Scotland rugby captain Stuart Hogg has revealed his sporting hero is AP McCoy, champion jockey a record 20 consecutive times.
“My passion for horses has endured, though, and when you think of horse racing you think of AP McCoy,” revealed Hogg to the BBC.
“I just loved AP, he was the only jockey who always wore the same colours, the green and yellow stripes with the white hat. It soon became apparent that was AP McCoy, and he was the big dog.
“I just loved the fact that he was always in the winner’s enclosure and just seemed to be at the top of the game all the time.
“He was champion jockey for 20 consecutive years, which is just incredible. That’s like getting World Rugby Player of the Year every year for 20 years.
“He always seemed to work incredibly hard and he was always getting the good horses because he was consistent from when he started in 1995 right through until he finished in 2015.
12 things you didn’t know about Stuart Hogg
Being one of the most popular players on the globe is likely to generate an incredible fan-base globally, but we are fairly confident that there are some aspects of Stuart Hogg’s life and career you are not familiar with.
1. MAGICAL?!
Scotland fan JK Rowling has mentioned that the fleet-footed Stuart Hogg might be a full wizard. He is also briefly mentioned on Pottermore, in an excerpt written by Rowling for the website, suggesting that he and fellow players Jim Hamilton and Kelly Brown are in fact squibs – wizard-born with no magical powers
That thing where I said Stuart Hogg might be a Squib? He’s a wizard. #AsOne #6Nations
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) March 19, 2016
2. FAMILY
is father, John, played as a championship winning full-back for Hawick before becoming a rugby referee and his brother, Graham, played for Scotland 7s in the IRB Sevens World Series as well as representing Scotland at three different age grades.
3. DISTANT RELATIONS
In 2012, following his Scotland debut, he discovered he was a distant relative of George Best. A close relative of Best recognised the link after seeing Hogg play on television.
4. INCREDIBLE STATS
In a struggling Scotland side in the 2015 Six Nations Championship, Hogg made the most metres (442); beat the most defenders (18); and made the second most carries (63).
