McCoy Installed As Festival Favourite Tony McCoy has been installed 9-4 favourite to win the Daily Telegraph Cheltenham Festival Top Jockey Award by Irish bookmakers Paddy Power. McCoy has been top rider at the Festival twice before with three winners in 1997 and five 12 months later. The champion jockey, who on the whole had a disappointing time last season with just one victory to his name, has so far enjoyed 13 Festival successes. Charlie Swan, who took the title in 1993 and 1994, is the winning-most Festival jockey currently riding with 17 triumphs but is a 33-1 shot for next month`s meeting. Ruby Walsh has been quoted second favourite at 3-1, while his rivals for the Irish Jockey Championship, Barry Geraghty and Paul Carberry, have been installed at 8-1 and 14-1 respectively.Timmy Murphy, rider of Gold Cup second favourite Beef Or Salmon, is a 20-1 shot for the leading festival rider accolade.
