Simon Rowlands: McCoy to show champion qualities off the course before Sports Personality of the Year?

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Simon Rowlands /
13 December 2010 /
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McCoy is the [1.97] favourite to be crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year

“In a clear indication that things had gone too far, McCoy even theatrically swore on the life of his three-year-old daughter that he had not stopped the horse [Get Me Out of Here].”

Betting.Betfair blogger Simon Rowlands is back to give his views on the Tony McCoy/Racing UK debate and the champion jockey’s case for Sports Personality of the Year.

It’s been a good few weeks since I last blogged, and plenty has happened in that time, if not always a great deal of it on the racetrack due to the weather.

England has gained the upper hand in The Ashes but lost in its bid for The Football World Cup in 2018. Of rather less newsworthiness, Timeform has acquired a Head of Research and Handicapping (aka me).

The World Cup disappointment came just days after a BBC Panorama special which highlighted corruption at football’s governing body FIFA, and it is at least possible that the programme had a significant part to play in the bid’s failure.

While some chose, perhaps understandably, to blame Panorama, I would argue that a principle far more important than the privilege of hosting a World Cup was upheld. I would much rather live in a country in which the media is free to ask awkward questions than one in which no-one rocks the boat for fear of being thrown off The Gravy Train.

Which leads us on to the subject of Tony McCoy and Racing UK.

Unless you have been on another planet in recent weeks, you are likely to be aware that McCoy has a leading chance of being voted Sports Personality of The Year this coming Sunday: he is currently [1.97] to back on Betfair.

If you follow racing closely, you are also likely to know that McCoy is engaged in a feud with Racing UK on account of comments made by some of the channel’s presenters concerning his ride on Get Me Out Of Here at Ascot on October 30.

McCoy was incensed by what he saw as implications that he had deliberately not ridden the horse to best advantage, and he has since refused to speak to Racing UK presenter Lydia Hislop, or to anyone else representing the channel. In a clear indication that things had gone too far, McCoy even theatrically swore on the life of his three-year-old daughter that he had not stopped the horse.

The situation was not helped by many of McCoy’s friends and sympathisers taking up his cause. Alex Steedman, another Racing UK presenter but speaking on Timeform Radio, described an “anti-Racing UK atmosphere” in Lambourn. There are few less edifying spectacles, in racing or elsewhere, than insiders attempting to ostracise those perceived not to be “one of their own”.

Those who have followed McCoy’s career from spotty youth to SPOTY favourite are likely to feel, as I do, that he is an extraordinary sportsman: both very gifted and unbelievably brave and dedicated. How else could he have stayed for so long at the top of a cutthroat profession that requires him to starve himself and put his life in danger on a daily basis?

However, the qualities that make a great sportsperson – such as an obsessive determination to come out on top – do not necessarily make for a great human being. Righteous indignation can come across as ugly bullying if the same uncompromising attitudes are adopted as on the racecourse.

Either Hislop slandered McCoy, in which case proper action would have been justified and should have been taken, or she did not. I have heard a transcript of her remarks and am sure she did not.

It is important that questions be asked by journalists and broadcasters, especially when the authorities – as in this case – fail in their duties to ask them in the first place. The way to counter difficult questions is to provide truthful answers. Besides anything else, people tend to respect you more for doing that.

Crucially, criticism of rides deemed to be inadequate in some way is a necessary counterbalance to praise. Praise, of which McCoy rightly gets plenty, is meaningless without at least the possibility of criticism.

Saturday’s racing at Cheltenham featured the “Vote A. P. Gold Cup”. McCoy was at his magnificent best in steering Karabak to victory in one of the supporting races. Hislop went about her business on Racing UK with typical professionalism, even getting an on-air kiss from Master Minded’s owner Clive Smith at one point.

Kissing and making up would be too much to ask for in this particular feud. But McCoy has an opportunity to show that he is a champion off the course, as well as on it, by letting bygones be bygones in this instance.

If he does it before Sunday he will get my SPOTY vote for good measure, despite the fact that I backed Lee Westwood some months ago!

To view the full market for BBC Sports Personality of the Year click HERE!

Simon Rowlands: McCoy to show champion qualities off the course before Sports Personality of the Year?