Richard Hughes is cool, calm and composed as he answers his mobile phone outside his home at Collingbourne Ducis, near Marlborough – but it is a time of great change for flat racing’s reigning triple champion jockey.
Earlier this month he announced his decision to retire at the end of 2015 season – like jump champion jockey AP McCoy. But unlike McCoy who has said he will not take up training, in 2016 Hughes will be starting as a trainer at a yard not far from his home.
And then the day Marlborough News Online met Richard Hughes, the rules for the jockey’s championship changed. Up to now, Hughes said, you got nothing but the trophy which had to go back at the end of the year.
Now there will be a prize of £25,000 for the championship winner as well as other cash prizes. And supported by Channel 4 Racing there will be a monthly prize for jockeys of £2,000 awarded by a panel of judges.
But the championship will now be limited to races in between the Newmarket Guineas meeting (May 2) and the Qipco British Champions Day at Ascot (October 17.) Hughes is pleased with these changes: “Anything which helps to raise the profile of the sport and is of benefit for the weighing room is something that I’m all for.”
Like McCoy, Hughes wants to retire as champion – as he told Marlborough News Online: “It’ll be hard work. There was one thing always in my head and that was to be champion. I’m going to be as busy as I can. I would love to leave on top – it’d be extra special to retire as champion jockey.”
Hughes has ridden a hundred and more winners in 13 of the last 15 flat seasons and had 208 winners in 2013. He has been champion jockey for the last three years. He would dearly like to be champion jockey four years in a row – as Gordon Richards, Lester Piggott and Pat Eddery were: “It would be nice to be in with those names.”
However, it is not going to be easy to fit the racing around preparations for his training yard. He will, he says, have to attend yearling sales in the autumn.
In the meantime there is still has the day job to do. He has been long-standing stable jockey for the Hannons’ Herridge and Everleigh yards just up the road from home. There may be no commute to the yards from home where his wife Lizzie (daughter of Richard Hannon senior) and their son and daughter live, but he does do a lot of travelling.
This weekend he will be in Bahrain for the King’s Cup. And the following weekend in Dubai for the World Cup Day – racing’s richest meeting. There he expects to be riding Sole Power in the sprint. Trained in Ireland by Edward Lynam, eight year-old Sole Power was named the Cartier Champion Sprinter of 2014.
Dubai will bring back memories for Richard Hughes. Last year Mars, his mount in the Sheema Classic and the horse he had ridden in the 2013 Derby, had a heart attack during the race and Hughes took a very nasty fall.
Surgeons in Dubai told him he would be out of racing for six months: “I knew when I was lying on the ground I wasn’t too bad.” He suffered a crushed vertebra and was back racing in five weeks. As his wife Lizzie tweeted at the time “Lucky.”
At five feet ten inches Richard Hughes is certainly the tallest flat race jockey in Britain. Keeping his weight down to an average 8 stone 8-9 pounds is a constant challenge.
For exercise he cannot run as that puts on muscle which weighs more than fat. But he is a very keen golfer and “I’m not one to sit still – I walk a lot. And I walk very fast – ask my wife!”
At 2.30 in the afternoon, as he ate two biscuits – his first food of the day – he told Marlborough News Online: “Every hour of the day I know what weight I am. If I go over nine stone my size fourteen collars won’t do up. If drink a can of Coke it’ll add a pound and a half and a long hot bath can take off about two pounds.”
Is he looking forward to not having to be so careful about his weight? “I can’t wait. But it’s part of the job and I love the job.”
The new British flat season starts at the end of March and he has some bright prospects at Richard Hannon’s yard like Tiggy Wiggy and Ivawood – see separate story.
Hughes has never won the Derby: “It’s eluded me! It’s the one and only race I wanted to win – since I was seven. Richard hasn’t had a Derby runner since I’ve been there.”
Last year he came third on the 20-1 chance Romsdal trained by John Gosden. But one of his abiding memories is his Derby ride on the great American Post in 2004: “We were up with the leaders – got to the mile and two and he just ran out of petrol.” A very rueful smile. “I felt him going – he just didn’t stay.” They came in sixth.
Change seems to come in threes – or more. It has been a sad and turbulent time for the Hughes family. In Ireland his father, Dessie Hughes, died in November aged 71. He had been a successful jump jockey, then a leading trainer – known especially for his successes at the Cheltenham Festival – and an inspiration to his children.
Richard’s sister Sandra has taken over their father’s training licence and yard. And she brought the fancied Lieutenant Colonel to Cheltenham this month for the Ladbrokes World Hurdle after two victories in Ireland last November and December. He went out in cheek pieces and says Richard: “They lit him up too much – he was too keen.” He came home tenth of sixteen finishers.
With Sandra Hughes training for jumps and Richard soon to start training for the flat, the Hughes family look set for year round interest for racegoers in Britain and in Ireland.
But will Richard Hughes be able to retain the jockeys’ championship under the new rules? The Racing Post reports the sport is split on the merits of the new championship time span.
And they say that with William Hill the odds on Hughes retaining the championship have eased from being 1-2 favourite to 4-7 – with Ryan Moore now a 2-1 chance to ride most winners from Guineas weekend to British Champions Day.
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