Wednesday was a rare day off for the hottest jump jockey of the moment. Brian Hughes, who absolutely deserves that description, had a long list of chores requiring his attention but found time to savour the prospect of partnering Seeyouatmidnight on Saturday, when that promising young chaser could become his first Grade One winner in Haydock’s Betfair Chase.
Since the start of October, Hughes has ridden 37 winners, rocketing him into fourth place for the season among jump jockeys. Richard Johnson and Aidan Coleman are ahead of him, at least for now, but their combined total in the same time, 38, is barely more than Hughes has managed himself.
“I’ve never known him to have a run like this,” says his agent, Richard Hale. “For a jump jockey, it’s amazing. It’s been, like, doubles and trebles every time he’s gone racing and it’s not as if he’s getting all his rides from one person, he’s riding for lots of people.”
Exactly where the credit lies for all this recent success is in some dispute. Hale praises the jockey: “We’ve worked well together since day one. We ring each other up and have a discussion about what he should ride. We’re usually in the lucky position of having options. He’s a fantastic judge of the form book, really on the ball, so professional. I can’t believe one of those big southern yards doesn’t come in for this guy.”
Hughes, meanwhile, cheerily acknowledges the debt he owes to his agent: “Richard is an unbelievable judge. There’ve been plenty of occasions when I’ve been scratching my head about a horse with no form but he’s said: ‘Trust me, this is the right horse for today’, and he’s been right. I trust his judgment 200%. I’m very fortunate he’s my agent.”
Hughes is self-deprecating about events on Monday at Musselburgh, where he turned seven mounts into five wins and two seconds. “Richard got me on a lot of horses with chances. I was just lucky enough not to make too many mistakes.”
At any rate, the Hughes/Hale combination has become a potent one and is a dominant force in northern jump racing. Their current success is especially sweet in view of Hughes having suffered two nasty injuries in the spring, when he broke a collarbone, a shoulder blade and four vertebrae, and then went winnerless through September, which he attributes to many of his mounts having been either summer horses in need of a break or winter horses short of peak fitness.
Seeyouatmidnight added to Hughes’s impressive tally of winners last month when upsetting an odds-on favourite in an influential trial race at Carlisle. He is now fourth in the betting for the Betfair, with only King George winners and a Gold Cup winner ahead of him.
“If he was ridden by one of the leading jockeys and trained by a southern trainer he’d have had a hell of a lot more press and publicity than he’s had,” Hughes says. “I feel the horse has never had the credit he deserves. Sandy [Thomson] is a very good trainer. He always has his horses in the right company and in good shape. We know Seeyou likes the track. We’re hopeful he can step up and run a big race.
“They’re all good horses against him but Cue Card was beaten the last day and so was Silviniaco Conti in Ireland. Coneygree’s coming back from injury. They’re getting older and we feel it’s the right time for our horse to step up into that grade.”
And does the 31-year-old Hughes see himself as making a run at being champion jockey one day? “It’d be nice to think I could but I doubt it. Richard Johnson is a worthy champion and a hell of a nice fella. He has a large clientele and a lot of horses to ride. I’m delighted with the position I’m in.”
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