Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I've appreciated every winner. I love them all.
You always get a buzz from winning. Winning is... everything.
I like challenging myself. I'm not a person who likes not to work.
I dream up things, and then I convince myself that they're possible.
I never had a written contract, was never officially a stable jockey.
When I was 18, I broke my leg, and my shin came right through - like I had two knees.
Racing may be a minority sport, but I wouldn't swap it for all the money in the world.
I've always got a sweet tooth. I have chocolate hidden in places that nobody knows about.
I was told that there's near on a million to one chance that I would be able to have children.
No matter how long I go without riding winners, I know in the back of my head that I can ride.
I've ridden 3,651 winners, if that's any good to you. I don't count the falls. I count the winners.
I think I'm skilful enough, but I don't consider myself a naturally talented, gifted sports person.
I know from sitting around with injuries how difficult life will be without racing and riding winners.
I probably don't look healthy, but I have never got to the stage where I thought I was going to pass out.
You only worry about your head or spinal column. Everything else, some way or another, will repair in time.
When I was a kid, if someone had asked who I'd meet if it could be anyone in the world, it would've been Liam Brady.
I'm very lucky to live my life through a sport that I love. I'm in a very privileged position that my work is my hobby.
Doctors are fantastic, but they err on the side of caution. But you can push yourself. You're not going to die from pain.
When I'm injured, I eat everything - proper junk. That's the one thing about being injured so much, I get to treat myself.
If you break your sternum or your ribs, you can still move. It's going to hurt, but if you can cope with it, you'll do it.
There is no place for arrogance or complacency in racing because you are up there one minute and on your backside the next.
You need fear and doubt to drive you on. Without it, you end up living in the past and being happy with what you have achieved.
I could never have ridden 4,000 winners without loving my job, and If I ever get to the point where I'm not loving it, I'll stop.
My first winner was on Legal Steps, in Ireland, at Thurles, in March 1992. I rode for Jim Bolger, and his stable jockey was Christy Roche.
During every race, an ambulance trails the riders around the course. You know that sometimes you are going to end up in the back of that ambulance.
I don't know which is stronger: the thrill of winning or the fear of failure. I don't know which one affects me most. I don't know where the middle is.
I think I've always used the whip in the correct way. I see marked horses every day, and it's not a pretty sight, but I've never marked a horse. Never.
When you give someone a commitment to ride their horse, you do it - unless, God forbid, something serious has happened. It would be laziness not to do it.
I was determined my 4,000th winner would be in the green and gold colours of J. P. McManus and trained by Jonjo O'Neill, who have been my greatest supporters.
For eight or 10 years, I got wrapped up in chasing records. Everything was a number. Didn't matter what I won, it was a number. Every horse I rode was a number.
It always hurts a bit to pick the 'wrong one' in a race as big as the Champion Hurdle, and then, to make matters worse, you go and get beat by the horse you rejected.
The criticism does not hurt because I have always been my own worst critic. I wouldn't say I don't respect other people's opinions, but my opinion is the most important.
Really racing is about the horses, not me. You can't do it without the horses, and they are the big players as are the lads who look after them, and they rarely get a mention.
I am quite hard to live with, and I know that if I go through a bad run, I'm not the best company and am best left alone. But I'm not nearly as bad as people like to make out.
Even though people involved in racing think that it has a big sporting stage, it is a minority sport compared to some of the other high-profile events: football, Formula One or golf.
If I go racing tomorrow and I have five rides that all get beaten, all I want to do is get out there the next day and put it right. I hate having Sundays off; I hate having any day off.
A helmet is the most important part of any jockey's kit because of the number of falls you take, so I wouldn't want to be wearing anything on the track unless it had been thoroughly tested.
I have found the right way to deal with my diet, largely through trial and error, but also by having good people around me all the time, and they have given me the right advice for my body.
If you ask most trainers who have ridden which pressure is greater - watching your horse or riding it - they will tell you it is harder watching it because you have no control over what happens.
A lot of healing is in the mind. I'm not talking about serious illnesses like cancer. I'm talking about ordinary broken bones. Healing begins in the head. You have to convince yourself you can do it.
Essentially, I am a dreamer. I've dreamed all my life. When I started, I dreamed I'd be Champion because it is a sport that is all about the people who win the most, and I have a fear of not winning.
The National is about however long it takes to run that race - eight minutes of fame - but champion jockey is about racing 365 days a year. I actually wouldn't swap any of my winners for the National.
There are many tough sides to being a jockey. Injury is something we all dread, but spending lengthy periods in the bath or the sauna just to shed a few pounds can be an exhausting and draining experience.
Racing is a great sport, but we need people to come along and see that for themselves. Maybe they're not used to going racing or haven't been before, but I think people get a taste for it; they do come back.
It will not surprise you to learn that it is not uncommon for jockeys who struggle with their weight to starve themselves and spend hours in the sauna to lose a few pounds to be able to make a big-race ride.
If summer racing didn't exist, I could go on holiday, yes, because nobody else would then be riding winners; but as long it goes ahead, I'll do it for the reason that I want to ride more winners than anyone else.
Private dreams are the most powerful. You have to dream of success to make it happen, and if you don't believe in yourself, nobody else will. But that doesn't mean you have to go around telling everyone about it.
Horses are like people - they have different personalities. They can be nice, friendly and hard-working, or awkward, difficult and lazy. If horses were people, some would be on the dole, and others would be entrepreneurs.
Sir Gordon Richards was the most successful jockey - flat or jumps - there's ever been: champion jockey for 26 years. He set a record of 269 winners in the season 55 years before I broke it. That was my greatest achievement.
I get butterflies before going out to ride every day, but they disappear as soon as I am on a horse, and I think that is the same for most jockeys. Then it is just down to you and the horse, and there is a certain freedom in that.