'Simply being physically hard on them doesn't work on any horse'

There were few secrets of the saddle that 20-time champion jockey AP McCoy wasn't either party to or the keeper of, but in the art of drawing the best from a complex or recalcitrant equine character he became recognised as the past master.

The challenge of making a winner out of a loser was something that engaged him throughout his career, but the method was something he believes was often misunderstood by those who were eager to laud him for his efforts.

Nobody missed, for example, the relentless urgings that helped propel the blundering Wichita Lineman to victory at the Cheltenham Festival in 2009, but many, he feels, didn't fully grasp the means by which the victory was achieved.