AP McCoy aims to live up to legend, five months on

Cotai Glory is out to make amends after swerving away his chance at Doncaster last year

(Getty Images)

It must be quite a shock for Tony McCoy to find that he is already part of racing nostalgia. Less than five months after bowing out amid wonderful scenes at Sandown, the 20-time champion jumps jockey is back, lining up against mainly long-retired old pros in a charity Flat race at Doncaster on the opening day of the St Leger meeting.

For fairly obvious reasons, racing does not do a seniors’ tour, but these occasional events, though essentially fun, need by their very nature to be taken a great deal more seriously than, say, donning the pads for a guest appearance in a village cricket XI bash.

Nobody will take it more seriously than McCoy, who rides Gannicus, the only last-time-out winner in the 16-strong Leger Legends Stakes. Though revealing on his William Hill blog he is no longer tempted by a return to the saddle full-time, McCoy did add he had been riding out every morning to stay in shape.

And if his competitive juices ever needed stirring, they have been given a fair old whisk by Johnny Murtagh, the five-time Irish Flat champion, who rides one of the favourite’s main threats, in the shape of Commissar.

Murtagh, who quit riding last year to concentrate on his training career, threw down the gauntlet yesterday, saying: “I ride out five lots and muck out six horses a day, so I’m still pretty fit. It would be great to be involved in a driving finish with AP, just to see how good he really is!”

McCoy was quick to respond. “Well, Johnny had a little spell jumping a few years back and probably realised, not that he wasn’t good enough, but maybe he wasn’t tough enough,” he said.

All part of the craic, as McCoy, Murtagh and the rest, for one afternoon at least, are transported back to the time of their lives.

Looking forward, it is reasonable to suppose that whatever wins the Scarbrough Stakes this afternoon might go on to take high rank in the sprinting division; three of the last five winners (Prohibit, Sole Power and Mecca’s Angel) have won three King’s Stand Stakes and three Nunthorpe Stakes between them.

If there is a future five-furlong champion in this field, it is most likely to be Cotai Glory, one of a vintage crop of three-year-old sprinters trained by Charlie Hills.

Cotai Glory was surely the unluckiest loser of any race last season, clear in the Flying Childers Stakes at this meeting when ducking right and dislodging his jockey George Baker five strides from the line. Victory back at the same fixture in this prestigious event would be neat and sweet compensation.

Arabian Queen, 50-1 conqueror of Golden Horn in the Juddmonte International at York last month, has an even bigger giant to slay this weekend, with her owner Jeff Smith reporting that the filly is “99.9 per cent certain” to take on the dual Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe heroine Treve in Longchamp’s Prix Vermeille on Sunday, rather than have another slug at the Derby winner in Leopardstown’s Irish Champion Stakes the previous day.