McHugh hoping for festival fun around county

Hanagan, who will be one of the stars of this week's Yorkshire Racing Festival, is also setting the standard for all aspiring riders in the region to follow.

His influence is one reason why Barry McHugh is having a breakthrough season. He rides out every morning with Hanagan at Richard Fahey's in-form stables, and the winning mentality is paying off.

Having ridden 27 winners last year, McHugh is already on the 37-winner mark and is on target to record a personal half-century by the end of the year.

And, if it was not for the fact that the genial Irishman is a late developer – he is 27 – he would be the runaway leader in the race to succeed Freddie Tylicki, another Fahey jockey, as this year's champion apprentice.

McHugh's age means he is not eligible but he refuses to let this detract from his season to date and his love of racing in the county, with York and Beverley his favourite tracks.

"Confidence is a very big thing," said McHugh who is likely to be one of the top jockeys at this week's Welcome to Yorkshire-sponsored festival that comprises nine fixtures and culminates at Pontefract a week tomorrow.

"I'm around very good people who are very good at their job – that certainly helps.

"You also cannot be content on what you have achieved so far. The day you stop improving is the day you're finished.

"I've about 16 winners to go before I lose my three pound claim, and then I'm up against the big boys on equal terms. Then the hard work begins again."

McHugh believes the "turning point" in his career involved the sprint handicaps that he won at York last year on Knot In Wood and Kaldoun Kingdom.

"Not many fancied Knot In Wood in the Sky Bet Dash last year, but I did – and I was pleased that I then went out and won," said McHugh.

"That win got me going, and I then won the Coral Sprint in October by a more comfortable margin on Kaldoun Kingdom; it showed that I could ride the major courses.

"You need breaks like this, and then you feed off the confidence that it gives you."

An eye-catching winner of the Lanark Silver Bell Handicap Stakes aboard Just Lille earlier this season, McHugh's headline success came last week at York when a recalcitrant Hotham, a 20-1 outsider, won the John Smith's Stakes.

The course winner, trained by Noel Wilson, was extremely reluctant to enter the starting stalls. He was given one final chance and McHugh will be forever in debt to the dedication and patience of the stall handlers as Hotham went on to prevail in the six-furlong sprint by a short head in front of a near-record crowd.

The horse is now bound for the Ayr Gold Cup, one of the major autumn handicaps. "He was a bit stubborn. They gave him one more chance and it worked," said McHugh. "As a jockey, there's nothing you can do but sit and hope. It's these little things that are going my way – and that's grand – but you have to think of the whole stable and, from a Yorkshire perspective, all everyone wants is for Paul Hanagan to win the jockeys' title.

"He deserves it – and he is showing what you have to do if you want to be the best."

The Yorkshire Racing Summer Festival is one of the highlights of the sport's calendar locally and is a chance to showcase the Flat racing industry to both local punters and holiday-makers.

Backed by Welcome to Yorkshire, its nine meetings at eight racecourses includes York's prestigious Sky Bet meeting.

The only track not featured is Wetherby, which is an exclusively National Hunt venue.

The festival will be launched today at Ripon Racecourse by the former Emmerdale actress Claire King and Welcome To Yorkshire chief executive Gary Verity, who will release celebratory balloons into the sky.

Each balloon will contain a card which will entitle the finder to a Yorkshire Racing Season Ticket for next year if their balloon has travelled the furthest.

Festival dates for yorkshire

n Today: Ripon.

n Tomorrow: Redcar.

n Monday, July 19: Beverley.

n Wednesday, July 21: Catterick.

n Thursday, July 22: Doncaster.

n Friday, July 23: Thirsk/York.

n Saturday, July 24: York.

n Sunday, July 25: Pontefract.