Why champion jockey Brian Hughes intends to prove that title ‘win’ was no fluke

Nineteen clear when racing stopped on Tuesday, Hughes was on the brink of becoming the first Northern-based champion jump jockey since Jonjo O’Neill 40 years ago.

While there is an acceptance that he has earned the title on merit after an 11-month campaign – the 2019-20 National Hunt season was due to end on April 25 – the rider’s regret is self-evident.

“It is what it is. You can’t change reality,” the 34-year-old told The Yorkshire Post. “It’s frustrating from a personal point of view because you’re riding to finish the season and there was some good racing to come – Aintree, Ayr Perth.

“But in the global scale of things it is not very important to other people because their lives are at stake. It is a crisis for the whole world and there’s not a lot we can do at the minute.”

Yet, while the North Yorkshire-based rider is, understandably, subdued as the financial ramifications for racing become stark, he does draw some solace from his riding record in the past 11 months.

He was on 141 winners – just five short of last season’s career-best tally – and within touching distance of the 149-winner mark, a record for a NH rider in the North, that O’Neill set four decades ago.

Even Richard Johnson, the reigning champion, had accepted that his four-year reign was on the verge of coming to an end because of the relentless pace set by Hughes.

While Hughes says that he has been told by racing’s authorities that he will be confirmed as champion, now is not the time for presentation ceremonies – or celebration.

“It can’t be helped,” he says phlegmatically. “I was pleased with how the season had gone but disappointed we missed two weeks with bad weather and then this.

“My strike-rate was quite good (he neglects to say that it was at a career-best 20 per cent) and I was on for having my best year numerically in terms of winners.”

The irony is that this success was on the back of 714 rides – significantly down on previous years – and the champion-elect is quick to credit the influence of his agent, Richard Hale.

Even though Hughes did travel the length of the country last summer to ride at remote courses like Newton Abbott in deepest Devon, and Fontwell in the Sussex countryside, he was selective.

“I didn’t take rides for the sake of it. I could have gone further afield more often, but I tried not to be busy so I could stay fresh for as long as possible,” explained Hughes, whose forensic knowledge of the form book, and abilty to absorb every detail of racing, is unrivalled.

“By this time last year, I had had 888 rides and I was absolutely wrecked. I remember just being shattered and that just has not been the case this time around.”

First, Hughes used a driver where necessary. “I was never that tired from the racing but the driving would get me all the time,” he said.

Next, the father-of-two was very fortunate with injury. Though he is carrying the scars of battle, luck remained on his side for the duration of the campaign. “I had some horrendous falls and was lucky I didn’t break my leg,” he disclosed.

Finally, he had some notable successes – Brian Ellison’s Forest Bihan in Aintree’s Old Roan Chase and Donald McCain’s Navajo Pass in the Grade Two Summit Juvenile Hurdle at Doncaster – that confirmed his prowess in big races if he had the right horses.

Ironically, the one ride and race that derived Hughes great personal satisfaction was one that he did not win – Waiting Patiently’s third place finish for Malton trainer Ruth Jefferson in a thrilling Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown behind Defi Du Seuil and the now retired Un De Sceaux.

He had ridden the horse to Grade One glory at Ascot in February, 2018 on a tide of emotion following the death of Jefferson’s much missed father Malcom, a long-time mentor of Hughes, and felt that the chaser was coming back to his best in the Tingle Creek.

“I definitely feel that he would have had had a massive say in some of those better races, the Ascot Chase and the Champion Chase at Cheltenham, but he’s very difficult to keep sound and that’s the way it is.”

Yet, at the same time, Hughes was vying for supremacy with Johnson, the second most successful jump jockey in history, and was just in front – courtesy of a treble at Newcastle in late January – when his rival broke his arm at Exeter the next day.

It is this injury to Johnson, the most popular rider in racing, and then the sport’s curtailment due to coronavirus, that leaves Hughes with a belief that he has unfinished business when racing does resume.

“It’s been a journey but there you go. Some people will say it’s the year Dicky (Johnson) got injured and the season ended,” adds the rider, who hails from Northern Ireland originally before he moved to Britain over a decade ago and became champion apprentice when riding for the late Richmond trainer Alan Swinbank.

“I was still in front when Richard Johnson was injured and it wasn’t as if it was handed to me on a plate.

“I was 19 clear of Dicky and 40 winners of the other lads – and they were all taking it very seriously.

“It’s done now and now I’ve got to get ready for the new season and try and retain the title and prove that it wasn’t a fluke.”