Brian Hughes only looking forward after banking third championship
Brian Hughes is preparing to thrust himself straight into another title bid ahead of being crowned champion jockey for the third time on the final day of the season at Sandown on Saturday.
The Northern Irishman first claimed the title at the end of 2019-20 season and while he was defeated by Harry Skelton the following year, he regained the trophy at the end of last term.
This campaign’s 164 winners (before racing on Friday) falls some way short of last year’s total when Hughes reached and passed the significant milestone of 200 winners ridden in a season – joining Peter Scudamore, AP McCoy and Richard Hughes in a small band of riders to have done so.
Lost fixtures due to challenging weather conditions and a slight dip in the form of his mounts are the possible causes for the lower number this term, but Hughes’ relationship with trainer Donald McCain continues to provide plenty of success for both parties.
Hughes said: “It’s good to be champion again. Plenty of hard work. We didn’t get to the number we did last year, but we’ll try harder next year!
“We missed a lot of days racing with bad weather, and you’d have to say the horses weren’t running as well as they were the season before, even though they haven’t been running badly.
“We get on great, Donald’s a brilliant trainer. He’s got a great team and a bunch of loyal owners who have supported the yard and me through that.
“It’s great, I enjoy riding Donald’s horses and we’ve had a lot of success throughout the past couple of seasons. Hopefully we’ll have a few more successful seasons to come.”
Hughes also puts forward his agent Richard Hale as a key figure in his career, with the leading northern-based agent doing a sterling job in balancing all of the champion’s riding commitments for the various stables he is connected to.
“That’s Richard Hale’s job, I have little to do with that,” Hughes said of the organisation of his rides.
“I just play dumb and he sorts it all out! He keeps all the balls in the air and luckily it works, we’ve done it for a few years now and he keeps everything going forwards. ‘I don’t know, speak to Richard’ – that’s my party line!
“He’s been my agent for the last 18 years – he’s a friend as much as an agent. I put total trust in him and what he puts me on, I ride. We never have any problems.”
Though a constant on northern and midlands racecourses, Hughes is occasionally absent on some of the sport’s biggest days of racing as he will opt to take a ride with a winning chance at a smaller meeting rather than partner an also-ran in a higher-profile race.
This is an approach that has been numerically successful for the rider and he does not see the merit in taking outside rides with slim chances when there are better opportunities elsewhere.
“Everyone wants to ride the big-race winners and win the competitive races and it’s not that I don’t want to. Donald buys a lot of horses and we’re hoping to drop on a couple of good, Graded horses,” he said.
“If you don’t ride for the people who have them, it makes it fairly hard to get on them.
“I want to be competitive and ride winners, I don’t want to be there for a social runner. When I’m not going to be competitive somewhere, I won’t go. If I’ve got a good ride I’ll be there in a heartbeat.
“I go where I’m required to go, that’s my job. I’m not looking at anyone with envy. Wherever you’re going you want to be competitive, if you can’t get on any good rides then it’s sort of pointless to go.”
At 37 Hughes considers himself to be in the autumn of his career and it is that motivation that will push him to hit the ground running throughout the summer to try to bank more winners in pursuit of a fourth title this time next year.
“We’ll start and try to get winners on the board. We’ll just just keep rolling on, I don’t have many years left to ride so I’ve got to ride while I can,” he said.
“I’m 38 in June, 40 is not going to be far away. It doesn’t seem like any time at all since I came to England in 2005.
“There’s not many jump jockeys go on much past 40, maybe early 40s but on the Flat they go to 50. I just don’t want to take anything for granted.”
