Tony McCoy
WHILE ZILLIONAIRE Geneva tax resident JP McManus won his third Aintree Grand National last Saturday, with the Willie Mullins-trained I am Maximus, it was two former McManus jockeys – now turned pundits – Tony McCoy (sorry Sir Anthony Peter McCoy OBE) and Barry Geraghty who found themselves the centre of attention on the opening day.
An ‘off air’ video of the boys previewing the races was mistakenly posted on Kempton Park’s X account, in which the pair could be overheard in a foul-mouthed conversation and giving their selections, albeit with the help of a member of the production team.
The legendary McCoy is heard telling the camera team member to “pick two good ones” for him, while Geraghty, between expletives, is heard describing a race as being “a septic one”.
A tweet of the video on the gambler Gearoid Norris-linked @icyestretro X account resulted in a swift copyright infringement notice from Wiggin legal eagles in London, acting on behalf of Racecourse Media Group Ltd. This is the outfit responsible for managing the media rights for assorted racecourses in the group, including the likes of Aintree and Cheltenham.
The angry missive demanded the “immediate and permanent” removal of the tweet, failing which action would be taken.
In typical ‘icy’ fashion, the reply to the lawyers featured a clip of Geraghty using a familiar two-word phrase that ends in ‘off’!
