Richard Hughes ends Goodwood on cloud nine
The Glorious Goodwood meeting was a personal triumph for Richard Hughes who finished with nine winners, which was a record for a jockey at the fixture.
A final-day double on Pausanias in the two-year-old maiden and Eucharist in the nursery was his ninth of the week, and all were achieved on horses trained by his father-in-law Richard Hannon, who also set a record at the meeting.
When he was told that he had beaten the previous best shared by Lester Piggott, Kieren Fallon and Johnny Murtagh, Hughes said: “I’m very proud to be mentioned in the same breath as those guys, but I couldn’t do it without Richard Hannon. I’m the luckiest man alive.”
There was plenty of quality to go with the quantity and pride of place was his victory on Canford Cliffs in the Sussex Stakes on Wednesday when the jockey was seen at his coolest as he caught Rip Van Winkle in the last 50 yards and then began pulling up before the line as he won by a neck. “It’s been a fabulous week and things have just gone from strength to strength. There was a lot of pressure on me before the Canford Cliffs ride, but after that I’d done my job and could enjoy the rest of Goodwood. When you are enjoying your rides, there’s nothing better.
The week has been a tour de force for Hughes, who has showcased his range of talents, winning with both front-runners and the hold-up horses which are the jockey’s signature rides – even if they do not please everyone and come loaded with risk. “All my life I’ve been working to get good rides and now I’m getting them - and I’m not mucking up,” Hughes said. “A lot of people used to slag me, but I maintained it was because I wasn’t on the best horse. I used to sneak them into contention, and then they’d find nothing and people used to say I’d left it too late.
“Now I’m on horses that can actually do it, and it’s the best feeling in the world. Someone said it’s been the Richard Hughes week - I like the sound of that.”
Hannon’s haul of winners was well ahead of the previous record of six, set by Sir Michael Stoute in 1989, and the trainer said of the main who rode them: “He’s different gear isn’t he? He gets them balanced and they run for him. Of course, I have the best retainer because he’s married to my daughter.”
Pausanias, who is part owned by Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, made a winning debut and Hannon said: “It isn’t the easiest track in the world to introduce a big, young horse, but we were both keen to run so we let him take his chance. He should stay a mile in time, but we started him off over seven furlongs in part because we had other horses in the two-year-old races earlier this week.
“He’s a big horse but he has a lot of speed. He’ll have a month off now and we’ll think about something later this season.
“We’ve had good weeks at Royal Ascot and the July meeting and now at Goodwood. We’ve got plenty more coming.”
Hughes will probably like the sound of that too but the other trainers were given a chance in the last race of the meeting, the apprentices’ handicap, in which there was no Hannon and Hughes was ineligible. It was one by Elliptical who finally put trainer Gerard Butler and jockey John Fahy on the meeting’s scoresheet to which Butler said: “Thank God Richard didn’t have a runner in the race.”
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