Paul Hanagan handed Snow Fairy ride in Champion Stakes
When Richard Hughes left Wolverhampton after a Saturday night he would rather forget – a seven-day ban and only one winner – he was already counting the cost.
It was primarily to his chances of overhauling Paul Hanagan in their battle for this season’s Flat turf jockeys’ title but now a domino-effect of decisions has piled on another agony for the Irishman. Hughes’ ban, which he failed to reduce when he appealed the decision last week, begins on Saturday ruling him out of the Champions Day card at Newmarket and the ride on Snow Fairy in the Group One Emirates Airline Champion Stakes.
The ride on the dual Oaks-winning filly became available once Ryan Moore, who rode her to both of those Classic victories, was claimed by his retaining trainer, Sir Michael Stoute, to ride Glass Harmonium in the Champion.
That left Snow Fairy’s trainer, Ed Dunlop, with limited options for a replacement ride as not only is Hughes unavailable but Eddie Ahern, who rode Snow Fairy when she finished fourth to Arctic Cosmos in the St Leger at Doncaster last month, is currently on the easy list having broken his right collarbone in a fall at Brighton a fortnight ago.
Hanagan has ridden only nine winners for Dunlop in the last five seasons, but three of them have come this year, and the booking is the latest tangible proof of the rider’s elevation within the jockeys' ranks.
The irony is that, even without the ban, Hughes’s chances of winning the title would have been compromised by having to miss the final days of the season, which concludes at Doncaster on November 6th.
By then Hughes will be in Kentucky where Richard Hannon will be preparing two runners for the Breeders’ Cup meeting at Churchill Downs that weekend. The trainer has bad memories from the Breeders’ Cup, after Mr Brooks was killed in a fall in the Sprint at Gulfstream Park in 1992, but he is sending Paco Boy for one, final tilt at Goldokova in the Mile along with Tale Untold, who will contest the Juvenile Fillies Turf.
Speaking on his website the trainer said: “Richard Jnr will be going to Kentucky, and we are in the process of sorting out all the necessary paper work for his lad Elvis to go, too. He has done such a great job on Paco Boy and rides him every morning, but the horse has a great temperament and has already been to Dubai, so the journey to America should not be a problem.
"Paco Boy has a terrific turn of foot and the style of American racing should suit him, but there is a certain Goldikova standing in our way again. She is the dual world champion and we have yet to beat her in four attempts, but we got to within half a length of her in the Prix de la Forêt at Longchamp last week and, with this being Paco Boy's final race before he starts his stallion career at Highclere Stud, I don't blame the owners for wanting to have a go at the big bucks."
The importance of the draw is always considered crucial in America, but, significantly, Hannon does not put too much emphasis on the post position, making the point that Paco Boy "is a horse who has to be held up, so therefore an inside stall would be more of a hindrance than a help."
Backing up his argument Hannon said: “Barathea was drawn one when he won the Mile at Churchill Downs in 1994 and Da Hoss two when he won there four years later, but both War Chant and Miesque's Approval had double-figure stalls when they won at subsequent Breeders Cups in Kentucky and Goldikova was also drawn wide last year, albeit at Santa Anita, so it could be more a case of who gets the luck in running.
“Paco Boy has had a long old year and since he won the Sandown Mile in April he has raced every month apart from July, so you just hope we have not squeezed the lemon dry.
"However he looks as good now as he did in the spring, so we have to go there fancying our chances of getting a slice of the pie, though I see the last four times the Breeders Cup has been staged at Churchill they have described the turf course as firm, so it would be nice to think that they might get a drop of rain in the run up to the race.
"Tale Untold, who was bought by American Marc Keller during the summer, will probably stay over in the USA after running in the Juvenile Fillies on the grass. She was unlucky to be touched off in two valuable sales races at Newmarket, yet she still picked up her new connections almost £94,000, which has paid for the trip. I don't know what the opposition will be like, but she is a decent filly who is well capable of getting in the money again."
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