NOW UPDATED WITH A NEW CHAPTER, THE DEFINITIVE AUTOBIOGRAPHY BY A.P. McCOY, THE MOST SUCCESSFUL JUMP-JOCKEY OF ALL TIME.

At Sandown Park on the 25 April 2015, riding Box Office, two jumps from home, the realisation hit me. This is it. This is really the end.

I was now a matter of seconds away from the moment all the numbers stopped for ever. My career total of National Hunt winners would remain at 4,348 after this, my 17,546th ride. All the stats, the numbers that had governed my life for the last two decades, they were just a few hundred yards from...