Top riders pay tribute to McCoy

Record-breaking Tony McCoy today received tributes from the only two men to have ridden more winners over jumps than him.

Peter Scudamore today hailed him as 'the best I have ever seen' while Richard Dunwoody spoke of the champion`s great will-to-win.

The former title-holders, both among McCoy`s predecessors as stable-jockey to Martin Pipe, are this country`s winning-most National Hunt riders, with 1,678 and 1,699 victories respectively.

But the young Ulsterman is breathing down their necks, with the fastest-ever century he completed on Monday taking his career tally to 1,414.

Scudamore, a trail-blazer in his own days with Pipe in the late 1980s andearly 1990s only to see many of his records beaten by McCoy, stressed that the six-time champion has all the attributes a top jump jockey needs.

'There is no one thing that makes him so good - it is not that simple - but he`s the best I`ve ever seen,' Scudamore said.

'He`s got a great affinity with a horse and he is very positive. He`s a horseman and a sportsman and they are the attribites you need.

'He has a fantastic attitude to the game and that increaeses his will towin. If I was still riding I woudn`t be able to keep up.'

Dunwoody, forced into retirement by injury in December 1999 after breakng Scudamore`s all-time record, said of McCoy`s superiority: 'It is in the mind as much as anywhere else.

'It is his determination, fitness and focus.'

Neither man feels there is a threat that McCoy`s apparent determination to ride as often as he can, throughout all 12 months of the year, will led to burnout.

'As long as he keeps riding winners he won`t burn himself out,' Scudamore said. 'He will only do that if he starts riding losers.'

Scudamore also revealed that McCoy, whose other records include the fastest 200 winners and most winners in a season, is not always unbeatable. 'I played him at golf and he was hopeless!' he smiled.