When AP McCoy walked into the weighing room for his first ride in Britain he did so without riding boots.
A valet lent him a pair saying: "You'll have to go some to fill these - they were Peter Scudamore's".
McCoy took his leave of the weighing room for the final time at Sandown Park leaving the biggest void in the history of the sport, one aspect of which is who will replace him as jockey to JP McManus?
The millionaire owner hired McCoy as his first retained jockey and, although there will be no immediate replacement, Mark Walsh will have the chance to stake his claim at Punchestown this week.
In the immediate aftermath of the announcement of McCoy's retirement in February, Barry Geraghty - who could be back riding at Punchestown after sustaining a hairline fracture to his left tibia in a fall last month - was rated odds-on favourite to take the McManus job with Paddy Power.
Now the bookmaker has Geraghty and Davy Russell as 11-10 joint-favourites but did report recent money for Walsh, from 12-1 to 10s. Frank Berry, McManus's racing manager, said that there is no timescale for naming a replacement for McCoy and intimated that Walsh will come into the reckoning.
Walsh has himself only just returned from an eight-week spell on the sidelines with a broken left arm but still has chances of winning a first jockeys' title.
He rode his 69th winner of the season at Tipperary on Friday night to put him just six behind Ruby Walsh, who admittedly will have the might of the Willie Mullins stable going into Punchestown which closes the season on Saturday.
However, Mark Walsh can look forward to some good rides at Punchestown headed by Gilgamboa in the Grade One Growise Champion Novices' Chase tomorrow and possibly Jezki in the Grade One Ladbrokes World Series Hurdle on Thursday according to Berry who said: "Mark will ride Gilgamboa and either Barry, if he's fit, or him will ride Jezki. Mark will be riding most of the others."
Walsh, who has the rare distinction of having his first rides on the Flat and under National Hunt rules on the same day at Naas in 2002, did not make an immediate impact but his stock has been rising in recent seasons when he began riding the majority of the McManus-owned runners in Ireland.
"He's matured well in the last few years," Berry said. "He didn't have the opportunities but he's come through well and it was just unfortunate that he may not be champion jockey this year."
The race for the title that McCoy vacated will begin on Thursday and Dave Roberts, his agent, is already looking at how to keep many of the near 900 rides that the champion rode each season.
Roberts has nearly 40 jockeys on his books headed by Richard Johnson (153 winners) and Tom Scudamore (150 winners), who finished second and third to McCoy this time as well as Sean Bowen, the champion conditional jockey who won the bet365 Gold Cup on Just A Par at Sandown on Saturday.
Looking at the prospects for the new season and what total might win it Roberts said: "Dickie Johnson was on 153 so, if you take out AP's 231 and divided that between four or five jockeys you could be looking between 180 and 190."
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