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The Champion Jockey of British National Hunt racing has just ridden a winner on one of the most high profile days in the sport.
In the novice hurdle at Sedgefield.
Good on him, he rides where his employers have horses; no point going to the Festival for a few rides on no hopers.
I think he will be champion jockey as many times as he wants if he avoids any serious injury, the amount of rides he has, 752 in this current season (956, 890, 714 & 888 in the previous 4 years) means that he doesn’t even have to have the best win/ride % either.
He lost to Skelton in 2020/21 mainly because because Skelton’s win % was 22% compared to Hughes’ 16% even though Hughes had over 200 more rides. Most of the rides Hughes has up north will invariably be on shorties more often than not in less competitive races and as his stable duties for McCain don’t usually include many that go south with big chances, it makes no sense to change a winning formula and riding that many horses at £214.63 a ride makes financial sense too.
The best jockey in the UK is Nico but he isn’t going to ride loads of horses day in and out , Cobden and Bowen just behind
We spend all year moaning that the entire season revolves around Cheltenham and then we moan when it doesn’t for one jockey!
Anyway, that was win number 150 of the season for Hughes at a s/r of 20% which seems mighty impressive to me wherever it occurs.
Mike
If your the best then you should be riding in the best races , he,s a very dedicated jockey but what’s the best horse he,s ridden … Waiting Patiently ….
I recognise what my critics have said. When Hughes was chasing his first title, I posted here that he should ignore Cheltenham and ride some winners at Sedgefield and Hexham instead.
However, whether we think it is a good thing or not, Cheltenham is by far the highest profile meeting of the season. Perhaps it is a reflection on the state of British National Hunt racing that instead of riding at the meeting, its champion jockey is winning egg and spoon races around Sedgefield.
There is also the fact that most trainers have a stable jockey (some have more than one) so unless McCain has several Peddlers Cross’s to take to the Festival, it is highly unlikely to be worth his while going to the Festival especially as he would be unlikely to pick up many (if any) other outside rides…….doubt sitting in Cheltenham’s weighing room watching the TV of the racing going on outside would be much fun for him.
He had scheduled rides in 6 of the 7 races at Sedgefield today, although that ended up being 3 of the 4 races run before the meeting was abandoned…..I very much doubt he would have been able to secure even half that many rides for the whole Festival week if he tried coming down.
All the recent champion jockeys were either attached to a big stable and/or owners that were in the running to be Champion in their own category (Skelton/Skelton, Johnson/Hobbs, McCoy/Pipe/Henderson/McManus, Dunwoody/Nicholson/Pipe/Henderson, Scudamore/Pipe & Francome/Winter). Hughes is clearly the exception to that rule and whilst in an ideal world he would want to be at Cheltenham riding that just isn’t feasible for him so that leaves quantity over quality and he makes the most of that particular avenue to his own personal success.
McCain numerically speaking last year was the leading trainer with 155 winners (of which Hughes rode 104) and this season he is currently 4th with 100 winners (Hughes has ridden 73 of them). Up north, outside of his rides for McCain he will have a number of northern trainers who will also call upon his services….and I think that will remain the case until he finishes his career.
Just to put it into perspective, since the 1972/73 season (50 years), only 10 jockeys in total can lay claim to being named the Champion National Hunt jockey and Hughes is one of those individuals……think he would take that all day long.
He’s only Champion Jockey because, err, he’s ridden more winners than anyone else.
Mostly at places like Sedgefield.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Backed him a few times, usually on one of racing’s quiet days. Had a nice few wins. Seems a good judge of pace, etc.
Quite a few British-based jocks missing out this week at Cheltenham, for the simple reason that the number of British-based horses running seems dwarfed by the Irish horses.
Not sure I would have picked Seb Sanders to compare him to unless you meant more in the driven to ride the most horses at the less fashionable tracks doing the dirty work the more high profile riders won’t do etc.
I would say that if he had one of the big jobs down south he would be perfectly capable of riding all those big winners on the big stage and I wouldn’t have a problem with him riding for me if he was the stable jockey of the trainer I had a horse with.
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