Tony McCoy revealed he has given up the bid to break his own record of 253 winners in a season despite riding a double at Uttoxeter yesterday. With just four days of the season to go he reckons there is "no chance" of notching the 10 more victories he needs.
The champion jump jockey moved on to 244 for the campaign which ends on Saturday with wins on Catullus and Dr Jazz for trainer Martin Pipe, who took his own record tally for 1999/2000 to 240 winners.
But McCoy said: "I am not going to ride at Perth today and I don't think there is any chance of breaking the record."
Catullus justified 10-11 favouritism in a first-time visor in the www.racingpost.co.uk Maiden Hurdle, seeing off Weet U There by four lengths.
And the four-year-old now has an important Spring Bank Holiday target for part-owner Emlyn Hughes. "I was born in Barrow-in-Furness and it has always been my dream to have a winner at Cartmel," revealed the former Liverpool and England footballer.
McCoy had to be at his strongest to complete an 81/2 to 1 double on Dr Jazz (4 to 1), who just got the better of a stirring battle with Premier Generation in the one-in-a-hundred.com Handicap Hurdle.
The champion's never-say-die attitude was mirrored by Tom Scudamore - a possible long-term successor at Pipe's yard - who snatched victory on Mr Grimsdale in the Mount Argus Hunters' Chase.
