way when other jockeys would have long surrendered.

But some wonder whether this is always the best course, most notably when the Martin Pipe-trained novice Gloria Victis died during this year's Cheltenham Gold Cup.

McCoy insisted: "The will to win is always a good thing. Martin Pipe always does what's best for the horse. He finds it hard when people question his training methods, or say his horses don't last because he's hard on them. They never think back to the year before when the horse was with someone else and never did anything. I'll ride for him as long as he wants me.

"He's like me, he's not a good loser, but there is no other job I'd rather do. I totally love it. It drives you bonkers. If I don't win it's a disaster, and there are times when I win and I'm still not happy. I'm not one for stopping to smell the roses. Winning is what I live for. My perfect life would be to eat what I like and be guaranteed enough winners every day to know that I would be champion jockey until I retire.

"But in that case I never would retire. I'm like Lester (Piggott). I want to be riding when I'm 100, and I don't mean going for a gentle hack.''

For now he will ride at Kempton on Boxing Day, including Lady Cricket in the King George VI Chase. Christmas dinner will not be a lavish affair.

"I'll have a cup of tea and a stick of KitKat. It's just mind over matter. I have to get it into my head that this is what I'm going to do, whether I like it or not."

Sometimes it is hard to tell whether McCoy likes it or not. Sometimes his passion for his job seems to go full circle to the point of hate.

He agreed: "It probably does. People think I've been around for a lifetime because I've been champion jockey for five years, but I'm only 26.

"If I wasn't champion jockey this year ... I don't want to think about it. It's the worst thing that could happen. I'll go to hell and back to stay champion. I hate the idea of not being better than everybody else. I have to get it through my thick skull how I can improve.''

Reading Richard Dunwoody's notorious new autobiography might provide answers for some jockeys, but McCoy grimaces at the thought.

"I haven't ventured into it yet. Too many people keep telling me I'll see myself looking out - how you treat people, the lengths and depths you'll go to just to win races. I'll read it over Christmas."

He has saved it up especially. Tales of madness and starvation with all thoughts on the next day's racing - McCoy's idea of a merry Christmas.