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" I've ridden 3,651 winners, if that's any good to you. I don't count the falls. I count the winners. "

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" 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. "

" No matter how long I go without riding winners, I know in the back of my head that I can ride. "

" 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 was 18, I broke my leg, and my shin came right through - like I had two knees. "

" I dream up things, and then I convince myself that they're possible. "

" 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. "

" I am disappointed when I don't win, because I want to believe I can win on every horse I ride, which is a ridiculous thing to think. Even if I'm on a horse that I have woken up thinking has no chance, by the time I've reached the course, I'll have convinced myself that it can win and will be disappointed if it doesn't. "

" 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. "

" In my opinion, the power of the mind in sport is vital. If you can overpower those physical risks mentally, you can get your body round it physically. I've made my body do things because of my mind that it shouldn't have been able to do. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" When I'm injured, I eat everything - proper junk. That's the one thing about being injured so much, I get to treat myself. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" Many of us in the jockeys' room are wasting to ride many pounds below our natural weight, but all the while you are doing that, you also want to ensure that you are as strong as possible so that you can give your mount every possible chance in a race. "

" 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. "

" The day I go out there and don't want to win is the day I will give up. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I was told that there's near on a million to one chance that I would be able to have children. "

" When I started off riding, you dream about being champion jockey. Then I wanted to be champion jockey again. Then I wanted to ride 200 winners in a season. Then, when there was a chance of riding more winners than Richard Dunwoody, that was my goal. "

" I think I'm skilful enough, but I don't consider myself a naturally talented, gifted sports person. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I never had a written contract, was never officially a stable jockey. "

" 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. "