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He had a 4-timer today and is surely going to be champion jockey again, barring injury. Is there a reason he doesn’t get more rides in the big races?
Well supported by Donald McCain who is going great guns this season (114 winners himself) but doesn’t currently have the horses for big races.
Prob helped by his dad having a better season but can’t be many riding better than Sam twist Davies , being ahead of Skelton us some feat , recovered well from losing the Nicholls gig
I always thought Hughes was a bridle merchant as every mount of his seemed to be cruising through a race only to find little when asked to go and win.
But he’s really come into his own in the last few years. As mentioned the hook up with McCain is going great guns and he seems to prefer having three winners up north than finishing third in a graded race down south.
“Is there a reason he doesn’t get more rides in the big races?”
Most of the stables he rides for do not have the quality of horse for the big races.
Maybe I am biased because Hughes has never been a lucky jockey for me but I can think of a few occasions when he has been poor in big races.
He is obviously very good around the likes of Carlisle and Sedgefield but I am not convinced about him at the top level.
I’m trying to remember when I last took any interest in who was Champion Jockey under either code.
I think it was when Pat Eddery and Willie Carson were involved late 70s/early 80s.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"He poses a classic chicken and egg question – is he riding lots of winners because he’s working for Donald McCain, or is McCain having a record breaking season because he’s got Hughes riding for him?
Yep, those riding consistently in the north are generally riding in easier races; so they’ll win more races.
Hughes is good – particularly on one that needs to be held up until late – and I’d put him in amongst the top of a comparatively poor generation of jockeys. (“Poor generation” only to be expected after an exceptional one kept big race opportunities for others to a minimum).
Agree with Ian: Jockeys championships (both jumps and flat) are no longer the best judge of ability.
Value Is EverythingI think it is more a case of overall quantity over overall quality looking at the big picture – the races up north in general are not as competitive and he does ride a lot of the shorties as his current 43% win rate on favourites from 698 rides attests to – the only jockeys with higher win rates have somewhere between 200-300 fewer rides than him.
For me, as long as he avoids injuries he potentially could go on and be champion jockey for the foreseeable future especially as it appears the McCain bandwagon appears back on track and really rolling along again (the last 3 or 4 seasons he has only had 60-66 winners but this season he has already had 114 winners) and it is a formula that clearly works up north.
Whilst I have no doubt Hughes would love to get that marquee horse(s) to catapult him onto the bigger stage, I doubt he will be unhappy with being a multiple champion jockey and with him likely to be having 800+ rides this season at a fee of £173.59 per ride not only is he doing alright financially, every winner he now has is a new record number for him and he still has a chance of reaching the exclusive 200 winners club.
That happened last season as well, with Harry Skelton. Hughes was champion the season before and I doubt he rode a festival winner that year either. Richard Johnson must have had a season when he was champion but with no festival winner.
Should it matter? The jockeys championship has always been about quantity rather than quality. A novice hurdle at Hexham counts the same as the Gold Cup.
Ride the most winners, and you’re the Champion. It’s how it should be. And well deserved to. Why ride a few no hopers at ‘The Festival’ while he can ride a few winners elsewhere?
I’m not really bothered about his ‘big race’ record – he rides in so few it’s almost unfair he’s rated by it. Some riders have been known as ‘Big race jockeys’ – as they can turn it on, on the big day – but cant hack the day to day grind.
THe fact he hasn’t ridden a Festival winner is hardly surprising – pretty much everyone has a stable jockey and back ups to back ups so picking up spare rides with chances of winning are harder now than they have ever been previously with the general level of jockeyship being much higher now, back in the day if you were champion jockey and a spare ride came up and they didn’t have a ride that was the first person trainers would always go to.
Also the north lacks the top horses to go to Cheltenham with chances to win like they did back in the days of Easterby/Stephenson/Richards/Fitzgerald (yes showing my age) so for Hughes what is the best option, sitting around all day twiddling his thumbs for one or maybe two rides at Cheltenham on big outsiders (at best) and probably no hopers or a full book of fancied rides at a lesser meeting with most of the top jockeys riding elsewhere. No brainer.
There are always anomalies in racing like the fact that JonJo O’Neil, John Francome and Peter Scudamore who between them won a combined 17 champion jockey’s titles never in their careers actually won the Grand National or that Lester Piggot never actually won the Lincoln Handicap.
He does have a Festival winner to his name – High Hawk won the Fred Winter in 2014 for Tim Easterby.
What would make him unique as a champion jockey is that he’s had more rides at Sedgefield (1000+) than any other course in the country.
Not a place often visited by Francome, Scudamore, McCoy or Johnson. Or me , come to that!
Good luck to him, hard to claim that he’s taking the title away from somebody better riding further south.
Didn’t he win the now defunct novices handicap chase one year, for Jamie Snowdon if I recall?
CAS,
You’re right and in fact he’s won that race twice – Ballyalton for Ian Williams and Mister Whitaker for Mick Channon.
I didn’t make the connection between ‘Close Brothers Novices Handicap’ and the Festival – I thought it was still sponsored by Jewson until a couple of years ago!
And this comning weekend is still the Schweppes Hurdle in my head!
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