text: AP McCoy stood with the trainer, Jonjo O’Neill, in the parade ring. He tried to talk but his mind was elsewhere. He was waiting for the end to come. At 4.15pm a bell rang out. McCoy did not need to be reminded for whom it tolled. He knew it tolled for him. He obeyed the signal for the jockeys to mount. He walked alongside Box Office, the final ride of his astonishing career, and then clambered into the saddle. The tears streamed down his face but he pulled down his goggles so that nobody would see. He rode out on to the course. McCoy was presented the Champion Jockey trophy by Ian Wright - McCoy is an Arsenal fanatic . The 40-year-old received a guard of honour before receiving the Champion Jockey trophy . He knew this would be a strange day. He was aware it was being styled as a joyous celebration of the career of the greatest jump jockey there has ever been. ‘The Champ, The Finale’ it said on the front of Sandown Park’s raceday programme. But McCoy knew, too, that, for him, the day of his retirement would be a day filled with sadness and dread. Earlier in the afternoon, he had ridden Mr Mole into third place in the bet365 AP McCoy Celebration Chase. Now, he had one last shot at giving Sandown’s biggest crowd for a decade what they wanted by riding a winner. So one last time, he rode a mount around the Surrey track, racing the rest of the field and one of the red-and-blue trains that hurry along behind the tree line on the far side of the course, towards Waterloo. A film script would have delivered his 4,358th winner but sport is more capricious than celluloid. And so it delivered an irony. The last race of McCoy’s career, the bet365 Handicap Hurdle, was won by Richard Johnson, 15 times a runner-up to McCoy in the jockeys’ championship. The two men are great friends but this was one small act of revenge for 20 years of being a bridesmaid. McCoy, 40, finished third. He pushed Box Office all the way to the line and took the congratulations of his fellow jockeys as they and their horses milled around him. He was about to head towards the winner’s enclosure when he was ushered back along the track. Now the emotion really bit. McCoy and Box Office trotted back in front of the stands packed with 18,000 cheering fans. One man and his horse. There was something wonderfully moving about the tribute. Maybe it was just its simplicity. An old gunslinger was riding off into the sunset. The champion jockey was joined by his wife Channelle, daughter Eve and son Archie on his last day of racing . In the winner’s enclosure, he dismounted amid scarcely controlled chaos. A couple of photographers had climbed the little horse chestnut tree that stands outside the weighing room and perched in its lower branches to get a better shot. A television reporter put his microphone under McCoy’s nose and paid fulsome tribute to him, telling him he wanted to thank him not just for today but the last 20 years. McCoy could only nod. He could not speak any more. All day, it was impossible to get away from those themes of joy and despair. Everyone wanted McCoy to be happy, to depart gladly from his glory game, but everywhere he went, he looked as if he were being led to the gallows. The Irish jockey (left) was unable to leave on a winning note as he raced on the aptly named Box Office . It was like that when the rest of the jockeys who have trailed in his wake for so long formed an honour guard as he walked into the parade ring to be presented with the Champion Jockey Trophy for the 20th consecutive time, by Ian Wright, one of McCoy’s Arsenal heroes. Some of the jockeys were in tears. McCoy looked grim. Forget all the talk of new beginnings and how this would be a brave new phase of his life. McCoy was having none of it. He did not try to put a brave face on what was happening. He did not even pretend he was thinking about new beginnings. His mind told him just one thing – this is the end, beautiful friend. It has been beautiful, too. It has broken bones in almost every part of his body and it has demanded continuous sacrifice but it has brought him unparalleled success and universal respect. He stands alongside men like Andy Murray, Sir Steve Redgrave, Sir Chris Hoy and Sir Bradley Wiggins as the greatest modern British sportsmen. It is difficult to set the parameters for greatness, particularly when trying to measure a jockey against heroes of other sports. But whatever criteria you use, it is hard to outstrip McCoy for the relentlessness of his domination. The racing legend was swamped by photographers and punters following his last professional race . Michael Jordan is probably the greatest star basketball ever and he won six NBA championships in two bursts of three consecutive titles. Wayne Gretzky was the best player in ice hockey for many years and still holds 60 NHL records but he won the Stanley Cup just four times. Of the greats of individual modern sport, Tiger Woods stayed at the top of his sport for 545 consecutive weeks and Roger Federer for 237 weeks. McCoy stayed at the top for 1,040 consecutive weeks. It is hard to call an end to a career like that — and in the 11 weeks since he announced this would be his last season, he has never tried to disguise the pain. Time and again in interviews on Saturday, he said the thing uppermost in his mind. ‘If I could say one thing to all the guys in the weighing room,’ he said, ‘it would be to enjoy it as much as they can because the end doesn’t half come around very quick.’ Sandown Park was packed with punters and the media who were eager to give him a memorable send off . McCoy, who was named the BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2010 after he finally won the Grand National, was given plenty of opportunities to talk about the benefits a life without racing might bring. He did not take any of them. After his final race, he was ushered into a white marquee, flanked by O’Neill and the owner, JP McManus, for a final press conference. He looked blank. He looked stunned. His voice was flat. He tried humour. Someone ventured his record of 20 championships in a row and 4,348 winners over jumps would never be broken. ‘All records are broken,’ McCoy said. ‘I hope I’m dead when it happens. It’ll take someone at least 20 years so I’ll probably be in a home by then, or doting.’ But most of the time, he did not attempt levity. He said he wished he could start his racing career all over again — ‘I have got nothing to look forward to now.’ O’Neill nudged him. ‘Apart from my wife and kids,’ McCoy added, hurriedly. ‘Jonjo got in just in time then.’ Crowds wee packed into Sandown to wish McCoy well in his final two rides . A few years ago, McCoy talked about the realities that his wife had had to live with as the partner of a man so utterly dedicated to a dangerous sport. He recalled the moment they had been for a fertility check and were told that McCoy’s habit of taking hot baths every day to sweat weight off had made his sperm count abnormally low. ‘Chanelle was busy putting things into perspective,’ McCoy remembered. ‘“Anthony is a jockey, he rides horses at 30 miles per hour over fences every day of the week, two ambulances follow him around while he works, he could come home in a wheelchair one day. That would be an issue. This is not an issue”.’ Soon after that, they started IVF treatment and in 2007, Chanelle gave birth to a daughter, Eve. On Saturday, as McCoy carried the Champion Jockey Trophy around the parade ring at Sandown, Eve ran after him in her little white dress, outside the cluster of photographers who tracked his every move. ‘Daddy, Daddy, Daddy,’ she kept shouting, treating it as a game. Her daddy did not hear her above the din. Now, though, the din has gone. McCoy is pictured in third during his last ever ride in his career at Sandown on Saturday . The Irish jockey waves goodbye to the thousands of fans after an emotional day .
target: Ian Wright presented Tony McCoy with champion jockey trophy .
  McCoy finished third on Box Office in last-ever race on Saturday .
  The 40-year-old also finished third on Mr Mole in penultimate race .
  McCoy was reduced to tears as he competed professionally for last time .