After a low-key start to his training career Richard Hughes is flying along. The champion jockey of the past three years is in charge of one of the hotter stables in the country, thanks to six wins from his last 18 runners, and although this is a quiet time of year for Flat racing the early signs suggest he will make a success of his second career.
There must have been some tense moments since he quit the saddle four months ago, especially when he bit the bullet and abandoned his original, cherished plans to set up at Danebury in Hampshire, it having become clear the place did not suit as well as he had hoped. Early in November he made a speedily arranged move 30 miles north to Weathercock House in Upper Lambourn, a decision that was blessed days later when his first runner from his new base became his first winner.
For now Hughes is still commuting from his home in Wiltshire but he looks pretty well settled as he cheerily discusses his plans here in a room designed for visiting owners, overlooked by a portrait of Paco Boy and Sky Lantern’s trophy from the Moyglare Stud Stakes. And it seems he had no great concern about being made to wait for that first training success.
“When I was riding I went 50 rides without a winner. And I had been champion pony race jockey twice … I thought, this is going to be easy. But I didn’t panic. And the same with this. I was more worried that people would start to notice ‘He hasn’t had a winner yet’. I wasn’t worried about me or the staff or the horses.”
Though his arrival at this stable had more to do with opportunity than design Hughes appears delighted with the facilities, especially a private three-furlong gallop, railed in so as to be a safe place for his 40 skittish yearlings. “It’s one of the best yards in Lambourn. It’s clean as anything. Since the day I moved in I haven’t had to do anything with it.”
Hughes has also described it as a “lucky” stable and so it was for Jenny Pitman, who saddled the winners of two Grand Nationals and two Cheltenham Gold Cups from here. He finds it in better condition than she did in the mid-70s when, according to Pitman’s autobiography, it was infested with rats and the exterior doors had rotted to the point that daylight shone through them.
These days it is a suitable base for an ambitious newcomer and Hughes is certainly ambitious. Asked what he wants to achieve, he replies: “To be the best.
“I wasn’t made to be a Flat jockey, I was a foot too big, but I believed I could be the best and I got there.
“But I definitely have a pedigree to do this job. Things aren’t done overnight, I know that. But that’s what I’m striving for. I’m not striving to be a 60 horses- a-year man, have 40 winners and be comfortable.”
There are much easier options for retired champion Flat jockeys and Hughes points out that he could have got a gig with Channel 4 or as a racing manager for some big-time owner. Instead he chose a steeper road to glory. “I’m 42 years of age and I’m taking on a mortgage I can’t afford.”
He has what he feels is a “massive advantage” over most other trainers – that he can ride work on his own horses. Two of them scored recently when he stepped them up in distance, decisions formed while partnering them on the gallops.
And he is not entirely without experience in this area having “basically trained” several horses during some of his winters in India, including the local Derby winner Smart Chieftain.
“I remember, I cantered him every day for seven furlongs and all the trainers in India were saying that I wasn’t doing enough work with him, because all the other Derby contenders were cantering a mile and a half every day.
“The pressure was on me because they all said you won’t have it fit enough. But he was a small, little horse and he couldn’t take much work. So I kind of had a bit of practice there.”
There is plenty of experience among his staff – he makes particular mention of his “right-hand man”, Tom Finn, and Stuart Messenger, borrowed from Sir Michael Stoute after decades at his powerful Newmarket stable – but his horses are a greener bunch.
“My yard is very lopsided and I am concerned. I have 40 babies and the older horses I have for the moment, they’re strictly for the winter.
“There aren’t too many summer horses in there. There’s one or two that I got in the Horses In Training Sale that I’ve put away for next year but the ones out there at the moment are basically bought to do a job in the winter. So it’s a little bit of a concern coming into next spring that I won’t have any older horses.”
Some of those could yet be sent here by various owners, of course. “That’s what I’m hoping,” Hughes says, “but you never know.”
There has been plenty of interest in which jockeys Hughes would use and the slightly surprising choice, to this point, has been Shane Kelly, aboard five of the trainer’s six winners. Kelly had become unfashionable but Hughes says: “I’ve always had huge respect for Shane, I never thought he got a lucky break. I thought he was as good as me in a race. Great hands, does the right thing more often than not and sensible.”
That said, Hughes intends to provide work for plenty of riders, including some untried youngsters. “I’ve got a few apprentices and without a doubt I’m going to get them going. I owe them that. We’ve been down [practising on] the mechanical horse at Oaksey House. I brought them down there, teaching them. I enjoy that part of it, giving back.”
Hughes believes that his experience in the saddle means he will be more understanding than most trainers when things work out badly for his jockey in a race. The perception among his former colleagues in the weighing room, however, is that someone who had so much talent will expect to find it in others.
“That’s a thing that some of the jockeys said to me,” he says, laughing. “I think I’ll be easy enough to ride for. I know who rides very well and I know who not to use. But I’ll be keeping that to myself.”
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