On the eve of his 50th birthday, AP McCoy was one of Patrick Kielty's guests on Friday's Late Late Show.
The legendary rider retired in 2015 having been Champion Jockey for each of the previous 20 seasons.
A Grand National champion and two-time Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, McCoy stands as one of the titans of the sport but, during his Late Late appearance, the Antrim man reflected on the darker side of the sport.
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AP McCoy reflects on the dangers he faced during his racing career
Late Late Show host Patrick Kielty showed a photo of AP McCoy with a broken nose from his racing career.
As Kielty listed off the astonishing full list of injuries McCoy had suffered down through the years, McCoy interrupted him to say, 'I didn't break my two femurs, Paddy, if that's easier.'
The pair then moved on to discuss the dangers posed to jockeys during races, as McCoy remembered friends who had passed away or been severely injured during their careers.
He referenced the shocking injuries suffered by Shane Broderick in 1997 and Graham Lee just last year. McCoy also emotionally remembered the tragic death of Limerick man JT McNamara in 2016, after he had been paralysed in a fall at Cheltenham in 2013.
McCoy said that, despite how harrowing those experiences had been for the group of jockeys competing week-in-week-out, the danger was nonetheless part of what gave him a thrill as a rider.
He referenced the 2013 film Rush and its depiction of the dangers of 1970s Formula 1, and said that he had a greater appreciation since retiring of how lucky he was to have avoided serious injury during his career.
You know what...as a jockey, the reality is that there's two ambulances going around behind you. Sadly, I've seen colleagues be fatally injured, I've seen life-changing injuries.
But the reality of it is that the more you go out, the more there's a better chance you're going in the ambulance. The more you're winning, you hope you're going to be going faster than everyone else, there's more chance you'll be going in the ambulance. You just hope that it's never going to happen to you.
You realise how lucky you are. You actually genuinely think it's never going to happen to you, otherwise you wouldn't do it. I know I was lucky and, as you said, that's part of the job.
When you see that happening to friends and colleagues, it's hard.
It's a hard thing to say when you see what has happened to friends and colleagues, but you go out in a 25 horse race and you fall and get kicked all over the place and you think, 'I'm going to die.' Then you get up and think, 'I'm still alive.'
I remember watching that movie about James Hunt and Niki Lauda. James Hunt says, 'the closer you are to death, the more alive you feel.' In some ways that's true.
A poignant and difficult conversation.
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